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Oil spill threatens to smother Lancashire coast

More than 500 barrels of crude oil leaked from a cracked pipeline yesterday afternoon and is moving towards Lancashire and Merseyside.

The pipeline, which connects two oil installations in the Irish Sea, had a failure about 20 miles from the coast of North Wales.

The spill seems to be moving towards the Lancashire and Merseyside coastline. It is predicted to reach the shoreline at Formby, and then between Lytham St Annes and south of Fleetwood later this week.

The Ribble Estuary National Nature Reserve is one of the most important sites in the UK for water birds. More than a quarter of a million migrating wading birds and wildfowl visit the coast and its wetlands in winter. While the impact of Monday’s pipeline leak is still unclear, an oil spill of any size poses a risk to seabirds and other marine wildlife.

An oystercatcher standing in a watery pool on a sandy beach, with its bill in the sand, feeding

Oystercatcher by Terry Whittaker/2020VISION

Joan Edwards, Director of Marine Conservation at The Wildlife Trusts said:

“Currently, our greatest concern is for the welfare of offshore populations of common scoter, red-throated diver and great crested grebe in the Liverpool Bay Special Protection Area. If oil reaches the coastline, then wading birds including knot, dunlin, godwit and oystercatcher that feed and roost across the Ribble and Alt Estuaries are also likely to be affected, as well as vital coastal habitats such as mud and sandflats, saltmarsh and sand dunes."

News of the spill came on the 26th anniversary of what has been called Wales’ worst ecological disaster, when 72,000 tonnes of crude spilled from the Sea Empress oil tanker off the Pembrokeshire coast. Large numbers of seaweeds and invertebrates were killed on the beaches where it drifted ashore, and it took over a year to clean the slick.

It is important that if anyone finds oiled or dead birds on the coast, they do not touch them, and that they contact the RSPCA as soon as possible.

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