For the birds : suspected roastings prompt study of offshore flares

A recent research project has revealed that offshore flares can pose a hazard to waterfowl. Two academic environmentalists from Memorial University and the Atlantic Co-operation Wildlife Ecology Research are working with Hibernia, PanCanadian Resources, Terra Nova and the Sable gas group to study the possibility of oil platforms having killed great numbers of birds. The objective is to study the potential problem and try to quantify the number of seabirds and what the impacts might be on the birds. The work involves observing waterfowl from oil platforms and supply vessels and taking a census of various species, the number of casualties and how they die. This project did not start because of any hard facts suggesting the offshore oil industry hurts the ecology of the Grand Banks. It stems from public concerns about Terra Nova, the next big project. 1 fig