THE clean up of Wexford, beaches is due to continue tomorrow amid fears that continuing easterly to south easterly winds, may sweep in further oil deposits.
Speculation that the oil could come from the tanker Sea Empress, grounded off Milford Haven last month, has been further fuelled by identification of numbers of tagged dead birds over the weekend which may be traced to Wales.
Mr Jim Hurley, of the Irish Wildbird Conservancy (IWC), told The Irish Times yesterday that over 60 birds had been found at Tacumshane over the weekend, most of which had one leg missing. And four had plastic tags on their necks.
After the Sea Empress pollution incident, dead birds were tagged and thrown into the sea off Carmarthen to trace the path of the oil slick. The dissection of the corpses at Tacumshane indicated that the tagged legs had been removed, he said.
Wexford County Council has said the situation is "well under control", although the Meteorological Service has confirmed that fresh to strong east to south east winds are forecast for the next few days.
Samples of the deposits washed up on a 70 mile stretch of Wexford's coastline late last week have been sent to the Marine Institute Fisheries Research Centre in Dublin, but results are not expected before tomorrow.
To date, the cost of the clean up has been carried by the local authority, which already has a heavy burden to hear in dealing with coastal erosion. Priority has been given to clearing the three Blue Flag beaches at Courtown, Curracloe and Rosslare strand.
A county council spokesman, Mr Tony Larkin, said yesterday, he had no firm estimate of the cost, but it would be "expensive". Assistance had been offered by the International Tanker Owners' Pollution Federation, he said, but none was drawn on.
Capt Liam Kirwan, of the Irish Marine Emergency Services, also viewed the affected beaches with county council officials at the weekend, and the IMES is continuing to monitor the situation.
Satellite tracking, which can identify algal blooms and oil slicks, failed to detect the pollution when it was first identified on Thursday morning. Part of the problem was the oil had broken up into "mousse like" globules, resembling pieces of coal.
Up to the weekend, Mr Jim Hurley, of the IWC and South Wexford Coast Promotions, reported 17 dead birds on a 31.5 kilometre stretch of coast. Three were old birds which were above the oil line, he told The Irish Times yesterday.
Fourteen birds found at Tacumshane included an oyster catcher, six guillemots, five razor bills and two sea ducks. A further 42 guillemots, 15 razorbills, 13 scoter ducks, one shag and one gannet were found at Tacumshane at the weekend. The four plastic tags carried the numbers 34, 58, 122 and 130.
Mr Hurley said that he had kept in touch with fishing vessels working towards the Welsh coastline but there were no further reports of oil moving towards Wexford. A higher tide had carried the oil further up the beaches, and it now resembled "butter", he said.
