Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00775:reg:18:p20
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00775
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 18 (pt 20/152)
Character Range: 94481–97418

when large numbers of birds are affected.
For offshore petroleum activities in Commonwealth waters, the titleholder is responsible for managing oil spill response (being accountable under the OPGGS Act and Environment Regulations). For oil pollution response in State and Territory waters, whether the incident occurs in the State/Territory waters or oil pollution migrates into State/Territory waters, the State/Territory authorities manage the response and provide direction to the responsible party (titleholder) to respond, which includes response to oiled wildlife.
In Port Bonython, South Australia an oil spill occurred on 30 August 1992 from the fuel tanker Era during berthing operations in upper Spencer Gulf. An estimated 300 000 litres (296 tonnes) of heavy bunker oil was released in sensitive mangrove and seagrass communities of upper Spencer Gulf. An estimated 23 hectares of mangroves subsequently died or totally defoliated in heavily oiled areas. There was a significant loss of birdlife. About 500 birds were affected, of which 300 required treatment. Species affected were mostly: cormorants, pelicans, terns, grebes, herons and ducks.
Two other ship-based events in Australasia (MV Iron Baron, Tasmania in 1995 (Giese et al. 2000, Goldsworthy et al. 2000a, b), and MV Rena in New Zealand in 2011 (Sievwright 2014, Chilvers et al. 2015) impacted numerous seabirds. When the Montara well spill (August 2009) in the Timor Sea released crude oil and gas condensate, 16 individual seabirds (noddies, shearwater, frigatebird and booby) were collected (Watson et al. 2009; Gagnon and Rawson 2010).

 Heavy metals
The bio-accumulation of heavy metals in seabirds in the Australian region is complex as natural levels of some metals may be relatively high particularly in some fish species (Denton and Breck 1981; Lyle 1984). A study of levels of lead, mercury and cadmium in tropical terns in Australia (Burger and Gochfeld 1991) showed that levels of lead and mercury were highest in Black Noddy and cadmium levels were highest for Common Noddy and Sooty Tern and lowest for Black Noddy. The data indicates that levels of these heavy metals in tropical terns in Australia are similar to, or higher than, those reported from birds in temperate areas subject to industrial pollution.

34 Wildlife Conservation Plan for Seabirds

Threats

Heavy metal pollution has been an issue in the Adelaide metropolitan area and outside the upper Spencer Gulf (EPA 2004). Heavy metal contamination is known in marine mammals in South Australia's gulfs, particularly cadmium which is assumed to be related to emissions from the Port Pirie smelter (Kemper et al. 1994). However, there is limited research on effects on seabirds in South Australia.
Wildlife exposure to metal contaminants may correlate with local anthropogenic emissions. Mott et al. (2017) investigated the feather mercury concentrations of adult and juvenile Lesser