"Anthony Wall - The Eden Mission (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wall Anthony)

this year. For three decades, the bull had eluded harpoons. Now he died,
spouting thick blood.

The gunner nodded with satisfaction. Soon the vast corpse was winched
alongside. Then, swinging slowly, the catcher boat chugged towards the factory
ship whose stern gaped open like a mouth to swallow the whale. Once inside, it
was hauled up a ramp.

The whale was efficiently disposed of. Its domed head yielded fifteen barrels
of spermaceti oil for use in cosmetics; its body, oil for lubricants and
leather softening; its belly, ambergris (the residue of squids' beaks) for
perfume. Other products would later include crayons, candles, soap, pet food,
fertiliser, glue. All these could be obtained from vegetable sources. But as
long as unscrupulous people paid, whalers would go on breaking the law.

Sadly, as he saw the mighty animal disappear, the medical officer walked away.
Behind him a helicopter lifted off with a swish and swirl of blades.
Whale-spotting? He wondered, not for the first time, what was really happening
aboard the factory ship. Whaling was bad enough--but he suspected something
still more sinister. However, he had learned that it wasn't wise to ask too
many questions round here.

In the Antarctic, you could vanish without trace.

Far, far to the north, off the coast of Norway, an oil-tanker crawled through
fog. Usually the captain loathed such conditions. But today he was
pleased--for the clammy cloud would conceal his activities. Leaning forward on
the bridge, he gave orders to wash out the ship's tanks. Within minutes a
sticky stinking stream of brown liquid was gurgling into the sea. Even when
unloaded, a tanker retains about 2,000 tons of oil at the bottom of its tanks.
That sludge has to be removed before a new cargo is taken on. Why pay to have
the tanks cleaned in port if you could do it for nothing yourself? The
captain's action was irresponsible, illegal and punishable with a heavy fine.
But who can arrest an invisible culprit? He blessed the fog as the ship stole
away from the scene of the crime.

Hours later a violent storm blew up, clearing the fog. Buffeted by wind,
sea-birds sought refuge on the calmest water--which was those patches slicked
with oil. Not long after, the first grease-caked casualties started to stagger
ashore. Guillemots, gannets, puffins, razor-bills, little auks, kittiwakes.
The final death toll would be fifty thousand.

News of the pollution spread fast. People gathered on the beaches, but they
were unable to help the birds--except by putting them out of their misery. As
a naturalist explained to a tearful woman onlooker, oil often blinded birds.
It burnt their skin, stomachs and livers. It also removed the waterproofing
from their feathers, which insulated them against cold and wet, so they
couldn't float properly or catch fish. And if the birds weren't poisoned by
swallowing oil after preening, they would probably die of pneumonia.