[NYTr] Env: Cosco Busan San Francisco Oil Spill

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

SF Chronicle - Nov 10, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/10/MNPIT9LA5.DTL

On Bay Area beaches, picking up one oily glob at a time messy going

Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer

Black goop was everywhere on San Francisco beaches, and public-spirited
folks were on their hands and knees, scraping it into glass jars and
plastic sacks.

It was messy and smelly work, and it wrecked more than one pair of
pants, but it's what big-hearted people do after oil spills.

"I already got a lot of it on my feet," said Neeki Pizziconi of San
Francisco, who was scuttling along the shoreline at Ocean Beach just
south of the Cliff House on Friday, armed with two plastic gloves and a
bunch of supermarket grocery bags.

She was not part of an environmental group or volunteer outfit. She was
not a card-carrying member of anything, she said. She just grabbed some
white sacks and headed for the beach, like a handful of other
do-gooders.

"I should be in my drawing class right now," she said. "But this is
more important."

The hardest part was making sure the goo ended up in the bags instead
of on her. Silver-dollar-size blobs of smelly tar dot the waterline,
and once touched by body or clothing, the stuff does not come off
easily, if it comes off at all.

Pizziconi said she would be scrubbing her feet for a long time, but
that it was better for the goop to be on her than on a bird.

"I guess no good deed goes unpunished, as they say," she mused as she
rubbed sand on her feet, which accomplished nothing except to give the
tar something to stick to.

Nearby, a team from the U.S. Geological Survey was collecting the
globs, sticking them into screw-top jars and labeling each glob.

"We're trying to determine the extent of the spill rather than point
fingers," said marine geochemist Bob Rosenbauer, who was leading a team
of four volunteers on a tour of San Francisco beaches. They snagged two
globs at Ocean Beach, and some of it ended up on Rosenbauer's pants, in
the name of science.

"These are my tar-gathering pants," Rosenbauer said. "They didn't start
out that way, but they are now. This stuff isn't coming off."

Based on his quick survey, Ocean Beach appeared to be in much better
shape than Baker Beach, which was a mess. Rangers had closed it off to
visitors, along with China Beach, and a National Park Service guard in
a pickup truck was ordering rubberneckers to leave.

Baker Beach and the area near Marina Green, said Rosenbauer, were
"severely impacted," while Ocean Beach was "maybe not quite as bad
overall." The large yellow floating booms that have been placed in the
water near the ecologically sensitive Crissy Field wetlands seem to be
doing their job in keeping the goop away, Rosenbauer said.

The geochemist said he would analyze the jars of goop in his lab in
Menlo Park, even though he already knows the tar came from the hole in
the side of the Cosco Busan. He hopes to find out more about the
movement of spilled oil - how far, how fast and how much.

At Crissy Field, the promenade was open to pedestrians but the beach
itself was shut, although the Coast Guard reopened it later in the day.
Dog-walkers were keeping their dogs on leashes, to prevent them from
romping in the tar.

"This is not nice, it's not pretty and I never thought it would happen
in my own backyard," said Terry Picon, who was walking a poodle named
Jet Black.

Also on a tight rein was a Labradoodle named Timmy, who was being
walked by his owner, Sandra Quigley. She said that all the yellow
plastic strands - the portable booms designed to keep the oily water
off the beach - resembled police tape.

"It looks like a crime scene around here, and I guess that's what it
is," Quigley said.

E-mail Steve Rubenstein at srubenstein at sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle

==========

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/10/MN6HT9S8K.DTL&feed=rss.news


SAN FRANCISCO BAY OIL SPILL
LINES HUM: Thousands jam phones to volunteer

Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Thousands of people have inundated wildlife hot lines, eager to help
rescue birds, clean beaches and volunteer their time.

That means the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at UC Davis is overwhelmed,
and phones are jammed.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing, spokeswoman Sylvia Wright said.
Even if everyone doesn't get a chance to help right away, there is,
sadly, a growing need for help de-oiling water fowl, she said.

Before the spill, the group had 55 volunteers "pre-trained" and at the
ready to rescue birds. They will be working with the animals today.
Meanwhile, 250 more volunteers who were the first to call on Friday
will be the next to be trained.

The group provides a two-hour training session in Fairfield that is
mandatory before volunteers are allowed to handle injured or oil-soaked
wildlife.

For now, rather than calling, Wright asked that people who want to
volunteer check the group's Web site, www.owcn.org.

California's Department of Fish and Game is also stepping in to help,
and will offer classes Saturday in San Francisco, Sausalito and
Richmond, explaining how cleanups are conducted and how to get trained
in wildlife recovery. The sessions will not offer actual training.

The classes will be held:

-- From 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 99 Grove
St., San Francisco. (415) 974-4060.

