PROTECTION OF SEA BIRDS FROM TANKER DISCHARGES

That this House shares the concern of wildlife and marine organisations about the impact of the recent discharge by chemical tankers of polyisobutylene (PIB) and the consequent death and stranding of thousands of sea birds on the coasts of Cornwall and Devon; recognises that this matter is difficult to police and that the process of achieving necessary alteration in the International Maritime Organisation's Prevention of Pollution Convention would take many years, if indeed it could be agreed; and therefore calls on the Government to work with British port authorities - the United Kingdom Major Ports Group and the British Ports Association - and its European counterparts to introduce an interim voluntary code of practice which would require tankers to declare at each port they enter that their excess PIBs will be handled by portside waste handling facilities and not discharged at sea.