Last week,
history repeated itself in the San Francisco Bay when a container ship leaked 58,000 gallons of fuel oil after colliding with one of the Bay Bridge towers. It is the biggest oil spill in the Bay
since 1996, when 40,000 gallons of fuel oil escaped into the Bay from a ship spill in a dry dock area.
The November 7 oil spill resulted from "human error":
"There were skilled enough individuals on board this ship," said Rear Adm. Craig Bone, the Coast Guard's top official in California. "They didn't carry out their missions correctly."
Coast Guard officials declined to lay blame on any specific individual or provide further details on the mistakes that were made Wednesday morning aboard the 926-foot ship Cosco Busan.
Investigators were focusing on issues surrounding the ship's official protocol for safely navigating out of San Francisco Bay, including possible communication problems between the crew, the pilot guiding the ship and Vessel Traffic Service, the Coast Guard station that monitors the bay's shipping traffic.
As you can imagine, the spill is already having tragic ecological effects, killing and sickening the wildlife in its wake (click here for a map of affected areas).
Today's update from the San Francisco Chronical elaborates:
A major oil spill is making San Francisco Bay look like a dirty bathtub, and the ring of black that soils the shoreline is likely to pose dire consequences for birds, mice, ducks, fish and the smallest of aquatic creatures for years to come, scientists say.
Hidden under rocks or lying deep in the sediment and soil in wetlands and the bottom of the bay, the residue from 58,000 gallons of ship oil could remain for years, daubing creatures with a fatal blob or contaminating the food chain.
"It's pretty awful," said John McCosker, a senior scientist at the California Academy of Sciences.
While the long-term impact of Wednesday's spill from the Cosco Busan container ship is yet to be known, one scientist assessing it said the accident is similar to the last big oil spill in the bay.
There are many, many concerns. For example, the oil will affect herring spawning, and therefore everything that depends on herring; it's the same case with juvenile crabs. The oil affects small mammals in the same way that it affects birds (increasing heat loss, for example). The list goes on and on, and it's obvious that it will create a ripple effect in the food chain.
No one is debating the immediate effects of the spill on the Bay's wildlife. And, depending on the success of the cleanup, the long-term effects may vary in magnitude... but there will be lasting effects, and scientists are extremely concerned about the environmental persistence of the oil.
More about the spill (and what you can do) below the fold...
The Chronicle article continues:
"Bunker oil is nasty," said Andy Nyman, an associate professor at Louisiana State University who studies the toxic effects of oil.
"It persists for years in soils and sediments that have no oxygen such as wetlands and on the bottom of lakes and bays. In some places, it was found seven years later buried below the surface."
[snip]
Some of the heavy bunker oil is visible as gunky, sticky goo; it eventually breaks down and sinks to the bottom of a body of water. Some evaporates as toxic vapors, and some dissolves in water, exposing all forms of wildlife, [a toxicologist] said.
"The dissolved oil is extremely toxic to fish and other aquatic animals," Savage said. With fish, it can cause immediate death, affect reproduction and bring about genetic changes affecting future generations, she said.
You can read more about the effects of oil spills on birds and marine mammals here.
Humans are also being affected (fishermen want to delay the opening of crab season, for example).
Now, those of you in the Bay Area (or close by) are probably wondering what you can do.
From the Oiled Wildlife Care Network website:
ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO BAY OIL SPILL, November 2007
Update: Sunday, 9:00 am
Number of birds received at OWCN facilities: 372 live, 158 dead. Of the 372 live birds, 33 have been washed as at 9:00 pm Saturday evening.
If you want to volunteer:
The public has been overwhelmingly generous about volunteering to help. We have enough volunteers for the next day or so. Please continue to monitor this site in case the situation changes, and please continue to report any oiled birds you find.
If you see oiled wildlife:
Don't approach or pick it up, but call (415) 701-2311 to report it. Please do not call this number about volunteering. |
Same stuff, and more from the San Jose Mercury News:
...wildlife experts are urging people to stay away from oil-covered birds along the San Francisco Bay coast.
They warn that walkers and their dogs could frighten oil-covered birds back into the water, where they will sicken and die.
"We rely on professional staff early on, then will call for volunteers in the middle and later in cleanup," said Yvonne Addassi, an environmental scientist for the California Department of Fish and Game.
[snip]
Oil Wildlife Care Network - Call (800) 228-4544. Team members require specific training.
OILED WILDLIFE: If you see oiled wildlife, don't approach it or pick it up. Instead, report it by calling (877) 823-6926 and ask for a search and collection team to come to the area. Teams are going out frequently.
If you've already collected an oiled bird,record the name of the beach and the time and the date it was collected. Wear Nitrile gloves (not latex). Put the birds in paper (not plastic) bags. Put only one bird in a bag.
To report oil sightings: Call (985) 781-0804. |
One final request: Any Kossacks who are wildlife biologists, and know something about oil spill cleanup, the effects of spills on wildlife, etc., please chime in. Same goes for any other experts out there. Thanks.