Seabirds' rescue from giant oil slick begins off African coast

Seabirds' rescue from giant oil slick begins off African coast
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

CAPE TOWN, JULY 4: Fuel oil from a sunken ship endangering thousands of birds off the south-western tip of Africa has formed huge slicks in Cape Town's Table Bay and coated 20 km of beaches, conservationists said today.

In the world's biggest seabird rescue till date, conservationists were racing against time to remove 17,000 penguins from the nearby Dassen Island. Another 16,000 oil-covered penguins have been shipped and flown to the mainland from Robben Island. Cape cormorants and other birds too are endangered. The International Fund for Animal Welfare reported after surveying the area that the slicks covered nearly 51 sq km of the sea.

Patches of thick black oil could be seen stretching along the West coast, from just north of Dassen Island to Hout Bay, a distance of around 90 km.