SEA BIRDS AND THE NAVY. •
On the subject -of wild life on-our coasts all lovers of birds should be grateful to the Navy for their co-operation in pre- venting nuisance from waste oil. Action was hurried forward by a small group of bird-lovers in the Isle of Wight. • They discovered that it was possible to tell by an example of the waste whether the substance hailed from Persia or Mexico. The Navy used a different oil from many of the tankers and liners. As soon as it was proved that naval oil- was in part to blame for the destruction of birds and the killing of fish, the Navy took a "foremost part in prohibiting any dikharge of oil within fifty miles or so of the shore. The nuisance is less than it was ; but a- thick coating of oil was driVen on Chesil Beach, on the shores of Freshwater, of Dungeness and of Aberdeen. Large numbers of guillemots in the South and some eider duck in the North are species that have especially suffered.
* * s *
Previous page
