This occurred after a pipeline on the deck broke loose, allowing seawater to enter the vessel's bunker tanks via broken air vents.

[2] At 05.19 hrs on 5 January 1993, Lerwick coastguard were advised that the tanker, Braer, en route from Bergen, Norway to Quebec, Canada, laden with 85,000 tonnes of Norwegian Gullfaks crude oil, had lost engine power but was in no immediate danger.

However, because of strong northwest local currents, Braer moved against the prevailing wind and missed Horse Island, drifting towards Quendale Bay.

Efforts to attach a heaving line were unsuccessful, and at 11:19 the vessel was confirmed as being grounded at Garths Ness, with oil being seen to flow out into the sea from the moment of impact.

Immediately after Braer grounded, these organisations (under the umbrella of the WRCC), representing the SIC, Sullom Voe Terminal (SVT), Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), Shetland Oil Terminal Environmental Advisory Group (SOTEAG), Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA), and the Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary, came together to initiate a response at the Boddam Scout hut (it having been identified as a suitable wildlife response "command centre").

[citation needed] From there, they directed all activities relating to wildlife affected by the spill; which was channelled into three categories: The volunteer response from the people of Shetland to walk beaches was excellent, especially considering the appalling weather conditions during much of January.

From outside Shetland came several "walk-in" helpers, a team of five from the Scottish Wildlife Trust and two from British Gas, while some staff members from organisations such as the RSPB came north and helped out both on beaches and in key duties at the WRC.

[citation needed] During the first few days of the spill, efforts were concentrated in the south-west Mainland, from Sandwick round to Maywick; but the northward spread of the oil up the west side meant that, by 12 January, surveys had been extended to cover the longer stretches of accessible coastline in the Burra, Scalloway, Whiteness and Weisdale areas, and westwards as far as Culswick.

[citation needed] In any oil spill, it is difficult to estimate the proportion of the actual mortality found on beach surveys, and several factors made that even harder in the case of Braer.

The weather also prevented systematic searches of the islands in Quendale Bay and further north, where birds were likely to have come ashore and died, while the exceptionally high tides at the time also compounded the problem, especially if they occurred in the middle of the day.

[citation needed] At Scatness, dead shags had been driven deep into cracks and crevices in the rocks or buried beneath the kelp, and sometimes just parts of a bird were found.

In addition, the many small boulder beaches along the south-west coast were too inaccessible to be checked at all, several corpses were likely to have been scavenged by the larger gulls, and an unknown but almost certainly significant proportion will have been swept out to sea.

[1] In 1995, British folk-rock band Fairport Convention released the album Jewel in the Crown, including "The Islands" by Ralph McTell and Maartin Allcock.