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The Oil Spill in San Francisco....
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Yet another great sadness is happening to wildlife in California... and I hope we can mark it and celebrate the people who are working to exhaustion to clean up and save animals swept up in the highly toxic goo.
Please add photos if you have them and news links.
The following photo hit hard....
a rescued loon. I hope the photographer will let us use that photo to illustrate this topic.... something about its beautiful eyes.
All Things Considered has a good interview with some of the people working to clean it up. Fishermen among them.
Originally posted at 3:38PM, 13 November 2007 PDT
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yeimaya edited this topic 8 months ago.
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Thanks for starting this discussion. It has been such a horrible hit to the San Francisco marine ecosystem and to the birds. Reports I heard today is at least 574 birds dead so far of birds received at the OWCN.
I volunteer for a local group Wildcare. And on Sunday did a shift at the Oiled Wildlife Care Network housed at the IBRRC in Cordelia.
It was organized chaos and approximately 300 birds were brought into the center as of Sunday morning. I held birds while they were hydrated and tube fed in the stabilization room prior to them going to get washed. It is heartbreaking holding these birds completely covered with black oil. The only uplifting thing that day was seeing hundreds of people coming out to volunteer.
Check out these two links:
www.ibrrc.org/
www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/owcn/
Posted 8 months ago.
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 thank you for posting this and for doing what must be terribly sad, hard work.....oh this hurts.
Posted 8 months ago.
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574 here-30,000 in the Black Sea!
It hurts A LOT
Posted 8 months ago.
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yeimaya i am wondering if we can focus on both of the recent oil spills in this topic? here is one link to the absolute horror and devastation that has occurred in the black sea, some really heart-wrenching images here. apparently this area is on a migration route for a few species of birds too.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21731529/
Posted 8 months ago.
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a more general article about the long-term effects of oil spills.
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/11/1122_021122_OilS...
Posted 8 months ago.
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I've been volunteering at the International Bird Rescue Research Center all week. As daunting as the task is, great work is being done.
An army of professionals and volunteers are working to save the animals affected by this oil spill.
And, so far, the birds that have been stabilized and cleaned are responding well.
You can read more about this at my blog:
howsrobb.blogspot.com/2007/11/like-water-off-ducks-back.html
Posted 8 months ago.
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Would someone be willing to do a search of people on flickr who are on the scene at either of the oil spills? It would be great to keep current and flickr offers an immediacy that you don't get from the media.
Those of you who are fighting to save these birds and other wildlife thank you we would like to honor you here. Please post links to your blogs, to sites that we could help and your photos and stories here too.
Posted 8 months ago.
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Info below is info from the www.saveourshores.org mailing list news announcement that was sent out on Sunday, Nov. 11th concerning the SF Bay oil spill.
Emergency officials were pressured Thursday to explain why it took them hours to announce that 58,000 gallons of oil had leaked from a container ship that rammed the Bay Bridge on Wednesday - creating a slick that has contaminated beaches and injured hundreds of birds from Hunters Point to the Marin Headlands and out to the Farallon Islands.
All through the day, the heavy fuel oil that spilled from the container ship Cosco Busan washed up on beaches along the San Francisco and Marin coastlines, leaving purplish sheens on the water and black blobs in the sand. Hundreds of birds coated in thick, gloppy oil were injured or dead.
Oil began leaking into the water after the 65,131-ton, 810-foot-long ship crashed into the base of a tower of the Bay Bridge's western span in heavy fog at about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Within an hour, six emergency vessels from the Coast Guard and Marine Spill Response Corp. were on the scene, Uberti said. Yet up until 4 p.m., officials apparently believed only 140 gallons of oil had leaked into the water.
They then learned that the actual amount of the spill was a much more alarming 58,000 gallons, Uberti said. That news was not announced to the public and some local officials until 9 p.m.
The crash was the first time an oceangoing ship had run into the bridge. The structure did not sustain major damage, but the wildlife in the area is in trouble for at least weeks to come.
"It's very discouraging, and it's bad. Birds come here to feed because it's a very rich, a very diverse region," said Jay Holcomb, director of the International Bird Rescue Research Center in Fairfield, the rehabilitation center that eventually will receive all of the recovered oiled birds.
"We know oil spills are horrible. The animals are frightened. We catch what we can. We do the best we can, but we're limited in what we do. It's just sad to see this."
Coast Guard officials said 16 beaches have been closed to the public since the spill Wednesday because of contamination: Angel Island, Crissy Field, Kirby Cove, Black Sand Beach, Rodeo Beach, Fort Point, Muir Beach, Fort Baker and China Beach, Tennessee Valley, Keller Beach, Point Isabel, Ferry Point, Cesar Chavez Beach, Middle Harbor and Shimada Park.
Wildlife officials said finding birds and other animals covered in oil is as high a priority as containing the spill.
The most common species feeding at the Golden Gate at this time of year are western grebes and scoters.
