The fuel that spilled from a container ship into San Francisco Bay on Wednesday is a "nasty" oil that breaks down slowly, is hard to clean up and could affect marine life for years, environmentalists and oil-spill experts say.The heavy-duty bunker fuel oil that leaked from the Cosco Busan after it clipped the base of one of the Bay Bridge's towers is what's left over after oil is refined for gasoline, and "it's the nastiest stuff around," said Gerald Graham of Victoria, British Columbia, who has been trained by the Canadian coast guard as an on-scene commander for oil spill cleanups.
"It doesn't tend to break down very quickly," Graham said. "It's cheap, and it's dirty. If the wind happens to blow it out into a channel or bay, it could spread, and then you could have miles of shoreline that could be affected."
By 3 p.m. Wednesday, some of the 58,000 gallons that spilled from the Cosco Busan had already floated into the Pacific and along the Marin County coast near Tennessee Cove, according to party-boat skippers coming in from fishing and crabbing in the Gulf of the Farallones.
"I actually smelled it before I saw it," said Capt. Jimmy Robertson, who owns and operates the Outer Limits from Sausalito. "At Diablo Cove (just west of the Golden Gate Bridge), the smell is overwhelming. There's heavy black residue caught up in the rips and currents."
When Robertson returned to dock in Sausalito, the bow of his boat was covered with fuel from the spill.
At noon, some 250 employees of the Port of San Francisco were sent home after fumes from the spill wafted into the port's offices at Pier One just north of the Ferry Building.
"It smells like heavy motor oil. It makes your eyes burn," said Reni Dunn, port spokeswoman. She said the staff had been sent home "for the safety of everybody."
Public health officials with the city said the fumes, while noxious, would not cause long-term health problems.
The Port of San Francisco was posting signs in several languages on its property warning people not to fish there. The Coast Guard said swim clubs around Aquatic Park had reported blobs of oil floating in the water.
Late Wednesday, oil spill response teams had put a floating boom around the Cosco Busan as the vessel lay at anchor off Candlestick Point. They also put booms around the sheen of oil left by the ship between the Bay Bridge and the anchorage.
There is no estimate of when the oil spill will be cleaned up, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Michael Anderson.The spill could have serious long-term consequences for fish, birds and plant life in and around the bay, said Keren Murphy, a Sierra Club expert on offshore drilling and fishing.
"Oil is extremely toxic to marine life, even at low concentrations or small spills," Murphy said. "On top of that, in an enclosed bay like San Francisco Bay, the coastal wetlands are particularly vulnerable. The shelter, lagoon and wetlands that are in this bay - this type of oil can persist in the sediment for decades."
The bunker fuel "could potentially affect the bottom-dwelling organisms, fish, invertebrates, which are food for the larger, charismatic species that we all see," Murphy said. "It will then affect them."
Only about 30 percent of birds and mammals exposed to oil spills survive for more than a year, "due to the toxicity of the oil," Murphy said. - SFGate
Coast Guard asking for help finding injured wildlife, tracking spill
(11-08) 17:34 PST SAN FRANCISCO --
The Coast Guard is asking for the public's help with the oil spill that has fouled San Francisco Bay and local beaches.
No government agency has put out calls for volunteers, but that information will eventually be posted online at www.owcn.org. People interested in volunteering with the cleanup should not call any of the numbers, as the high level of calls has made it difficult to disseminate information, officials said today.
Enviornmental group Baykeeper is collecting a list of interested volunteers via their Web site, www.baykeeper.org.
Residents can help authorities track the movement of the spill by calling the private cleanup company, O'Brien's Group of Southern California at (985) 781-0804.
Report oiled wildlife at (877) 823-6926.
Owners of damaged property can submit a claim by calling (888) 850-8486.
International Bird Rescue Research Center
Major Oil Spills Since 1960
Click above for an interactive Google Map.
Environmental Effects Of Oil Spills
Studies of the Exxon Valdez oil spill have shown that the external damage caused by oil spills can be greater than was previously thought.
Once, a tanker spilled off shore from Aberdeen, Washington, and released 100,000 gallons of oil into the doomed harbor. It is now thought that the impacts to marine life can be less than one part per billion petroleum hydrocarbons.
The lighter fractions of oil, such as benzene and toluene, are more toxic, but are more volatile and evaporate quickly. Heavier components of crude oil, such as polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) appear to cause the most damage; while they are less toxic, they persist in the environment much longer than volatile components.
A heavy oil spill across the shore blankets rock-pools etc, preventing gas exchange and eliminating light as well as directly leaching toxins into the water; it can also become mixed deeply into pebble, shingle or sandy beaches, where it may remain for months or even years. Well-weathered heavy oil on inter-tidal rocks doesn't retain serious toxicity - for example, it will be grazed off by limpets without apparent ill-effect.
