NINTH-ISLAND rookery, the picturesque
abode of 12,000 penguins in southern
Australia may well turn out to be the
oily grave of these precious birds. Over
500 tonnes (t) of fuel oil leaked into the
seas near the rookery after a 37,500-t ore
carrier, the Iron Baron, hit a reef near a
river mouth ' on the north coast of
Tasmania.
The carrier has now been floated off
the reef, but the threat to local birdlife
continues undiminished, as the oil slick
has reached an uninhabited island fur-
ther out to sea. According to Tasmania's
wildlife authority, an estimated 2,000
birds, besides considerable numbers of
marine life, have been struck by the oily
scourge; pelicans, cormorants and sea
eagles are're'portedly reeling under the
oil-rush.
But the rescue operations by the
concerned authorities have been successful beyond measure. So far only 6
penguins have died. Six hundred and
seventy birds - all of them cleaned and
dried at a special Centre set up at the
mouth of Tasmania's Tamar river - are
being kept in sand-floored shipping
containers until the oil soaked rookeries
are cleaned up.
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