A weekly survey was carried out from March 2 - April 17, 1970 covering Inhabitants Bay, Janvrin's Island, Isle Madame, Lennox Passage and Eastward to Kempt Point. During this time, only 500 grey harbour seals (thirteen dead) were located, where normally, several thousand were seen. From March 12-14, fifty to sixty harbour seals and hundreds more grey seals (eleven dead) were observed on Sable Island. Most seals were oiled and only a small fraction were found dead. The oil affected the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and throat of the seals, often completely plugging some of these vital orifices, causing considerable pain and suffering. The cause of death was from suffocation rather than from the toxic effects of the oil (Ford, 1971). Aquatic Plants After the spill, oil was present in the water columns and on the sea bottom in very low concentrations (Royal Commission, 1971). In some areas, upper intertidal algae became completely covered with oil but Craigie and McLachlan (1970) found no direct toxic effects on mature or juvenile plants and few changes to fauna were apparent. Oil was found in the sediment around the roots of eel grass and Irish moss was also heavily oiled on ledges off Janvrin's Island and Cape Auget (Ford, 1971). The Royal Commission also assessed the mechanical removal of oil from shorelines. They found, that oil was snuffing out life in both plants and animals in the intertidal zone, sticking to roots, molluses, barnacles and algae on the seabed. They also found that algae was being ripped from the bottom and stranded on shore (Royal Commission, 1971). The relationship between wave energy and cleaning is reflected in the decimation and recovery of organisms such as, kelp, cordgrass, and the soft-shell clam. More than half the kelp population was destroyed and recovery was a slow process. A similar reduction in the abundance of cordgrass occurred but this recovery did not occur until two years after the spill and it recovered nicely. The burrowing clam by comparison declined in abundance and took considerably longer to renew itself (Vandermeulen, 1970).