AppId is over the quota
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) were called to the south coast yesterday after the troubled guillemots, a member of the auk family, were discovered on Lyme Bay near Weymouth, Dorset.
The seabirds have been taken to West Hatch Animal Centre in Taunton, Somerset, but early attempts to clean them have been hampered by not knowing what the substance is, the RSPB's Grahame Madge said.
The guillemots are coated in a thick, white substance, they added.
Mr Madge said: "At the moment, the best guess is there are around 100 birds ashore and there are concerns the birds are affected in as widespread a region as from Cornwall to Sussex, so we could be dealing with quite a large incident as all these birds could be proved to come from the same pollution incident," he added.
"We are urging the Government to identify the source of the pollution and the pollutant."
The rescue operation is being run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals (RSPCA). This morning a spokesman said they were pleased with the public's willingness to help the stricken birds, but warned of the dangers of involved.
The spokesman said: "We would urge people to be cautious going down to the coastline affected.
"The instinctive reaction is to go down and look, or to help out. But we don't know what this substance is, so our message is for people - especially those taking dogs down to the coastline - to please be careful."
The Environment Agency staff have taken samples of the affected water in an attempt to discover what the mysterious substance is.
PA
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