“I still smell like diesel oil”
Over 9,000 litres of diesel oil spilt into Suðureyri harbour in the Westfjords on Thursday, March 3. The leak, which originated from a reserve tank* owned by the power company Orkubú Vestfjarða, was discovered by residents the following morning.
They could smell it.
“I still smell like diesel oil, despite having showered twice since yesterday,” Auður Steinberg, a resident in Suðureyri, stated in an interview on the following Sunday.
The oil found its way into a pond near the local swimming pool – which was subsequently closed alongside the elementary school – and from there into the harbour. It wasn’t until Monday, three days after the leak was reported, that hoses were submerged in water to try to prevent the leak from spreading.
Hundreds of eider ducks in bad shape
Although there was less soil pollution than initially suspected, hundreds of eider ducks were badly affected by the leak. Many of them fled the harbour, where they commonly spend their nights, onto nearby roads and neighbourhoods.
Duck expert and Suðureyri resident Einar Mikael Sverrisson described the conditions as “nightmarish.” According to Einar, “there were hundreds of birds that needed help.”
He got to work right away.
Having converted baiting facilities into a bird-rescue centre, Einar and his neighbours managed to save 19 out of the 28 birds that had been collected during the previous weekend. “But over a hundred birds remain, completely helpless, most of them already dead,” Einar told reporters a few days after the accident.
He predicted that hundreds of birds would perish over the coming weeks and months if nothing was done.
Requested funds of ISK 6-10 million
Suðureyri residents requested that Orkubú Vestfjarða contribute as much as ISK 10 million [$75,000; €70,000] towards rescue operations and that the company convert a reserve power station into facilities for helping the birds.
Acting on the advice of the Westfjords Health Inspector, Elías Jónatansson – Director of Orkubú Vestfjarða – turned down the request. It wouldn’t be “realistic,” Einar stated, adding that the company felt “terribly sorry” about what had happened.
“I’m not going to lie: something like this just doesn’t happen out of the blue. Something went wrong, somewhere, and we’re going to make things right. That’s for certain.”
Little to be done
While expressing admiration for the work done by Suðureyri residents, Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir, an expert with the Natural Science Institute of the Westfjords, said that such efforts would perhaps only serve to protract the birds’ suffering. “They’re doing this with the best of intentions, of course, but that doesn’t mean that it’s helping.”
“According to the Nature Conservation Act, it is our duty to save animals if it is possible,” Sigurlaug added. “If it is not possible, then we are to put them to death immediately.”
Better to euthanise the birds
A week after the leak was first reported, a veterinarian finally arrived in Suðureyri – but was forced to euthanise the majority of the birds that the residents of Suðureyri had tried to save.
“We had to put about 10 to 15 birds to death,” veterinarian Sigríður Inga Sigurjónsdóttir remarked. “They had been partially cleaned, but their feathers were still in very bad condition. My assessment was that these birds wouldn’t have survived the winter.”
As noted by Sigríður, euthanising birds following such an oil spill is often considered more humane, since it may take “many weeks for the natural protective oils in their feathers to build up again in order to stay warm and stay afloat.”
“Some of the ducks were in better shape though,” Sigríður noted. “They just needed a bit of help, and so I recommended that they be released into the wild again.”
Demand an investigation
Following what many felt was a belated and insufficient response to the oil spill, various animal rights and environmental organisations demanded an investigation.
At the time that this article was written, the Natural Science Institute of the Westfjords – tasked with estimating the number of dead birds – had discovered 140 deceased eider ducks in Súgandafjörður bay. An additional 68 birds had been put to death.
