‘Chaos, heartbreak and toothbrushes’: RSPCA heroes look back 30 years after the Sea Empress disaster
It was just after 10.30pm on 15 February 1996 when the call came through: a tanker had hit rocks off Pembrokeshire and was leaking oil. Within hours, the Sea Empress spill would become one of the UK’s worst environmental disasters — and the RSPCA would find itself at the centre of a rescue mission unlike anything it had faced before.
The single‑hulled tanker had torn open on its approach to the Cleddau Estuary, releasing 130,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea. As the slick spread, thousands of seabirds were engulfed. The RSPCA’s response would stretch from Tenby to the Gower, from makeshift industrial units to lifeboats scouring the islands.
And for the staff who lived it, the memories remain vivid.
‘I pulled over the van. I knew this was big.’
RSPCA Chief Inspector Richard Abbott interviewed by Sky News at St Anne’s Head in front of the Sea Empress in 1996.Richard Abbott, now an RSPCA Chief Inspector, was on duty that night.
“I recall speaking to a Brecon RCC tasker who said they’d had a call saying a tanker had run aground at Milford Haven and was leaking 30,000 gallons of oil,” he said. “I asked them to double‑check. Five minutes later they rang back and said the Coastguard had confirmed it.”
He pulled over his van on the roadside.
“I rang the Chief Inspector at home and started the response. I knew this was big.”
By the next morning, Abbott was in a room full of senior officials from across the UK — all waiting to see where the oil would land.
RSPCA Mallydams Wood Centre Supervisor releases oiled guillemots back to the wild on Pett Level beach in Hastings, East Sussex.“We knew it was out there, but we didn’t know if it was coming down the estuary. Then we saw it starting to move. That’s when everything changed.”
‘They turned to the RSPCA and said: can you lead this?’
Romain de Kerckhove, now Chief Inspector for Mid and West Wales, had been part of a contingency planning group the year before.
“They turned to the RSPCA and asked if we could coordinate volunteers in the event of an oil spill — one we all hoped would never happen,” he said.
When the Sea Empress hit the rocks, that responsibility became real.
“We started putting a plan together to send people to beaches. Then the birds started coming in. We were only just setting up the makeshift hospital at Thornton Industrial Estate.”
The press put out a call for volunteers — and the response was overwhelming.
“Dozens and dozens — if not hundreds — turned up,” he said. “Everyone meant well, but if one bird was spotted, 50 people would charge down the beach trying to reach it first.”
Inspectors were each assigned a beach, armed with cardboard boxes and little else.
“Those birds we found alive were literally caked in oil and sand, in their eyes, up their nostrils and in their beaks,”‘It was chaos. But it clicked into place.’
Transit vans were emptied and repurposed as bird ambulances. Crews went out in boats. Volunteers combed beaches. And the birds kept coming.
“At the height of it, we took in 760 birds in one day,” Abbott said.
By 5 March, the numbers were stark: 2,542 birds found dead. 3,142 rescued by the RSPCA. 757 died in care.
Most were common scoters, but guillemots, divers, gulls and swans also arrived in huge numbers.
‘We needed toothbrushes. We got 10,000.’
The public response was extraordinary.
“We used towels, washing‑up liquid, toothbrushes,” Romain said. “After it went on the news, carloads of donations turned up. Every day I’d open the mail and there’d be jiffy bags full of used toothbrushes.”
Then Procter & Gamble called.
“Before we knew it, we had mountains of Fairy Liquid. We probably needed 200 toothbrushes — we ended up with about 10,000.”
Some volunteers washed birds. Others cleaned floors. One man from Germany chopped fish all day, every day.
“He was amazing,” said Richard Thompson, now Wildlife Rehabilitation Team Manager at Mallydams.
Wildlife Rehabilitation Team Manager Richard Thompson catching gulls with a net in the outside pool.‘Some days you just collected bodies.’
Neil Tysall, now an RSPCA Intelligence Officer, remembers the emotional toll.
“Those birds we found alive were literally caked in oil and sand — in their eyes, up their nostrils, in their beaks,” he said. “Some days it felt like you just collected bodies. Everything was covered in oil.”
His high‑vis jacket “always smelt slightly of crude oil for years to come”.
“What I would have given for my jacket to have been the worst casualty rather than all that unnecessary loss of life.”
‘We worked 14‑hour days. It was exhausting — and rewarding.’
At West Hatch Wildlife Centre in Somerset, staff were working around the clock.
“We were doing 12 to 14‑hour days,” said Wildlife Supervisor Paul Oaten. “You’d come in at 8am and stay until at least 10pm. Ten days on, one day off, then back again.”
Birds were washed in teams of two — one holding, one cleaning.
“It was vital to get the oil off their plumage. Not just for waterproofing, but to stop them ingesting it.”
Once cleaned, birds were moved to pools to test whether they were waterproof enough to survive at sea.
“We’d have officers on duty all night checking them,” Abbott said. “If they couldn’t get onto the little islands in the pools, they’d drown.”
Releases were delayed by bad weather and lingering oil. Eventually, many birds were taken to Borth in north Wales to be freed.
Sea Empress Disaster Medal (RSPCA Archives)‘It was one of the most magnificent rescue operations in RSPCA history.’
RSPCA Chief Inspectorate Officer Steve Bennett said the anniversary is a moment to honour the staff and volunteers who turned “a scene of unnecessary loss of life” into “a story of hope and recovery”.
“Whether you were patrolling beaches in the dark, coordinating chaos in the control room, or spending 14‑hour shifts washing oil from delicate feathers with toothbrushes and Fairy Liquid — your commitment saved lives,” he said.
“This operation was far too large for any one entity to handle alone. The recovery of the 3,142 birds rescued was a testament to incredible collaboration.”
He said the lessons learned in 1996 shaped the RSPCA’s modern wildlife response.
“We are better, faster and more scientifically equipped today because of the trials we faced at Thornton Industrial Estate and our wildlife centres.”
A legacy that still matters
Large‑scale oil spills are now rare, but the RSPCA still treats hundreds of birds affected by smaller leaks each year.
Over the past five years, the charity has cared for 289 birds contaminated by oil or other pollutants.
For the staff who were there in 1996, the Sea Empress disaster remains a defining moment.
#CleddauEstuary #divers #guillemots #gulls #oilSpill #Pembrokeshire #RSPCA #seaBirds #SeaEmpress #SeaEmpressDisaster“It was full‑on, exhausting, chaotic,” Oaten said. “But it was also one of the most rewarding things we’ve ever done.”
