Birds Oiled at Sea

Oil released at sea, whether from chronic operational discharges or
accidental spills, can directly kill any seabird that it touches on the sea
surface. This oiling causes severe distress for individual birds and can have
significant impacts at the population level. Marine oil pollution from chronic
operational discharges is both illegal and preventable. The costs of taking
appropriate action to prevent such discharges make it important to quantify, to
the degree possible, the severe ecological consequences of continuing to
release oil into the sea.

Atlantic Canada is an important crossroads for seabirds, where productive
marine waters support the tens of millions of birds. Huge numbers of birds from
Newfoundland breeding colonies overlap with millions of seasonal visitors -
wintering birds from colonies in Arctic Canada and Europe and from the south
Atlantic. The same waters serve as commercial fishing grounds and major
shipping lanes linking Europe and North America.

For the waters off southeastern Newfoundland, the many variables that must be
considered to complete these complicated calculations have been assembled for
the species most commonly found oiled - the Thick-billed Murre, or turr. This
species breeds in colonies in the eastern Canadian Arctic and western
Greenland, and is one of the most numerous wintering seabirds in waters off
Newfoundland and northern Nova Scotia. It is regionally important as the most
common species taken in the Newfound-land turr hunt.

Waterbody or Watershed Names: Atlantic Ocean, Canada