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Oil Spill Surrounds Nightingale Island with Death / If the Crude doesn't get them, the rats will
Few of the Island's 20,000 Northern Rockhopper penguins Are Expected to Survive
On March 16, 2011 the freighter M.S. Oliva ran aground near Nightingale Island in the far South Atlantic, seriously threatening the endangered penquin population of the island and the World Heritage site atoll it is part of. The Maltese-flagged ship dumped 800 tons of heavy fuel oil into the waters surrounding the island and will leak the other 800 tons slowly.

freighter runs aground off Nightingale Island The Tristan de Cunha archipelago, which includes Nightingale, has some 200,000 penguins, among them half of the known population of the northern rockhopper penguins. An estimated 20,000 of the rockhoppers, an endangered species whose numbers have plummeted in recent years, have been coated with oil from the accident.

Nightingale Island is or was home to the second largest sea bird population in the world, including the largest concentration of Great Shearwaters in the world. The Northern Rockhopper Penguins are found only in this archepelego. Also found in the archepelego are 20,000 pairs of albatrosses including the yellow nose albatross, and 2,000,000 pairs of Broadbill prions. The island is also home to the highly-endangered Tristan Bunting. Only 50 pairs remain in the world, all of which are found on Nightingale Island.
tungaska fireball 1908 Rats Off a Sinking Ship
This is all good news for the rats on board the Oliva, who had an easy swim to shore. Many of the islands in the archipelago were previously rodent free. The rats will come out ahead on this deal.

In terms of a surprising place to run aground, it would be hard to find a less likely place than the Tristan Tristan de Cunha archepelego, which cbelongs to the United Kingdom. Lying 1,700 miles southwest of Capetown South Africa, this is the most isolated piece of land on the planet where anyone lives. Nine miles away from Nightingale is Inaccessible Island, a World Heritage site. What the captain of the Maltese flagged Greek (don't the Greeks have their own flags? they used to) ship ? was doing here is hard to imagine, but he certainly makes Captain Hazelton of the Exxon-Valdez look like a genius.

For our Republican readers, there is some serious news as well:
The economic lifeblood of Tristan da Cunha is lobster, its primary export. This disaster will cut at least 75 tons from the yearly harvest it not more. So it is an economic disaster as well.
rockhopper penquins covered in oil
And now for today's irony corner...
While some of the Oliva's crew were rescued by a fishing vessel, the remaining twelve were picked up by the Silverseas Prince Albert II, an expeditionary ship specializing in ecological tours. Oh dear me. As a result, some birds will likely be saved - perhaps 500 out of the 20,000.

Read more on that story here.

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