Seabirds are severely affected by spills as the oil penetrates and opens up the structure of their plumage, reducing the insulating ability of their feathers and making them more vulnerable to temperature fluctuations and much less buoyant in the water or escape from predators; they then ingest the oil as they attempt to preen causing kidney damage, altered liver function, and digestive tract irritation.
The limited foraging ability coupled with the ingestion of the oil quickly causes dehydration and metabolic imbalances. Most birds affected by an oil spill will die without human intervention.
The effects of oil spills on marine mammals such as sea otters and seals reduce their coat's natural insulation, leading to body temperature fluctuations and hypothermia. Ingestion of the oil has the same effects on marine mammals as it does on birds. - Wiki
Dozens of birds killed, hundreds of thousands threatened by spill
The black oil spreading for miles from the Golden Gate is staining one of the richest wildlife regions on the Pacific Coast and threatening hundreds of thousands of birds as well as marine mammals and fish that feed around San Francisco Bay.
Fuel oil, lighter than crude but heavier than gasoline, can kill birds, fish and other creatures. The 58,000-gallon spill into the delicate mouth of the bay comes at an unfortunate time for migratory birds, such as the 150,000 ducks that have just flown 2,000 miles from Canada's boreal forest to feed over the winter in the bay ecosystem, bird biologists said Thursday.
Dozens of dead and injured birds already have been found around the region, and hundreds more are likely to be spotted before the oil slick is mopped up, officials said.
By late afternoon Thursday, the oil had hit the Farallon Islands, and researchers spotted 20 oiled common murres. At nesting time, in late winter, the Farallones are home to 200,000 common murres, the largest colony south of Alaska, and the seabirds already are starting to arrive.
"This is going to be a mess. We'll see how big a mess," said Cheryl Strong, a biologist at the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The islands are part of the refuge.
Oil washing up on the beaches in San Francisco, Berkeley, Albany, Novato and along the Pacific coast is covering prime feeding grounds for the dozens of species of shorebirds that forage on the edges of the bay. The disaster will remain a deadly threat for months and perhaps years to come, biologists said.
Fish will die if they eat the oil in the water or it gets in their gills, said biologists with state Fish and Game Department.
Harbor seals that come ashore at Point Bonita near the lighthouse under the bridge also are vulnerable to oil, as are Dahl's porpoises and harbor porpoises swimming off Rodeo Beach on the Marin Headlands. Also in danger are California sea lions that could swim through the oil to get to Pier 39, according to the Marine Mammal Center.
Furry mammals are particularly vulnerable to spills because the oil interferes with their ability to keep warm. Ingesting the oil and breathing the fumes also can sicken them, particularly the pups.
"It's horrible," said Dr. Frances Gulland, a veterinarian at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito who could see the oil washing up Thursday morning on Rodeo Beach. She worries about the immediate and long-term injury to the animals.
"It is shocking that it can happen in the bay under our very eyes," Gulland said.
Off the bay lies an area of almost 6,000 square miles protected as three federal marine sanctuaries - Cordell Bank, Gulf of the Farallones and Monterey Bay. The sanctuaries are home to 36 species of marine mammals, 163 species of birds and five species of sea turtles.
By evening, at least three dozen oiled and dead birds had been picked up at Rodeo, Ocean and Stinson beaches, the Berkeley Marina and other beaches.
Injured birds can die quickly. The oil coats feathers that keep birds warm, causing them to get cold in the chilly bay water. When the birds get out of the water, they stop feeding even though they need a constant supply of food to keep up with their high metabolism. If they preen their feathers, the oil can poison them, said Dr. Mike Ziccardi, director of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network. The program, at UC Davis, organizes the wildlife aid response for the state Department of Fish and Game.
At the International Bird Rescue Research Center in Fairfield, the birds will be warmed and rehydrated, and workers will try to remove the oil using Dawn dishwashing soap.
Most of the birds found Thursday were surf scoters, a species of diving duck. Around 80,000 of the ducks arrive in the Bay Area every year by November, a majority of those wintering on the Pacific Flyway, an ocean feeding stop. About 80,000 greater and lesser scaups, two other species of diving ducks, also fly here to feed from Canada, arriving at the lowest weight of their life cycle.
"They come here from the pristine boreal forests down to the San Francisco Bay, an incredibly rich marine ecosystem that supports globally important populations of ducks and shorebirds," said Jeff Wells, a biologist with the Boreal Songbird Initiative, a Seattle nonprofit.
