Have efforts to clean up the marine environment been successful?: German beached bird surveys provide an index for oil pollution levels in the southern North Sea

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Oil from shipping has been polluting the North Sea since it was introduced as fuel at the beginning of this century. The expansion in the use of heavy fuel oil and the subsequent disposal of oil residues at sea led to a drastic increase in marine oil pollution in the southern North Sea in the early 1980s. In March 1998, a Research and Development Project investigating the oil input into the North Sea and effects on this of free oil disposal facilities in German North Sea harbours was initiated in Germany. On the basis of the results of beached bird surveys, aerial surveillance, the amount of oil received by oil disposal facilities in German harbours and other evidence, the effectiveness of legislation and other measures regarding oil input from shipping is being assessed. Beached bird surveys have been carried out on a regular basis on German North Sea coasts since 1984. The data from these surveys give a valuable and reliable indication of the level of oil pollution in the southern North Sea. An assessment of this data and that of similar surveys that have been carried out in other North Sea states form the basis of the results presented.