§ Mr. MackinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the extent of the research being conducted into the levels this year of deaths of sea birds in and around the shores of the United Kingdom; and what are the preliminary findings of the research.
§ Mr. Atkins[holding answer 8 March 1994]: There is no co-ordinated research into the deaths of sea birds in and around the United Kingdom coasts. The Department's 302W statutory conservation advisors consider that it is more useful to monitor large seabird colonies and selected individuals within those colonies when studying bird mortality and overall population levels.
Some of the birds washed up in the recent North sea incident have been taken for post mortem analysis and preliminary results indicate that starvation was the likely cause of death, possibly due to a combination of strong onshore winds which may have disturbed normal feeding activity and, perhaps, a mismatch between bird location and food availability.