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Prestige final release 1 December
« on: Dec 2nd, 2002, 9:12am » |
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Attn BirdLife Network and staff
The latest press release about the Prestige oil spill is attached - please feel free to send this to national media.
Latest BBC news about the spill can see viewed at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2532013.stm
That's all for now
Michael Szabo
Communications Manager
BirdLife International
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10,000 - 15,000 birds estimated dead in Prestige oil spill;
Guillemot may become extinct in Spain as a result
Cambridge, UK, 1st December 2002 - BirdLife International today announced that it estimates the number of birds killed to date by the Prestige oil spill to be 10,000 to 15,000, and warned that the indications are that the second wave of oil now being washed ashore will be worse than the first [1].
The overall estimate of birds killed is based on extrapolation of the latest data available which show the number of oiled birds recovered alive to be 508 and the number of dead birds examined to be 320.
"The Spanish population of Guillemot has been hardest hit by the Prestige oil spill ", said Alejandro Sanchez, Director of the Spanish Ornithological Society (SEO/BirdLife). "We predict the Guillemot is now very likely to become extinct as a breeding bird in Spain. If this happens the Prestige oil spill will be remembered as a tragedy for Spain's wildlife as well as its people".
The total Iberian population of Guillemot is 10-25 pairs with only two tiny colonies of 5-11 pairs in Spain, right in the area of Galicia affected by the Prestige oil spill: Vilano Cape and Sisargas Islands, on the Costa de la Muerte, both of which are protected as part of the European Union's Natura 2000 protected areas network.
The total number of dead Guillemots found in Spain since the oil spill is 12, with approximately 40 live oiled Guillemots also in the recovery centres.
To date two Critically Endangered Balearic Shearwaters have been found dead and one alive. SEO/BirdLife say that although the number of Balearic Shearwaters found oiled is small, the damage done to their inshore habitat has been severe, affecting the ecosystem on which sardines and anchovies - their main food - depend.
"The main long-term harm to Balearic Shearwaters may be the loss of inshore food in this area, such as sardines and anchovies", said Carles Carboneras, SEO/BirdLife's Seabird Campaigner. "It will be important to monitor closely the breeding and wintering numbers next year to see what effect this disaster has had on the population of this Critically Endangered endemic Spanish species".
Colour illustrations of Balearic Shearwater and Guillemot are available for one-off media use at:
http://www.birdlife.net/news/thumbnails.cfm?NewType=P&NewRecID=718
For more information contact: Alejandro Sanchez on +34 699673301 or Carles Carboneras on +34 615 454 353 or Antonio Sandoval on +34 629 448822.
Notes for Editors:
1. BirdLife International is a global alliance of non-governmental conservation organisations working in more than 100 countries who, together, are the leading authority on the status of birds, their habitats and the issues and problems affecting bird life. The BirdLife Partnership is represented in Europe by 40 organisations working together on The BirdLife International European Programme to conserve birds across the region, and includes the Spanish Ornithological Society (SEO/BirdLife), RSPB in the UK, LPO in France and SPEA in Portugal.
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