"The birds' first response is to get out of the water" after a spill, said Dr. Mike Ziccardi, director of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network. "Because they're out of the water, they can't eat. They can become severely debilitated and can die unless brought into rehabilitation."
"There are a lot of birds here. This is a feeding area," said Jay Holcomb, the executive director of the International Bird Rescue Research Center, who was collecting the rescued birds. The birds were taken to the center's headquarters in Cordelia to be cleaned and rehabilitated.
wildlife at risk
BIRDS
-- Diving ducks such as surf scoters, greater scaups, lesser scaups,
buffleheads and ruddy ducks
-- Western, eared and horned grebes
-- Common and red-throated loons
-- Western, California, glaucous and Bonaparte gulls
-- Double-crested, pelagic and Brandt's cormorants
-- Common murres
-- California brown pelican
MARINE MAMMALS
-- Harbor seals
-- California sea lions
-- Dahl's porpoises
-- Harbor porpoises
-- Northern fur seals
-- Humpbacked whales
FISH
-- Anchovies
-- Topsmelt
-- Surfperch
-- Leopard shark
-- Smoothhound shark
HOW YOU CAN HELP
VOLUNTEERING: Fish and Game volunteers: Send your name and e-mail address to coscobusanspill@ospr.dfg.ca.gov.
Oil Wildlife Care Network: Call 1-800-228-4544. 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 1-877-823-6926 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.
TO DONATE TO THE CLEANUP: Wildlife experts say that the responsible party is expected to pay for the cost of wildlife cleanup. But to make a donation for ongoing costs relating to oiled wildlife care, please make a check out to UC Regents and send to VM Wildlife Health Center, TB 128, University of California-Davis, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, Calif. 95616.
Read the most up-to-date reports from the coast guard: www.uscgsanfrancisco.com
_______________________________________________
Friends mailing list
Friends@saveourshores.org
lists.saveourshores.org/mailman/listinfo/friends
Posted 8 months ago.
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a couple images from the ocean beach cleanup effort sunday, 11/11/07, by request:
surfer-volunteers post-cleanup
soiled gloves
another volunteer
Posted 8 months ago.
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  thank you please keep up up dated.
Posted 8 months ago.
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thank goodness there are so many caring people in the world to help in saving these poor unfortunate birds and sea mammals - keep up the great work!
Posted 8 months ago.
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So I can put Black Sea links here too? Orcasforever was telling me about two rare dolphins already threatened in the Black Sea now more so
I'm assuming it's these guys
ditto 
Posted 8 months ago.
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You may post links too to the conclusions reached five years after the "Prestige". It's live news here, but all I have is Spanish. :-(
Posted 8 months ago.
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 absolutely!
 maybe you could summarize it here. Any pictures
Here is a petition from Friends of the Earth against highly toxic Bunker fuel used in ocean transport.
Originally posted 8 months ago.
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yeimaya edited this topic 8 months ago.
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does anyone know what the oil is doing to the jellyfish in our area? walking along the waterfront today, i found more jelly's than i've ever seen floating about. some large, some small, some dead.
Posted 8 months ago.
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I'm so glad to see this discussion here. And I'm especially glad to belong to this group which I knew would have the info and many links to learn more about this horrible spill. Now I know much more about what I can do to save wildlife and work toward undoing this damage to our beloved local habitats.
I've seen three of these birds myself -- one before I even knew of the spill. Now I've posted a couple of images of spill-damaged birds -- painful as it was to see them and now to look at the images.
Thanks everybody here for posting info and concern. It's inspired me not just to lament, but to act.
Originally posted 8 months ago.
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wolfpix edited this topic 8 months ago.
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 Thanks!! that is the hope that by supporting each other it will be easier to act. would add links to the picture you have?
Posted 8 months ago.
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Thanks, yeimaya and shesnuckinfuts, for the suggestion. I'll just post the images here that I've taken of some of these birds.
Ruddy Duck at Lake Merritt (approximately 1 mile from the Bay)
Eared Grebe, also at Lake Merritt, Oakland
After reading here and elsewhere online about how to report endangered birds, I've reported both of these birds to the rescuers. I hope it's not too late already.
Originally posted 8 months ago.
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wolfpix edited this topic 8 months ago.
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Here are my photos from last Friday. Though the spill happened Wednesday, I didn't hear about it until Thursday evening by the time it was dark, so Friday I went out looking for oiled birds to call in. I didn't see anything in the way of clean-up work other than some booms set out along Chrissy Field. I probably saw 4 birds completely covered in oil, and about fifteen to twenty that had at least some oil on them.
On Sunday I helped out a little at Ocean Beach picking up oil blobs with hair mats. I also saw some oil-stained Western Gulls in Golden Gate Park on Sunday.
Posted 8 months ago.
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I'm still working on the wildlife rescue effort.
Smelly, dirty, rewarding work!
howsrobb.blogspot.com/2007/11/you-eat-like-bird.html
Posted 8 months ago.
