HC Deb 04 June 1980 vol 985 c749W
28. Mr. Freud

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what figures are available of the species and number of birds that have died from marine pollution in the past 10 years.

Mr. Heseltine

Precise figures are not available. A recent report by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has recorded the death of 35,000 sea birds as a result of significant oil pollution incidents in the last 10 years; about 25,000 of these were auks and approximately 2,300 sea duck. These figures reveal only a proportion of the true number of birds killed.

Data are not available for bird deaths caused by other kinds of pollution in our seas.