Sent in by Paul D who took this photo of a Southern Royal Albatross at Campbell Island.

Tags: birds

The Herald has an editorial on the Rena. It is generally fair and balanced. The conclusion:

But quibbles after the fact do not alter the impression that after a slow start, the response has been effective. If the Rena has been our worst maritime environmental disaster, it could have been much worse.

But I quibble over one aspect:

That plan, as far as it goes, was strikingly successful this time. Though countless seabirds perished from the slick, the beaches were cleaned so quickly and efficiently that they were safe for swimming, fishing and other activities before Christmas.

Countless? They have in fact been counted and it is around 2,000.

Incidentally possums and other predators kill around 500,000 birds a week in New Zealand. They just do it without cameras around generally!

Tags: birds, editorial, NZ Herald, Rena

I’m an animal lover, so like many hate seeing the photos of poor little birds covered in oil, or dead, on Bay of Plenty beaches. And I loved the footage on TV of the surviving birds being cared for in a pool.

But having said that, it is useful to put the numbers in perspective.

• Birds killed by the Rena – 1,000
• Birds killed annually (in NZ) by predators (possums, stoats etc) – 25,000,000
• Birds killed daily by predators – 68,500
• Birds killed annually by hunters – 1,000,000
• Birds killed daily by hunters during hunting season – 11,000
• Chickens killed for NZers food annually – 77,000,000
• Birds killed by power lines annually – 1,700,000
• Birds killed by automobiles – 800,000
• Birds killed by wind turbines – 500

I think the Rena is an environmental disaster – definitely. But is it the worst environmental disaster of all time as some media have trumpeted? Not so sure about that.

Tags: birds, Rena