-- From 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the Marina Bay Yacht Harbor, 1340 Marina
Way South, Richmond. (510) 236-1013.

-- From 5 to 7 p.m. at the Headlands Institute, Golden Gate National
Recreation Area, Building 1033, Sausalito. (415) 332-5771.

E-mail Nanette Asimov at nasimov at sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle

==============

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/10/MNFST9O0A.DTL&feed=rss.news

Oil, tar balls drifting toward Farallones seabird refuge

Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Streaks of oil stretching for 10 miles and trailed by a raft of tar
balls are headed from the Golden Gate toward the Farallon Islands, the
ecologically important archipelago that is home to hundreds of
thousands of seabirds as well as seals and sea lions, worried
scientists said Friday.

Researchers at the islands, 28 miles west of the gate, are on alert to
the spreading impact of a 58,000-gallon oil spill in San Francisco Bay
on Wednesday. Already they have spotted two dozen oiled common murres,
the plump, penguin-like birds known to be vulnerable to floating oil.

On Friday, the small crew on the island was trying to determine whether
there was oil in the foam around the 211 acres of rocks, said Russ
Bradley, Farallon program manager with PRBO, formerly Point Reyes Bird
Observatory, a research group that has monitored sea life there for 40
years for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"We're definitely seeing more oiled birds at the islands," Bradley
said. "It's a bad situation all around."

The biologists believe the murres got oiled on the Farallones as well
as showing up oiled.

The scientists recently counted 6,600 murres in the area. The birds,
which feed in the ocean and come on the rocky islands to mate and nest,
are starting to arrive early for the courtship season. Scientists say
they return to their same spots on the rocks every year.

Some 5,000 murres had gathered in a single feeding flock Thursday, and
the biologists fear that the diving birds could be tarred with a sweep
of floating oil.

On a flight over the island on Friday morning, the scientists observed
the thin streaks of oil and the tar balls in the water.

"Ribbons of oil are going 10 miles out of the Golden Gate Bridge moving
south southwest," said Steve Edinger, assistant chief with the
California Department of Fish and Game. "We are seeing tar balls out in
the water."

The Farallon Islands are the biggest seabird breeding colony south of
Alaska, with 200,000 common murres at the height of the season in the
spring. The islands support 12 species of seabirds, one-third of
California's breeding seabirds.

In the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989,
common murres were the hardest hit of any species. Outside San
Francisco Bay, a barge leaking oil eradicated the entire colony at
Devil's Slide Rock south of Pacifica two decades ago.

Slowly and laboriously, Fish and Wildlife biologists have been bringing
back the colony, first with decoys and now with careful monitoring to
ward off loud noises and other disturbances.

Murres live to be 25 years old, and don't start reproducing until they
are well into adulthood. Losses of adult birds can severely damage the
population because it takes so long to build new breeders, biologists
say.

The islands, known as the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge, also
support northern fur seals, Steller sea lions and northern elephant
seals. Great white sharks come in August.

The researchers have confirmed that there were no oiled seals or sea
lions, which congregate on the rocks, said John Bradley, deputy manager
of San Francisco National Wildlife Refuge, of which the islands are a
part.

E-mail Jane Kay at jkay at sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle

====================

The spill threatens to delay opening of crab season

Brian Hoffman, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, November 10, 2007

(11-09) 12:09 PST SAN FRANCISCO BAY - -- After a summer of poor
fishing, the Golden Gate's fishing fleets face a new crisis less than a
week before the commercial crabbing season is set to begin.

Bunker fuel from the Cosco Busan spill has drifted not only right over
many of the prime fishing spots in the main bay but also into the
Pacific, where it is affecting prime salmon and crabbing water before
it washes ashore along the Marin coastline.

Commercial boats are scheduled to set their crab pots Wednesday for
Thursday's opener that traditionally supplies Dungeness for the holiday
demand. Because of the fuel spill, that opener might be in question.

"We're trying to decide what to do," said Larry Collins, president of
the Crab Boat Owners Association in San Francisco.

Commercial crabbers from San Francisco, Half Moon Bay and Bodega Bay
are meeting at the association's hall at Fisherman's Wharf at 2 p.m.
Saturday to vote on whether to postpone the season opener until after
Dec. 1.

"There's a good chance we would postpone the season if the spill
extends over the crab grounds," Collins said. "I'm just one fisherman,
but I think we should postpone it. If the crab come up through the
fuel, they could be contaminated."

Even if the boats drop pots, there's still the significant matter of
getting the crab to the wholesalers in San Francisco.

"We need to bring them into the bay to unload," Collins said. "If that
means circulating (fuel-contaminated) water through our holding tanks,
we couldn't even offload in the city."

