Abstract
Many beached bird monitoring programs have been established in response to chronic oil pollution or as the result of a specific oil spill that affected wildlife (for example, Camphuysen & Heubeck 2001, Carter et al. 2003, Wiese & Elmslie 2006). Quantitative information on seabird mortality stemming from such efforts is largely confined to Western Europe, North America, South Africa and New Zealand (Camphuysen & Heubeck 2001, Wiese & Elmslie 2006). In Europe, the first reports of oiled seabirds were published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Gray 1871, Mothersole 1910), but it was only after 1915 that oiled birds were observed frequently (Verwey 1922, Wild 1925).