MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Dead penguins and oil covered found on Uruguayan beaches

Dozens of dead penguins and others alive but with traces of oil appeared over the weekend along the east of Uruguay according to a marine life conservation non government organization.

The discovery comes a few days after a collision between two cargo vessels in the River Plate caused an oil spill 20 kilometers long by thirty meters wide. According to Richard Tesore who runs the NGO Marine Fauna Rescue volunteers found most of the Magellan penguins on Sunday along several Uruguayan beaches but on Monday other sea birds suffering from oil contamination were also sighted. "Since the penguins found dead on several beaches have a good normal weight we are almost convinced that the cause must be linked to the recent oil spill which originally the winds were pushing out to sea but the change of weather has brought back to a few miles from the coast", said Tesore. However the director of Uruguay's Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Department, Dinara, Daniel Montiel said the recent oil spill in Uruguayan waters can't be directly linked, yet, to the dead penguins. "At first the fuel oil spill did not have major consequences and apparently would not have an impact on the coastal area and marine resources", admitted Montiel, however he suggested waiting for the official report from the University's Marine Biology Department report. But Tesore insists that "there are too many coincidences: the oil spill several days ago, the change of weather and winds and the dead penguins". Montiel said his Department had done inspections along the Uruguayan coast over the weekend and "they did not detect any irregularities or anomalies". He added that "winds and tides actually helped clear the spill" and prevented the fuel oil from reaching the Uruguayan coast. Tesore said the number of dead penguins so far is 60 and those affected by oil, 34. But he also cautioned that many are penguin chicks "which at this time of the year make their annual migration between the south of Argentina and Brazil" The collision in the River Plate happened last Tuesday mid night when a Syros Greek cargo vessel rammed into a Maltese flagged ship Sea Bird anchored 20 kilometers from the Uruguayan coast close to the port of Montevideo. As a consequence of the incident the Greek vessel fuel tank suffered a serious several meters rip at floating level causing a fuel oil spill thirty meters wide and several kilometers long.