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Photos: penguins devastated by oil spill Jeremy Hance mongabay.com March 22, 2011  Northern rockhopper penguins covered in oil. Photo by: Tristan Conservation Team of Simon Glass, Wayne Swain and Matthew Green. Courtesy of: The Tristan da Cunha Website.
Located the remote Southern Atlantic, Nightingale Island is a part of the UK's Tristan da Cunha archipelago. The island's are home to a variety of birdlife, including species that survive no-where else but on the archipelago.
Workers found an "awful scene" with an oil slick ranging "from thin films of oil, small balls and larger clumps of tar with the smell of diesel everywhere," according to the Department. In addition, a tugboat has been sent from the nearest coast—South Africa—to drag the broken craft away. Fortunately, all 22 employees of the wrecked cargo craft are safe. The tug boat is also bringing an environmental expert, Estelle van der Merwe, with experience in working with oiled birds as an advisor.
"Nightingale is one of two large islands in the Tristan da Cunha group that are rodent-free. If rats gain a foothold, their impact would be devastating," expalins Richard Cuthbert, a research biologist with Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). The conservation team has already set rat traps in preparation of a rat infestation. The oil spill, which spreads over 8 miles (13 kilometers), also threatens the remote islands' main economic source: fishing. The population of Tristan da Cunha is just under 300 people. Rockhopper penguins are easy to identify, sporting long yellow spiked plumes and red eyes. Their unique look made them one of the stars of the popular animated film, Happy Feet. Though beloved around the world, penguins are among the world's most threatened bird families. Industry fishing, which competes with penguins for their fish, habitat destruction, climate change, and disasters such as oil spills has pushed 60% of penguin species to be considered threatened with extinction.  Nightingale Island as viewed from Google Earth.
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(06/10/2010) Everyone loves penguins. With their characteristic black-and-white 'tuxedo' markings, upright waddle, and childlike stature, penguins seem at once exotic and familiar: exotic because they live far from most human habitations, familiar because they appear innumerable books and movies. From Mr. Popper's Penguins to Happy Feet, and from March of the Penguins to And Tango Makes Three, penguins pop-up everywhere. The flightless birds have even provided the name and symbol to one of the world's most successful publishing houses. Yet despite their popularity amid the human kingdom, few people seem aware that penguins worldwide are facing an extinction crisis.
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