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Fascinating reading-keep up the great work
We thank you!
Posted 8 months ago.
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Here is the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Blog Sea Notes and they talk about what they are doing to help with the San Francisco Oil Spill.
Posted 8 months ago.
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 thanks for the Monterey Bay newsletter... They are very clear about the link between these spills and "consumerism" It bears quoting here:
Clearly, the global appetite for petroleum and imported consumer goods is increasing the risk of oil spills. The world demands more oil, so tankers carry it from the places where it's found to the markets that crave it. Russia sends 25 percent of its oil through the Black Sea, and this isn't the first time there's been a spill. The United States imports a staggering volume of goods from Asia, and this won't be the last shipping accident.
The mantra of "reduce, reuse, recyle" applies here, as with other environmental threats. If we use less energy, if we consume fewer goods, that will have an incremental effect on shipping, and incrementally reduce the likelihood that human error or bad weather will create a local disaster.
Cut back on plastics, and you reduce the need for oil to create plastic products as well as ships to carry them to distant markets. (That's also going to affect the growth of the floating plastic patch in the mid-Pacific.) Drive less, and you reduce incrementally the oil from land that ends up in the ocean.
Sea Notes
Posted 8 months ago.
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The following information is from saveourshores.org/sf-oil-spill.html
*New 11/15*Department of Fish and Game (DFG) DEFINES SAN FRANCISCO BAY FISHING CLOSURE ZONES
Following Gov. Schwarzenegger's Executive Order (S-14-07) yesterday, the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) today defined fishing closure boundaries following last week's oil spill. The order suspended all fishing, including the start of crab season, in the areas impacted by the oil spill. Closures at these locations will be in effect immediately and will prohibit commercial and recreational fishing and the operation of live wells or holding tanks that draw water from outside the vessel. Commercial bait operations using holding pens or nets in the affected waters are also prohibited. The closures will affect all San Francisco Bay waters west of the Carquinez Bridge, excluding rivers, streams, creeks and their tributaries. The south end of the boundary closure begins at San Pedro Point in San Mateo County (N37.6, W-122.5) and proceeds due west three nautical miles, extending north to three miles west of the Point Reyes Lighthouse in Marin County (N38.0, W-122.5). A map of the closure area can be found at www.dfg.ca.gov/news/fisheries-closure.pdf[1]. The suspension is for all fishing in the areas affected by the oil spill until Dec. 1, 2007 or when DFG and state health officials determine the fishing season can be opened. A special information hotline for the public and commercial interests has been set up at (916) 654-5446.
On Nov. 9, Gov. Schwarzenegger proclaimed a State of Emergency in the city/county of San Francisco, as well as Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Solano, and Sonoma counties in response to the disaster to help expedite the cleanup effort. The Executive Order signed Tuesday by the Governor tasked DFG and its Office of Spill Response (OSPR) with determining "the geographic area impacted by the oil spill that poses a potential risk to human health that may come from the human consumption of marine life as a result of the oil spill." Major fisheries impacted by the closure include the Central Dungeness crab season, which opened for sport take on Nov. 3. The commercial central California Dungeness crab fishery is scheduled to open commercially Nov. 15. Some other fisheries in the affected waters include:
Commercial Fish - California halibut, herring, bay shrimp, white croaker, groundfish (except cabezon and greenling), surfperch, Pacific sardines, northern anchovy; Sport Fish - California halibut, surfperch, striped bass, sturgeon, leopard shark, sanddabs, other flatfish (starry flounder, sand sole), monkeyface prickleback, anchovies, jacksmelt and topsmelt, white croaker, rock crab, ghost shrimp, abalone, mussels, and clams. ### Marinenews@dfg.ca.gov[2] is an outgoing email account only.
For questions about this News Release, contact the individual(s) listed above.
Links:
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www.dfg.ca.gov/news/fisheries-closure.pdf
Originally posted 8 months ago.
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organicpixel edited this topic 8 months ago.
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The first batch of birds affected by this spill were released back into the wild today!
Read all about it, here.
Posted 8 months ago.
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 that is really exciting!! does anyone have photos of the release?
Posted 8 months ago.
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KRON 4 has footage on their website, and I've got loads of links (including KRON 4) on my blog.
howsrobb.blogspot.com/2007/11/read-all-about-it.html
Posted 8 months ago.
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I found this article on your website and it really touched me the Kill the spill group At first they were criminalized for doing volunteer clean-up. Amazing!
Posted 8 months ago.
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Yesterday I was invited to be part of a group who released some of the birds affected by the oil spill. It was wonderful to return them to the wild. I wish that they are never touched again by human hands.
howsrobb.blogspot.com/search/label/oil%20spill
Posted 7 months ago.
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I just read that in your blog Lisa and linked to it from the Toronto Observatory Blog-thanks again for your efforts!
Posted 7 months ago.
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