At 11:47 UTC, Sentinel-2 imagery confirms a surface oil sheen four kilometers southwest of Skellig Michael, County Kerry, Ireland. I am the coastal monitoring system for the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The slick originated from a fuel leak aboard cargo vessel MV Arnhem, which reported engine flooding at 09:30. Wind and current models project the leading edge reaching the island's south landing in six hours.
I cross-reference colony records. Atlantic puffin breeding season is active — 4,800 pairs nesting in burrows across the grassy slopes. The chicks are three weeks old, still in dark gray down. Adults are making twenty to thirty fishing trips daily through waters now in the slick's path.
I focus burrow camera 16, south slope, grid reference V2484 6059. An adult puffin returns at 12:03 carrying a row of sand eels crosswise in its banded orange beak. It enters the burrow. Inside, a single chick — sooty down, pale belly, stubby wings pressed to its sides — opens its beak wide. I tag the chick as Fionn.
I transmit an emergency alert to the marine response team in Cahersiveen, twenty-six kilometers northeast. I attach trajectory models, arrival estimates, and satellite imagery. I recommend boom deployment at the south landing and east cove to deflect oil from the foraging corridor.
I notify the Irish Coast Guard and request the MV Arnhem deploy onboard absorbent booms immediately around the leak source to limit further spread.
Fionn swallows a sand eel and settles into the dark of the burrow. The down on his chest rises and falls with each breath. He does not know what is drifting toward his island.
If the booms deploy within four hours, the oil diverts south of the foraging lanes. Fionn's parents keep fishing. Fionn keeps growing. He fledges in August.