Story By: Gheorghi Caraseni, Sub Editor:  Joseph Golder,  Agency: Newsflash

CEN/@onlainluga

This footage shows the hundreds of sea birds left stranded on a cargo ship because they cannot take off from dry land.

This bizarre incident took place in the far eastern city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the Russian region of Sakhalin Oblast after hundreds of petrels landed on the ‘Vitus Bering’ cargo ship at nighttime.

Reports state the birds are believed to have been distracted by the ship’s lights and landed on it as it was heading towards the port.

However, petrels struggle to move on land and are not able to independently start flying if they are not in water where they use the wind and current to take off.

In the footage, dozens of the birds can be seen stuck on the ship’s deck as a voice says: “There are […]. You can’t even count them, they are everywhere.”

Local media report the crew continued their routine and even proceeded with unloading the ship which caused the deaths of an unidentified number of birds.

Alexander Ivanov, Head of the Green Sakhalin nature protection fund, has slammed the crew for not taking simple but important actions to save the petrels.

He said: “This man walked through the birds instead of releasing them. It is so simple to just push them back into the water and they easily take off from there. Ship workers have to be trained to act in such cases.”

It is unclear if the birds were eventually released.

Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds which easily dive, fly over the sea, descend into the water and fly into the sky directly from its surface.

They reportedly need to be on some form of slope to be able to take off from dry land.

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