Sea Empress20 years on

摘要

"The oil had hit the shoreline the previous night, and the beach was covered in globules of crude. Birds were being washed up on almost every single wave. We parked the van and pulled on our green oilskins. Then, grabbing our nets, we made our way down to the beach to help try to catch the birds. Most were scoters - I'd never seen a wild one, let alone tried to catch one with a net.I watched as one duck came ashore. It was fairly weak and was being rolled in the surf. Once on the beach it sat down and started trying to preen the oil off its coated feathers. There was only one way for me to approach - from the sea. If I tried to catch it from the beach, it would simply jump into the sea and swim off. I waded out into the crude-filled waves, and stalked along the shore until I was a couple of metres away.