A disastrous oil spill off of two southern Brazilian states, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, has crudely washed up some 200 plus oil-slicked penguins onto popular resort beaches.
The dead penguins are victims of an offshore oil spill from an unidentified ship, and have been appearing on beaches since Sunday. The ship responsible was believed to be on the high sea south of Santa Catarina. Environmental officials are currently tracing the cause.
Brazilian authorities are using both Navy boats and planes in the effort to track the leaked oil.
Hundreds of other more fortunate animals survived the catastrophe and are currently being taken care of by experts in Santa Catarina state capital Florianopolis, after being found with their bodies covered in oil, reports claimed on Thursday.
Mauela Osorio, a practicing veterinarian with the group caring for the surviving birds, said that members of the public were bringing in live penguins covered with oil. Resources are being stretched to the maximum as 155 surviving penguins are currently being treated for ‘oil intoxication’.
To put into perspective the workload at hand; the centre would normally only be caring for around 2-3 animals at this time of the year.
Biologists and veterinarians from other Brazilian states have been called in to assist with cleaning the animals.
Marcelo Duarte, of the Santa Catarina state environmental police, said that while it is common in Brazil for some penguins - dead or alive - to be swept by strong currents from the Strait of Magellan, the tragedy-stricken birds are showing up in greater numbers, and farther north than most experts can remember.
“There is no patrolling across the coastline so that we can have an idea of which ship is responsible for the leak. Here there is a route through which hundreds of ships pass everyday. It is very complicated to find which one it was,” commented Sergeant Duarte.
During winter in the southern hemisphere, thousands of penguins migrate as far as Brazil. They are pushed north by cold ocean currents in their search for food supplies.
This year already, even before the oil slick, thousands of penguins have washed up on Brazil's shores as far north as Rio Grande do Norte state, near the equator.
Scientists remain divided as to why so many penguins are washing up in Brazil this year, but it is suspected that over-fishing near the Antarctic and colder-than-usual ocean temperatures may be to blame.