TY - JOUR
T1 - Long-term monitoring study of beached seabirds shows that chronic oil pollution in the southern North Sea has almost halted
AU - Stienen, Eric
AU - Courtens, Wouter
AU - Van De Walle, Marc
AU - Vanermen, Nicolas
AU - Verstraete, Hilbran
PY - 2017/2/7
Y1 - 2017/2/7
N2 - Trends in oil rates of beached seabirds reflect temporal and spatial patterns in chronic oil pollution at sea. We analysed a long-term dataset of systematic beached bird surveys along the Belgian North Sea coast during 1962–2015, where extreme high oil contamination rates and consequently high mortality rates of seabirds during the 1960s used to coincide with intensive ship traffic. In the 1960s, N90% of all swimming seabirds that washed ashore were contaminated with oil and estimated oil-induced mortality of seabirds was probably several times higher than natural mortality. More than 50 years later oil rates of seabirds have dropped to historically low levels while shipping is still very intense, indicating that chronic oil pollution has significantly declined. The declining trend is discussed in the light of a series of legislative measures that were enacted in the North Sea region to reduce oil pollution.
AB - Trends in oil rates of beached seabirds reflect temporal and spatial patterns in chronic oil pollution at sea. We analysed a long-term dataset of systematic beached bird surveys along the Belgian North Sea coast during 1962–2015, where extreme high oil contamination rates and consequently high mortality rates of seabirds during the 1960s used to coincide with intensive ship traffic. In the 1960s, N90% of all swimming seabirds that washed ashore were contaminated with oil and estimated oil-induced mortality of seabirds was probably several times higher than natural mortality. More than 50 years later oil rates of seabirds have dropped to historically low levels while shipping is still very intense, indicating that chronic oil pollution has significantly declined. The declining trend is discussed in the light of a series of legislative measures that were enacted in the North Sea region to reduce oil pollution.
U2 - 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.12.019
DO - 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.12.019
M3 - A1: Web of Science-article
SN - 0025-326X
SP - 194
EP - 200
JO - Marine Pollution Bulletin
JF - Marine Pollution Bulletin
IS - 115
ER -