Birds oiled during the Amoco Cadiz incident—An interim report

Over 4500 oiled birds were collected from beaches in Northwest France and the Channel Islands following the oil spillage from the AMOCO CADIZ in March 1978. Auks were the most abundant casualties: 1391 puffins Fratercula arctica, 978 razorbills Alca torda and 731 guillemots Uria aalge, but there were also 126 divers Gavia spp. A total of 33 bird species were recorded oiled. A corpse drift experiment suggested that after 30 March at least 3450 seabirds died off north Finistère alone; the total mortality in the first fortnight of the incident was probably considerably larger.