"They arrive after a journey of thousands of miles after making it through the Canada frost, passing through British Columbia mountains and then down the entire Pacific Coast from Washington expecting a safe place full of food and spend the winter," he said.
"Then they're fouled by oil and may die on the shores because they can't stay warm and get the oil off their feathers," Wells said.
Hundreds of reports of oiled birds from beaches ringing the bay and coast came into the hot line operated by the Oiled Wildlife Care Network. So many residents used the line to offer volunteer assistance that the network was temporarily shut down in midafternoon.
On Thursday morning, Josiah Clark, a consulting ecologist conducting a preliminary shorebird survey, saw two oiled ducks, a greater scaup and a northern shoveler as far north as Novato.
"We will be living with it for a long while," said Clark, a longtime birder with the Golden Gate Audubon Society.
Jay Holcomb, who leads the bird rehabilitation center in Fairfield, said his group went out Wednesday afternoon after it got the first report of a spill.
"When we got between the Golden Gate and the lighthouse at Point Bonita under the north end of the bridge, we saw a lot of oil in the water. We didn't expect that much oil from what had been reported. And then we knew we were going to see a lot of oiled birds," Holcomb said.
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Resources--
1. Oil Spills Leave Lasting Mark - Scientific American
2. Schwarzenegger declares state of emergency over oil spill
3. Save Our Seabirds Oil Spill Response Page
4. Ocean Planet - Oil Pollution
Down the Drain: 363 Million Gallons
Used engine oil can end up in waterways. An average oil change uses five quarts; one change can contaminate a million gallons of fresh water. Much oil in runoff from land and municipal and industrial wastes ends up in the oceans. Road runoff adds up - Every year oily road runoff from a city of 5 million could contain as much oil as one large tanker spill.
Routine Maintenance: 137 Million Gallons
Every year, bilge cleaning and other ship operations release millions of gallons of oil into navigable waters, in thousands of discharges of just a few gallons each.
Up in Smoke: 92 Million Gallons
Air pollution, mainly from cars and industry, places hundreds of tons of hydrocarbons into the oceans each year. Particles settle, and rain washes hydrocarbons from the air into the oceans.
Natural Seeps: 62 Million Gallons
Some ocean oil "pollution" is natural. Seepage from the ocean bottom and eroding sedimentary rocks releases oil.
Big Spills: 37 Million Gallons
5. Ship crew's drug, alcohol tests botched, Coast Guard says
6. Bar pilot on errant ship had several mishaps in past
7. Coast Guard Points to Spill Ship's Pilot
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Coast Guard radars could not have clearly shown a cargo ship was dangerously close to the Bay Bridge, a spokesman said Friday, a day after investigators disclosed the vessel wasn't warned moments before it crashed in dense fog and spilled 58,000 gallons of oil.
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UPDATE - November 14th
Hair and mushrooms create a recipe for cleaning up oily beaches
A group of guerrilla volunteers is cleaning oil from San Francisco's beaches using an unorthodox, albeit totally organic, method: human hair and mushrooms.
Using mats made of hair, they are absorbing the droplets of oil that have washed ashore since a cargo ship rammed the base of a Bay Bridge tower last week, spilling 58,000 gallons of fuel.
Hair, which naturally absorbs oil from air and water, acts as a perfect sponge, said Lisa Gautier of San Francisco, who provided 1,000 hair mats. They are about the size of a doormat, tightly woven with dark hair, and feel somewhat like an S.O.S pad.
While the mats may not be the obvious choice among hazardous waste experts, they hit San Francisco's green chord: More than 700 volunteers have tried them in recent days. Organizers hope their success will inspire more ecological responses to toxic waste removal.
Gautier had 1,000 of them on hand because she runs a nonprofit, Matter of Trust, which matches donations from businesses with needy nonprofits. She collects human hair from Bay Area salons and sends it to Georgia to be woven into mats, which she then gives to the San Francisco Department of the Environment to absorb used motor oil.
Once the mats are soaked with black gunk, oyster mushrooms will take over, growing on the mats and absorbing the oil.
National mushroom expert Paul Stamets was in town the weekend after the spill for the Green Festival, heard of Gautier's work and donated $10,000 worth of oyster mushrooms to harvest on the oily hair mats.
Gautier said the mushrooms will absorb the oil within 12 weeks, Gautier said, turning the hair mats into nontoxic compost.
"You make it like a lasagna," Gautier said. "You layer the oily hair mats with mushrooms and straw, turn it in six weeks, and by 12 weeks you have good soil."
The soil may not be good enough to grow carrots but is certainly good enough to use for landscaping along roads, she said.
Only about 5 percent of oil pollution in oceans is due to major tanker accidents, but one big spill can disrupt sea and shore life for miles.
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