THE ERIKA OIL SPILL: THE BIRD RESCUE RESPONSE

摘要

On December 12, 1999, the 30,000-ton tankerErika broke apart 100 km off the coast of Brittany, one ofEurope's most pristine natural environments. France immediatelylaunched a prepared countermeasure, the Polmar plan, designedto minimize the impact of the disaster on the sea and shore. Inspite of the relatively small amount of fuel released, the locationof the spill in high seas and the bad weather conditions causedthe pollution to spread widely along the coastline over a numberof weeks. Wildlife centers were mobilized to handle theanticipated load of 1,000 oiled birds. In the end, more than15,000 birds were captured alive. The sea birds impacted weremainly guillemots and, to a lesser extent, scoters and gannets.TotalFinaElf helped the triage centers by providing finances,medical material, water-heating facilities, and several automatedbird-washing devices with specialized detergent. The group fundsthe medical studies undertaken on the oiled birds in the triagecenter of the National Veterinary School (ENV) of Nantes. It alsoworks in partnership with the French National Bird RescueAssociation to improve the emergency response plan by definingtheir needs in terms of equipment and to provide a consensual“oiled-bird caring protocol” manual.This report will both assess the existing response program bydetailing the chronological implementation of the emergency planfor the oiled birds and present the first results of the medicalstudies undertaken. It will detail the types of birds impacted, themethods by which they were cured and cleaned, an analysis oftheir condition, the efforts made to improve the treatments, and,most importantly, the medical questions raised by such asituation.