Hundreds of penguins are being contaminated at sea by oil, according to a new study.

CSIRO hydrocarbon specialists say that residues and oily sludge from ship's bunker tanks are the cause of injury and death for up to 350 penguins at Phillip Island (Vic.) each year.

"For every bird that makes it back to the colony at the Phillip Island Nature Park in an oiled state there could be as many as 10 that don't," says Dr Andy Revill, from CSIRO Marine Research.

Dr Revill says that there are commercial facilities which receive bunker oil and sludge, but there is no economic incentive to use them.

"Illegal dumping is simply a cheaper option," he says.

"Ships are only permitted to discharge oily waste at a rate of 15 parts of oil in a million parts of water. This can be achieved by using special separating equipment.

"But some ships are ignoring the permitted discharge rates and are illegally discharging oily waste and slops knowing they have only a slight chance of detection," Dr Revill says.

All Australians, however, share some responsibility for pollution of Australia's marine environment, according to Dr Revill.

"There's a widely held view that most oil pollution originates from shipping disasters like the Exxon Valdez off the Alaskan coast, the Kirki off Western Australia and the Iron Baron off Northern Tasmania.

"But according to a 1996 study by CSIRO and the Tasmanian Department of Environment and Land Management road run-off and industrial stormwater dumping wash as much as 20,000 tonnes of oils into Australian coastal waters each year.

"This then finds its way into the sediments of our rivers and estuaries and becomes part of the unseen pollution of our marine environment," Dr Revill says.

This is more than Australia's largest oil spill of 17,700 tonnes of crude oil from the oil tanker Kirki off the coast of Western Australia in 1991.

The US Academy of Sciences estimated in 1990 that 37 per cent of oil pollution of the world's marine environment enters the sea from the land. Other sources estimate that 45 per cent comes from shipping (12.5 per cent from tanker accidents); 9 per cent from the atmosphere, 7.7 per cent from natural sources and 1.5 per cent from offshore oil exploration and production.

Dr Revill, his colleague Rebecca Esmay, also from CSIRO Marine Research, and Margaret Healey of the Phillip Island Penguin Reserve Nature Park began their study in 1995 as a result of a particularly large oiling incident.

Up to 20 penguins a month were returning to the colony in an oiled state, and in April 1995 60 birds were detected by the colony managers. This led to a request to Esso for research assistance. Esso then contacted CSIRO.

The scientists were asked to 'fingerprint' oil samples taken from birds returning to the colony. Natural oil has its own identifiable characteristics be it crude oil from Bass Strait or the North-West Shelf, Indonesia or the Middle East and can be easily traced to its source. Processed oil used in industry, transport and shipping also has distinguishing characteristics.

"Because penguins spend most of their time at the surface and range up to 200 nautical miles from their colony around Bass Strait and into Port Phillip Bay, they are exposed to numerous oil contaminants in waters around the coast," Dr Revill says.

"We were looking for patterns of oil sources in the data we collected and those patterns indicated that while at times different oils were found on some birds, the source of between 80 and 85 per cent of the contamination was ships' fuel oil."

CSIRO is working with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority to extend the study to track down ships dumping oil.

"A possible solution is easily accessed port waste reception facilities with the cost of use included in port charges.

"This is an opportunity for Australian port authorities and the shipping industry to provide a lead following the International Year of the Ocean," Dr Revill says.

More information from:
Dr Andy Revill 03-6232 5278
Margaret Healy 03-5956 8300
Trevor Gilbert, Australian Maritime Safety Authority 02-6279 5680