Thousands of people are calling for action after hundreds of seabirds were killed in Cornwall in a pollution incident.
Dead guillemots, razorbills and other rare species have washed up on beaches across the county during the last week.
Petitions have been launched to lobby Government ministers for transport and for the environment.
The creatures have been found coated in a sticky sludge that experts have identified as polyisobutylene, or PIB.
The same glue-like gloop, a lubricating additive typically added to engine oils, wiped out hundreds of birds in February but the source has never been identified.
RSPB official Tony Whitehead said: "If this was an illegal spill, we need to support the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in tracking down the ship responsible. Although this will be difficult, surely it's not impossible.
"If this was the result of legal tank washing operations, we need to urge the International Maritime Organisation to tighten up the rules and make it illegal to wash this stuff into the sea."
The community action group, 38 Degrees, also urged transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin MP, to put pressure on the International Maritime Organization, the international agency responsible for our seas and oceans, to make it illegal to dump PIB.
A spokesman for the group said: "The longer we wait the higher the risk of more birds dying. Birds that come into contact with PIB eventually die of hunger or hypothermia as the sticky glue-like substance means they can't eat or move properly."
Jessica Hirons, from the Lizard, went to Cawsand to help with the clean-up operation. She has organised a petition with nearly 3,000 signatures to urge action from Richard Benyon MP, Minister for Environment.
She said: "I was going down to the beach rescuing helpless PIB covered birds which were washing ashore, struggling to swim and unable to fly. They were slowly starving to death as their contaminated feathers prevented their usual foraging ability and rendered them disabled."
Dead guillemots, razorbills and other rare species have washed up on beaches across the county during the last week.
Petitions have been launched to lobby Government ministers for transport and for the environment.
The creatures have been found coated in a sticky sludge that experts have identified as polyisobutylene, or PIB.
The same glue-like gloop, a lubricating additive typically added to engine oils, wiped out hundreds of birds in February but the source has never been identified.
RSPB official Tony Whitehead said: "If this was an illegal spill, we need to support the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in tracking down the ship responsible. Although this will be difficult, surely it's not impossible.
"If this was the result of legal tank washing operations, we need to urge the International Maritime Organisation to tighten up the rules and make it illegal to wash this stuff into the sea."
The community action group, 38 Degrees, also urged transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin MP, to put pressure on the International Maritime Organization, the international agency responsible for our seas and oceans, to make it illegal to dump PIB.
A spokesman for the group said: "The longer we wait the higher the risk of more birds dying. Birds that come into contact with PIB eventually die of hunger or hypothermia as the sticky glue-like substance means they can't eat or move properly."
Jessica Hirons, from the Lizard, went to Cawsand to help with the clean-up operation. She has organised a petition with nearly 3,000 signatures to urge action from Richard Benyon MP, Minister for Environment.
She said: "I was going down to the beach rescuing helpless PIB covered birds which were washing ashore, struggling to swim and unable to fly. They were slowly starving to death as their contaminated feathers prevented their usual foraging ability and rendered them disabled."
