‘I think so. This is all very sudden, and everyone seems so concerned.’
Gramps nodded. ‘Oil spills have done a lot of damage along this coastline. Drew doesn’t remember the worst of them, but he’s seen the effect it had on marine life. It strikes a cold feeling in the heart.’
‘Maybe it’s not so bad. Drew said they don’t know yet.’
‘That’s right, lass. We all need to hope for the best.’
The boat lurched, and Caro felt suddenly sick. She clapped her hand over her mouth.
‘Bit queasy?’ Gramps leaned towards her.
‘When I came out last time, I felt a bit sick for a while. Then it passed off again.’
‘Come and stand by the helm. You’ll feel better there.’
Whatever worked. A cold sweat was beginning to form on the back of her neck and Caro was glad of Diana’s thick oilskin jacket.
‘Out of the way, lads.’ Gramps selected the spot where Caro should stand and pointed to it.
Drew turned to her. ‘Feeling sick? Take a few deep breaths. And don’t look down at the deck, look at the other boats. If your brain can gauge the movement, then your stomach will feel better.’
‘Or you could just give her a ginger biscuit.’ Peter glanced around at her. ‘I dare say Diana’s packed a few, she usually does.’
‘Yeah. That’s a good one too.’ Drew reached over to the bag that Diana had packed, unzipping it and bringing out a box of home-made biscuits. ‘There you go. Mum never forgets.’
Caro nibbled at the biscuit, chewing on the small chunks of ginger. It was difficult to say which of the remedies had worked but she was feeling better now and ready to take on the task in hand. Up ahead, there was an oleaginous sheen across the water, and as they came closer, Caro could see that the white specks that dotted the surface were sea birds.
Drew’s face became grim again. Caro moved out of the way as Gramps took the helm and Peter started to talk on the radio. He turned to Drew.
‘Ellie says it’s a smallish patch of oil, they’ve just been all the way around the edge of it. Most of the birds are in this quadrant.’
Drew nodded. ‘So we’ll start here?’
‘Yes. Her boat will be joining us shortly, and Lucas is staying over the other side.’
The boat was going slower now and Caro could see a bird in the sea alongside it, smeared with oil and struggling vainly to fly.
‘Drew...!’ She tugged at his sleeve and his gaze followed the line of her pointing finger. ‘Can we get it?’
‘That’s what we’re here for.’ Drew opened the storage compartment, under the bench at the back of the boat, taking out two long-handled nets and a bundle of flat-packed cardboard boxes. Pulling a box into shape, he set it down on the deck then picked up one of the nets, trailing it in the water next to the bird. It flapped and squawked, but it was too weak to put up much resistance, and Drew netted it and swung it back onto the deck.
‘Are we going to take the oil off now?’ Caro couldn’t bear to see the poor creature in such distress.
‘No, we can’t. Cleaning oil off a bird is a traumatic process, and they’re already exhausted. We’ll keep them at the clinic for at least a day, feed them and keep them warm until they regain their strength.’ Drew carefully extricated the bird from the net, laying it down in the box.
‘Okay. So we’re just collecting them.’
‘Yes, both live birds and dead ones. We need to remove as many of the carcasses from the sea as we can to prevent secondary poisoning of predators.’
‘What do you want me to do?’
Drew handed her the net. ‘Take this and net as many as you can reach. Bring them back to me and I’ll put them into the boxes. If you can’t reach, don’t lean over the side. The most important thing is that you don’t fall overboard.’
‘Gotcha. Most importantly, don’t fall in.’
Suddenly the task ahead of her seemed impossible. Trying to rescue half-dead birds from a polluted sea. It already made her want to cry, and she looked down at the deck, embarrassed at her own faint-heartedness.
‘Hey.’ She felt his finger curl under her chin, and when she raised her gaze his face was tender. ‘I’m really glad you’re here, Caro. I would have left you back at home, but you wanted to do something, and you came with me. That means a lot.’