Dr Michael Morris Animal welfare writer nzchas.canterbury

The grounding of the Rena produced a plethora of pathetic, mealy mouthed excuses and platitudes from various officials determined to avert any responsibility for this accident waiting to happen.

One of the more offensive of these utterances must be the statement that at least no lives were lost. This shows a totally cavalier attitude to any life other than human and demonstrates that we have a long way to go in any progress towards decent treatment of nonhuman animals.

In fact, a great many creatures needlessly lost their lives.

Estimates of dead birds washed up from the spill are around 1300 and you can be sure that every dead bird washed up represents countless numbers who sank without trace soon after their feathers got gummed with oil.

Four seals are known to have died, and scientist Ingrid Visser reports that travelling orcas may have ingested sufficient oil to become poisoned.

Recent studies on fish behaviour and nervous system physiology have revealed a complex behavioural repertoire that suggests fish display a fairly high level of awareness.

The lives of these marine animals almost certainly have value for them.

Yet we may never know the exact numbers of fish, not to mention benthic invertebrates that have lost their lives as a result of the spill.

The effect on wildlife is also likely to be long term.

Unfortunately oil spills occur with depressing regularity around the world, though this does mean that there is no shortage of studies on the long term effects.

If any oil got into the Tauranga Harbour estuaries, this could affect fish recovery for decades, due to contamination of spawning grounds.

Even on the open coast, fish have been found to have elevated levels of hydrocarbons indicative of chronic poisoning 10 years after a spill, and seabirds for 17 months, due to their position at the top of a contaminated food chain.

Local residents are justifiably angry at the destruction of the beautiful coastline and the economic damage to local businesses.

But please spare a thought for the innocent mammals, birds, fish and other marine animals, which will be affected for several years, yet receive no gains from coastal shipping or oil exploration.