Collins is just as worried about the spill's long-term effect on the
bay, which is a nursery for young Dungeness crab.

"Right now, the bay is loaded with baby Dungeness. As that fuel moves
down the water column, it could devastate crab numbers for years to
come."

Many of the local sportfishing charter boats already are feeling an
economic impact from the spill.

Jay Yokomizo, who runs the party boat New Huck Finn out of Emeryville,
has seen his business evaporate following news of Wednesday's spill.

"No one is going to want to fish in an oil-spill zone. And I don't
blame them. I hate to say it, but that's the reality of it. There is a
lot of bunker fuel on the water, right over some of the places we fish."

The most dramatic impact to fisheries, so far, has taken place in the
bay, where a heavy coating of fuel remains around Angel Island and over
the Berkeley Flats, which are considered some of the most productive
halibut and striped bass haunts in the bay. The areas are host to
numerous other game fish as well.

A day after fuel spread over the bay, the party boat California Dawn,
which is owned and operated out of Berkeley Marina by James Smith,
actually fished the Berkeley Flats and landed 10 halibut.

"We got there as the tide was going out, and taking the oil with it,"
Smith said, "so we didn't actually fish over the fuel. But it was there
earlier in the morning, and I know it was there in the afternoon."

Like nearly all boats crossing the bay and moving through the entrance
to the Golden Gate, the California Dawn's hull is coated with bunker
fuel. Smith also has seen sea and shorebirds covered in oil from the
spill.

"This is a critical area for wildlife," Smith said from his boat slip
at Berkeley Marina on Friday. "Fishermen want this cleaned up, as soon
as possible."

According to Smith, the California Dawn was chartered for fishing
Friday, but the trip was canceled because of concern over the spill.

"There's no doubt this is bad for business," he said.

Salmon anglers returning from fishing Wednesday were among the first to
report fuel from the spill reaching outside the Golden Gate. Jimmy
Robertson, who operates the charter boat Outer Limits from Sausalito,
saw fuel on the water as he approached Point Bonita on his way in
Wednesday.

"The closer we got to the Gate (on Wednesday), the thicker the bunker
fuel got. The smell of the stuff is overwhelming."

Robertson had calls from worried customers Wednesday night. "They
wanted to know if I was still fishing and if it was OK to fish,"
Robertson said. "I told them it should be fine, if we fished out of the
fuel."

Officials with the Department of Fish and Game are not so sure,
particularly when it comes to consuming fish caught in the bay.

"We're assessing the situation now," said Pete Kalvas, a senior
biologist with the department's marine region in Fort Bragg (Mendocino
County). "We just don't have a blanket opinion on eating fish from the
bay right now. The problems seem to be localized, and different harbor
commissions and park districts will be posting their own warnings, as
they see fit."

Thursday, the Outer Limits did fish, and was back up along the Marin
coast, trolling for salmon off Double Point, 13 miles west of the Gate.
It was one of its last salmon ventures of the year, as the season is
set to close Sunday.

For the first time in months, the boat caught its limit of salmon, 26
in all for the 13 anglers aboard, with the fish from 6 to 18 pounds.

"It's kind of ironic," Robertson said. "We struggle all season, and
now, at the very end, we finally see salmon showing up. And right in
the middle of an oil spill, too."

Fishing off Double Point on Thursday, Robertson did not see fuel on the
water. It was close, though, reaching as far west and north of the
Golden Gate as Rocky Point, which is just below Stinson Beach.

Friday, Robertson's boat was again on the water. This time, Robertson
said there was a light sheen of fuel all the way past Bolinas, off an
area fishermen call The Towers.

"This seems to be getting worse," Robertson said. "I don't understand
why there aren't more boats up here containing the spill. When this
stuff hits the rocks and beaches, a lot of marine life is going to be
smothered."

Collins, whose commercial boat Autumn Gale is docked at Fisherman's
Wharf in San Francisco, wonders why he and other skippers have not been
asked to help with the cleanup.

"We have 30 boats in the city trained in dropping boom, and they're not
asking us to do a damn thing," Collins said. "It's frustrating. We'd
like to help.

"Instead we have to sit back and watch this unfold. We just had a
horrible salmon season and a lot of the commercial guys are depending
on the crab season to survive in this business. We seem to be going
from one catastrophe to the next."

E-mail Brian Hoffman at bhoffman at sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle

=========================
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/10/MNH9TA259.DTL&feed=rss.news


Caring for oiled birds

Patricia Yollin, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, November 10, 2007

(11-09) 19:33 PST CORDELIA -- He'd already been through an oil spill
and an intimate encounter with a rectal thermometer. This afternoon,
the wild-eyed surf scoter was not ready for his close-up. The bird
flapped his wings frantically while being photographed by a member of
the team struggling to save his life.

