Many more birds have died at sea

The South Devon Seabird Trust blames vessels who continually dump used oil, using the sea as a rubbish bin.

Thirty-seven birds were found on the beach at Hallsands, while seven were found on Broadsands, five at Teignmouth and a further 60 between Hallsands and Dawlish.

The trust says this is the second time this winter birds have been found covered in oil.

Sea deaths

The trust believes ships are using stormy winter nights to dump chemicals into the water without being seen.

If they clean out their holds at sea, they will not be charged for such services in port.

Roger Bradford from the trust said: "We've had about 200 live oiled birds brought to us since the beginning of these incidents in November.

"We have averaged 70% of birds being brought to us alive released back to the wild."

However, for all those that have been picked up on land, many more have probably died at sea.

Mr Bradford said: "It's almost impossible to put a number on it. We use a figure of for every live bird that manages to make the shore, there are about 10 that perish at sea."