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BRITISH TEAM TREATS BIRDS CAUGHT IN GULF OIL SPILL

By Allan Thompson
***A three-man team from Britain's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals set up three rescue and training centres to clean birds threatened As Gemini News Service reports, such rare species as the socotra cormorant were among more than 400 birds treated as centres in Jubail, Saudi Arabia and in Bahrain and Qatar.
_ _ — HILE Ihc bombardment of Iraq and the ground
V V war in Kuwait captured the headline*. British specialist* waged a battle behind the scenes lo save hundreds of birds they had managed to pluck from certain death in the biggest oil slick in history.
A three-man team from Britain’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ani mats (RSPCA) set up base in Jubail. Saudi Arabia. In early February al the request of Ihe Saudi government.
Their mission was lo l»cgin efforts to clean up birds soaked in oil and to train lock! volunteers in their world fa mous method* of dc-niling birds.
Before returning to Britain
lor a rest they had set up bird cleaning centres tn Saudi and neighbouring Bahrain and Qatar. They were fighting Ihe worlds ever oil slick, al onr point 30 miles long and eight miles wide.
Among the team's 400 pa lients were rare sodotra cor moranls and greater cor morants. black-necked and great crested grebes and countless other birds caught up In tlic oozing mess still floating down tlic Gulf.
Ihc rescue team reported horrific scenes of beaches carpeted with dead birds along the Saudi shore near the border with Kuwait.
Team member Jack West-iake said: ” Dead or dying seabirds were scattered every
few paces and in some places the oil was several feel thick Ilie Sea was black as far as Ihc eye could sec and there was a terrible stench of crude oil."
The . mission included Westlake. an Arabic speaker with wide experience as an administrator in the Middle East. Tim Thomas. a wild life officer and expert on cleaning methods and Ian Robinson, a veterinary surgeon. All were volunteers.
By mid-February the Jubail unit had handled more than 400 bird* with u success rate of about 60 per cent
Twenty-seven socotra cor-morunts.^i bird on the endangered species list, were brought in and so far. 25 have survived. The unit also dealt with 40 sea turtles found north
ofJahHil.
The RSPCA first got involved in efforts to clean animals from oil spill zones after tlic Toney Canyon disaster In Britain in 1967. After that Incident. which saw an oil tanker run aground near land's End 1n Cornwall, spewing out thousands of ton* of oil . the RSPCA was al the forefront of rc*can-h into meth-od* of treating oil spill victims.
In Ihe Gulf, oiled birds arc kept in temperature-controlled holding room*, fed and given medication while they arc being assessed for their ability lo withstand Ihe clean Ing. Care ha* to be taken be-■ iu*c of tlic problems of disease . hypothermia and starva-Hbh . all associated with oiling.
Ordinary detergent in hot water is. used first to remove the oil then hot waler under pressure doc* the rinsing. The birds stay on for several more days to make sure their natural waterproofing capabilities are in order and that they arc healthy enough for release Paddling pxls act as reluihiH-tation centres for the recovered birds.
"It’s a marvelous and very moving experience lo see a dejected oil-blackened bundle of feathers stowly restored to its natural plunge ." said West-lake
Al Ihc Jubail the team worked tn a former cookhouse near the beach. While Thomas took over the training of local volunteers Robinson, the learns vet. cleaned birds already in the unit.
Said Thomas: "We arc working fiat out. but you forget the exhaustion when von see a rare bird, on the brink of extinction. like some of the ca suable* wc have received . hanging on to life as a result of our efforts."
Like nearly everyone near the combat zone, the team ex pcricnced atr raid alerts, a reminder of the difficulties that come with the Job. On their last night in Jubail before heading for Bahrain . a Scud missile landed Just three kilometers south of the team's hotel, the huge explosion rocking the building.