Sea Empress (1996)
The tanker 'Sea Empress' grounded at the entrance to Milford Haven, South-west Wales in February 1996, releasing over the next seven days approximately 72,000 tonnes of light crude oil, mainly at low tide, and 480 tonnes of heavy fuel oil escaped whilst the vessel was being re-floated and towed to a jetty within the waterway.
Milford Haven lies within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, and the main spill area affected 35 sites of special scientific interest, two national nature reserves (at Stackpole and Skomer), and one of the UK's three marine nature reserves (Skomer). South-west Wales supports about half a million breeding seabirds, including internationally- important populations of gannets, manx shearwaters, razorbills, storm petrels and puffins. Fortunately, the impact of the spill was much less than would have been expected from the quantity of oil spilled.
The RSPCA co-ordinated a bird rehabilitation response which involved many other animal welfare organisations. An emergency centre was set up near Milford Haven at which 3,100 oiled birds of 20 different species were received, most of them between 24 February and 2 March. When fit to travel, birds were taken to local and national cleaning facilities, including the RSPCA wildlife hospital at West Hatch, Somerset where 2,300 birds were treated. Potentially vulnerable mammals in the affected area included grey seals, harbour porpoises, bottlenose dolphins and otters; however, no impacts to any of these sea mammals were recorded.
Publications and Links:
ITOPF Case History: Sea Empress
- Chapter 6: Mammals
- Chapter 7: Birds
- Chapter 8: Bird Cleaning and rehabilitation