Up to 600 sea birds are estimated to have died as a result of oil leaks from a beached container ship off the coast of south-west England, dpa quoted the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds as saying today. The RSPB said that more than 1,000 sea birds were contaminated by engine oil from the MSC Napoli, which has leaked more than 200 tons since it was deliberately run aground at the weekend. The 62,000-ton vessel was brought to Devon after its engine room was flooded in heavy storms in the English Channel a week ago. All 26 crew members were rescued. Salvage teams have started to pump out the remaining 3,500 tons of oil from the heavily-listing vessel. But they have said the removal of more than 2,300 containers could "take up to a year." The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said because the vessel was listing and because of the internal structure of the tanks, salvors would have to enter the oil tanks to direct the hoses sucking out the oil. Earlier Wednesday, police moved in to remove a handful of people from the beach which has seen days of chaotic looting of goods after containers from the Napoli washed ashore.
