The island, part of the British territory of Tristan da Cunha (see map), is home to 200,000 northern rockhopper penguins, half the world's population. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the bird as endangered, due to its mysteriously rapid decline in the past three decades.
Oil-Spill Video: Nightingale Island Wildlife
On March 18, two days after it had run aground, the Malta-registered "M.S. Oliva broke her back in the force of a relentless swell," leaking oil that spread into an 8-mile (13-kilometer) slick, according to the bird-protection group and the Tristan da Cunha government's website. However the slick seemed to have mostly dissipated by March 23.
Some 65,300 tons of unprocessed soybeans also spilled from into the ocean, and the vegetables' impact to the sensitive marine environment are unknown, the government's website said.
Hundreds of oiled birds are washing ashore, and a preliminary estimate suggests up to 20,000 birds may have been affected, according to the government's website.
(See pictures of birds oiled by the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.)
"The scene at Nightingale is dreadful," Trevor Glass, the conservation officer for the territory, said in a statement.
The "grave environmental disaster" may also reach ecosystems of the nearby Inaccessible and Gough islands, both UN World Heritage sites, according to the government's website.
—Christine Dell'Amore
Published March 25, 2011
The Tristan da Cunha Conservation Department deployed several rescue workers (pictured on March 23) to rescue and clean oiled penguins. Already, workers have collected 750 penguins, which will be transported to Tristan de Cunha for rehabilitation.More bird-rescue experts from the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds arrived this week.
National Geographic Travelermagazine contributing editor Andrew Evans coincidentally visited Nightingale Island on a scheduled stop during a National Geographic Society-affiliated cruise. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)
"We were planning on going anyway, and en route we received word that a cargo freighter had crashed into the island," Evans told National Geographic News.
Evans, who spent a day on the island surveying the disaster, saw "hundreds—that's not an exaggeration—of northern rockhopper penguins covered in black oil. I saw dozens of fur seal pups with oil on their fur. It's really disturbing to see something like that."
(Read Evans's account of the Nightingale Island oil-spill aftermath.)
Published March 25, 2011
"I saw penguins that were preening the oil off [their feathers]. Some were completely coated and others had patches on their chest," Traveler's Evans said.
Compared with crude oil, processed fuel oil has both good and bad qualities when it comes to spills, Nils Warnock, executive director of Audubon Alaska, told National Geographic News.
On the positive side, fuel oil evaporates faster than crude oil. On the other hand, fuel oil can actually be more toxic than crude oil to birds in the short term, because fuel oil is lighter and can be more easily absorbed into the birds' skin.
Once inside a birds' system, any type of oil can cause internal ailments, according to Warnock. Worsening the impact, oil-soaked birds vigorously preen their feathers to remove the toxic substance, accidentally ingesting it.
(Read more about how oil can harm birds.)
Published March 25, 2011
Read more articles about this event at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110325-oil-spill-penguins-nightingale-island/#/nightingale-island-oil-spill-penguins-oilde_33705_600x450.jpg !
Yet another oil spill. SHAME!
-The Teenage Narwhal
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