"They're afraid of people. It's a very frightening situation," said Dr.
Greg Massey, a veterinarian in charge of the recovery effort at the
International Bird Rescue Research Center in Cordelia, near Fairfield.

Until Wednesday morning, the scoter was just another sea duck bobbing
around on San Francisco Bay. After a ship ran into the Bay Bridge and
dumped thousands of gallons of bunker fuel into the water, he became a
victim of the calamity - though a relatively fortunate one. He was
among the first 75 patients being treated at the center, which normally
rehabilitates sick and injured birds but was forced into triage mode
this morning to begin dealing with untold numbers of avian casualties.

"We try to keep bird handling to a minimum," said Massey, who works at
the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at UC Davis.

The newest residents of the Cordelia center - which is part of the
network and its primary bird response organization in the state - had
first been stabilized at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Today, they were
processed and revived. They won't be washed until Saturday at the
earliest, because anything sooner might be too much for them to handle.

"The stress of cleaning them would push them over the edge," Massey
said. "It could take up to an hour to wash and dry them."

The scoter who didn't want to have his picture taken went through the
same intake procedure that every oiled bird brought to Cordelia
experiences.

A bunch of people wearing white suits and purple gloves put him on an
examining table and covered him with a towel. Right off, one of them
inserted a thermometer in his rectum to take his body temperature. They
snipped off an oil-soaked feather and wrapped it in tin foil, washed
out his eyes and gave him a new identity - in this case Y008.

The team then weighed him - he was 898 grams - and listened for
abnormal noises in his respiratory system.

"His right lung is pretty woozy," said volunteer Devin Dombrowski, who
also took a blood sample from the scoter's foot.

"Leg veins are much easier with sea birds," he said. "Wing veins tend
to hemorrhage."

Dombrowski and the rest of the team worked with a quiet sense of
urgency. There were four veterinarians, three volunteers, two wildlife
biologists and a third-year veterinary student.

"I usually do this without the oil," said Dombrowski, a wildlife
rehabilitator at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek.

The birds' photographs, not unlike booking mugs, are shot in a corner
of the intake room, in front of a poster that includes their banding
number, species and name of the accident, in this case the Cosco
Busan . The pictures and feather samples will be sent to the petroleum
chemistry lab at the state Department of Fish & Game.

"It's important to make a link between the oil on the birds and the oil
in the water," Massey said. "We collect evidence of the event. They're
used a lot in legal proceedings that can go on afterward."

When the birds get oiled, they grow cold and lose their insulation.
They often starve, become dehydrated and no longer have the ability to
preen, a ritual that allows them to condition their feathers and
continually realign their waterproofing structure.

Ironically, some of the most heavily oiled birds survive better than
their less damaged peers, said UC Davis veterinarian Rebecca Duerr, who
was working at the center today. Her research on the subject found that
their health was less compromised because they were rescued more
quickly and weren't chronically exposed.

Many waterfowl already have been killed or will die at some point
because of the oil spill. In early afternoon, a cart with 18 dead birds
- each corpse inside an empty dog food bag - was wheeled into the
center.

Meanwhile, 16 live oiled birds were on their way to the center to join
the 75 already there.

Throughout it all, Prentice Danner (rank E-5) of the U.S. Coast Guard
took pictures of the center's labors to help inform the public. He'd
flown up from Los Angeles in the morning, only a few weeks removed from
his work at the Southern California wildfires.

"I'm from Kentucky," he said. "I used to think the Coast Guard was
something for lifeguards."

Ideally, the intake process should consume no more than five or six
minutes, Massey said. Then the birds, still bundled in towels, are
taken to the stabilization room next door and put in net-bottomed pens
covered with sheets.

They get food and liquid there. When the time comes - and it could be
days, depending on how well they're doing - they go to the adjoining
washroom, where they are cleaned with Dawn detergent diluted in water,
rinsed, dried and moved to a pool outside, where they can be aquatic
once again.

Dawn is used because the center's research found that the detergent
could remove most oils, is effective at low concentrations, doesn't
irritate the skin and eyes, can be easily rinsed from feathers and is
readily accessible.

While they're enjoying life in the outside pools, the oiled birds might
glimpse some unwanted avian visitors - healthy but greedy.

"This place is on the edge of a marsh," Massey said. "Some of these
wild birds aren't stupid. They'll come in and get a free meal."

If all goes well, the oiled birds will be released in seven to 10 days
and back at sea - though in a place with clean water. As for the rescue
workers, the timetable is murkier. They could be dealing with the
heart-wrenching victims of the spill for quite a while.

"It's a terrible thing," Dombrowski said. "It's very unfortunate. But
we can't allow ourselves to get depressed."