To overseas visitors, the Phillip Island Penguin is almost as well known as the koala and the kangaroo. Yet hundreds of penguins are killed each year by laziness and greed.

Over the years we've watched in horror, scenes from around the world, of birds and marine life suffering and dying as they are caught in a tide of massive oil spills. But the oil covering this little penguin's coat was dumped into the sea on purpose.

The culprits are ship operators, who save money by illegally offloading the residues and oily sludge from ship's bunker tanks. It's a cheaper option than using commercial facilities, or buying special separating equipment.

Every month, up to 20 birds were returning to the Phillip Island penguin colony covered in oil. Then in 1995 the number shot up to 60. This is when Australia's science agency, CSIRO, was asked to help.

Dr. Andy Revill has devised a way to track down those responsible for the deaths of up to 350 Phillip Island penguins each year, by extracting oil from samples of feathers, and putting them through a series of rigorous tests.

" The first thing we have to do is to get the oil off the sample of the swab or the feathers and we do this by using a solvent called Hexane. The next thing we do in the process is transfer the sample to a glass column which is filled with a white powder which is actually called silica and the components that we're actually interested in come through with the solvents so we end up with a very nice clean sample."

Dr. Revill then bombards the traces of oil with electrons, to create a fingerprint of the offending oil.

Natural oil has its own identifiable characteristics, whether it's from Bass Strait, 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. So far the source of between 80 and 85 per cent of the penguin contamination was ship's fuel oil.

CSIRO then works with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority to track down the culprits.

"And what we 're hoping is that by showing this, we can at least explain to people who are responsible for this, that their actions are having an affect."

It's hoped that by finding the culprits, the illegal dumping of oil may stop, saving the lives of hundreds of penguins each year.

Andy Revill
CSIRO Marine Laboratories
Castray Esplanade
Hobart TAS 7000

Andy.Revill@csiro.au