OIL POLLUTION AT SEA [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIB,—Recently, on the beach at Hythe, I found a young cormorant, which was unable to, fly because its wings were coated with oil. I took it to a vet., but he could do nothing for it.
Can nothing be done to save the sea birds, large numbers of which die annually because of the oil from ships 7—I am,
Sir, &e., ErowIAx. Eton College, Windsor.
[This is a subject which we have referred to on several occasions. We understand that British shipowners in general have adopted the fifty mile limit for discharge of oil agreed upon at the Washington International Convention in 1926 (not yet officially ratified), but the number of birds still washed up, dead and dying, with inshore winds, proves this limit to be ineffectuaL The oil-separator is no doubt the one-solution-of the problem, and, with recent improvements on the old type, should prove a boon to shipowners by economizing oil.—En. Speddlort]
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