A team of boffins from the Plymouth University in Devon have looked into the mysterious death of hundreds of seabirds which happened along a 200-mile stretch of the south coast last week and found the culprit to be an oil additive called polyisobutene (PIB).
“It is not toxic according to manufacturers but it is very sticky,” study head Professor Steve Rowland said.
“When it is caught up in birds’ feathers, it just glues them together.”
It is nigh on impossible though for Rowland and his team to ascertain and prove the PIB’s origin.
The RSPCA treated more than 250 birds last week in Taunton, Somerset.
Photo: Getty.
