
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 13, 1991                   TAG: 9102130284
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA                                LENGTH: Short

WILDLIFE TOLL LIKELY HIGHEST EVER

As an oil-soaked grebe got a sudsy bath Tuesday, hundreds and perhaps thousands of birds lay dead along Saudi Arabia's once-pristine beaches, victims of the Persian Gulf War.

"Undoubtedly, it's going to be the highest toll ever in the history of the world as far as an oil spill goes," said John C. Walsh, assistant director general of the World Society for the Protection of Animals.

Walsh is among experts and volunteers who are trying to save the waterway's creatures from oil slicks the allies say were a result of war - one created when Iraq pumped crude into the gulf and a second caused by a U.S. attack on Iraqi oil tankers. A third slick, its cause as yet unknown, is believed to be farther north. - Associated Press

by CNB