()IL WASTE In the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sia,—On reaching
a Kentish beach this morning, the Channel breeze wafted to us--- my elf and two companions—the acrid odour of oil, purplish patches of which were to be seen on the water. A sea-duck (Velvet Scoter drake), with oiled feathers, was resting on the shingle, and Clew off with sonic difficulty on our approach. A little further on we came up to _another bird disabled by oil, a Common Seater duck. She slid into the sea and then dived repeatedly, no doubt in the vain endeavour to shake off her deadly covering; then returned to the shore twice, buffetted each time by the surf, and for the last time wriggled out of the reach of the waves to lie prone and helpless on the beach.
The unfortunate creature was soaked in a tarry slime and, being in extremis, was despatched, for there is little doubt that sea-birds go through the torments of internal poisoning through swallowing the oil in their instinctive efforts to clean their feathers.
Further on, for the half-mile or so of our walk, the shingle was nothing less than a mortuary of birds, all daubed with oil in varying degrees. We counted scores of dead Guillemots and Velvet and Common Scoters, as well as two Gannets and is Razor-bill. Bird lovers may be particularly incensed at this hateful destruction of >ea-birds, but surely the matter concerns all. The surface organisms serving for fish food and the fish in their turn cannot be exempt from the mischief. Will not the MiListry of Agriculture and Fisheries move to meet this menace, which is growing more and more formidable as ships abandon coal ? And since effective international agreement seems impossible, could not rewards be offered to ship masters and others reporting names of ships seen pumping oil waste into the sea, so that captain and owners might be pilloried and boy- cotted.
The problem is admittedly difficult, and a coast watcher
informed me that the " sea hogs " usually take care to wait for nightfall before pouring their defilement upon the waters. It is time, nevertheless, that sterner measures were taken against the fouling of our seas. Science has now placed vast powers of interfering with nature into man's hand and he is abusing his trust all too often. —I am, Sir, &e.,
" PRO SAN1TATE."
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