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The Nestucca oil spill
Marine Pollution Bulletin, Volume 2(I. No. 9, pp. 419-420. 1989. Printed in Great Britain.
The Nestucca Oil Spill The barge Nestucca, carrying Bunker-C oil, was rammed and punctured by a tug towing it, during an attempt to retrieve a tow line in rough seas, near Grays Harbor on the-southwest coast of Washington State, on 22 December 1988. As a result, 875 000 1. of the fuel oil leaked into the sea. It was considered to be the second largest oil spill in Washington State history .after the Arco oil spill in Port Angeles Harbor in December 1985. To a.void polluting Grays Harbor, and the oyster beds and bird Sanctuary in Willapa Bay, the barge was towed, on the recommendation of the Washington State Department of Ecology, about 50 km out to sea in a southwest direction to a point opposite the mouth of the Columbia River. The hope was that the oil would drift out to sea and disperse. Unfortunately, there is a seasonal, nearshore winter current, the Davidson Current,-that flows from south to north at this time of year. This, combined with onshore winds and tidal currents, moved the oil slick northward and toward the coast, leading to the worst case of oil pollution along the west coasts of Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on record. On 24 December, more than 7000 dead and dying sea birds began washing up on the Washington coast. The Pacific coast area of Washington's Olympic National Park was subsequently particularly hard hit. A well-organized volunteer cleanup began, with assistance from two US federal a n d t h r e e state departments. About 2500 v.olunteers worked at cleafiing birds. Oiled birds were even cleaned at Friday Harbor, San Juan Island by the Islands Oil Spill Association and the Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. On 29 December, the US Coast Guard tracked a small slick off the Washington coast but missed a larger slick headed for Vancouver Island. By 1 January 1989, the oil was spotted off the Carmanah Point Lighthouse, the NW entrance to Juan de Fuca Strait, on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. But no Canadian clean-up plan was developed, because it was felt that the oil slick would drift out to sea in the seaward flow from Juan de Fuca Strait. Regrettably, this did not happen. On the morning of 3 January, heavy black oil was observed on 8 km of beaches at Pacific Rim National Park on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. Samples taken on 4 January confirmed that the source was the Nestucca oil spill. What followed was some of the most intensive oil cleanup activity in Canadian Pacific coast history. The Canadian Coast Guard, Environment Canada, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the British Columbia Ministry of Environment and numerous volunteers were actively involved in the cleanup. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans initiated a research programme to study the immediate and longterm effect of the oil on the coastal ecology. At stake were valuable fisheries for crabs, molluscan shellfish and herring. Colonies of sea otter, Enhydra lutris, that
0(125-326X/89 $3.()0+0.()0 © 1989 Pergamon Press plc
had been introduced to the west coast of Vancouver Island from Alaska in 1969, 1970, and 1972, to replace the native stocks that had become extinct early in the century, were endangered by the oil. The California gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus, that passes through these waters on its annual migration from Baja California to the Bering Sea, and feeds by scooping up bottom sand and gravel to filter out amphipods and worms, could be affected. There are also colonies of Steller sea lion, Eumetopias jubatus, and California sea lion, Zalophus californianus, on small rocky islands off Pacific Rim National Park. The northern fur seal, Callorhinus ursinus, migrates northward past Long Beach to its breeding grounds on the Pribilof Islands each year during April, about 35 km offshore. Shortly after the oil reached the west coast of Vancouver Island, the areas affected and threatened by the oil pollution were closed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for harvesting of crabs, gooseneck barnacles, and molluscs. The fisheries for molluscs and gooseneck barnacles were reopened after a few weeks on 25 January. The fishery for Dungeness crab, Cancer magister, along Long Beach of Pacific Rim National Park, remained closed as late as 1 April, but this continued closure may have been due in part to annual seasonal closure for this species, because of moulting followed by a soft-shell condition. The Dungeness crab did not appear to avoid the oil, and crab traps as deep as 30-50 m captured crabs with oil smeared on their carapace, pincers and mandibles. The gooseneck barnacle, Pollicipes polyrnerus, a commercially exploited species, is quite common in these exposed oceanic waters and is vunerable to oil pollution because of its intertidal habitat. The oil kept creeping northward along Vancouver Island, and by 9 January, oil was found on the beaches of Bajo Point, north of Nootka Sound, near a colony of about 300 sea otters. On 18 January, aircraft tracked the movement of an oil slick theatening the Queen Charlotte Islands, where a new national park is being established at the southern end of Moresby Island. By 20 January, the Scott Islands, between Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands, were hit by the oil. Re-oiling of beaches at Tatchu Point, near Nootka Sound, and Florencia Bay in Pacific Rim National Park, was spotted on 25 January after gale-force storms plagued cleanup operations. On 7 February, small oil blobs continued to wash up on Long Beach. However, no oil could be seen that day below the surface by volunteer scuba divers checking Ahous Bay, Triangle Island and Long Beach of Pacific Rim National Park. Obviously, the oil had dissipated by this time, 47 days after it was first spilled near Grays Harbor. What was the ecological effect of the oil pollution on the west coast of Vancouver Island? It is difficult to estimate the full effect. Thousands of dead sea birds, particularly the common murres, were collected on the beaches. One dead sea otter was found on 22 January on the Bajo Point beach, near Bajo Reef, where one of the introduced colonies of sea otters is located. It is unknown if more sea otters died and their bodies were scavenged by wolves which regularly visit the beaches. 419
Marine PollutionBulletin From observations by a marine mammal specialist, the sea otters apparently avoided the oil. The gray whales made their annual migration northward, but they did not appear until March and few, if any, were seen to come inshore to feed. It is unknown what actual damage was caused to the fisheries resources. But certainly there was an economic impact from the closures, particularly for crabs, which support a substantial fishery in the area. Fortunately, the oil had been cleaned up or dispersed by the time of herring spawning in March, and no impact on this commercially-important species was identified. In terms of costs of cleanup, this must have been enormous, although no actual figures have been released. The Canadian Coast Guard removed large sections of oiled beach and replaced them with clean sand and gravel. The British Columbia government provided hot meals and replacement clothing for the more than 100 volunteers who worked from dawn to dusk cleaning up the thick, brown, oily sludge. An estimated 100 t of oil-soaked debris was held in storage in the nearby small town of Tofino, prior to suitable disposal. The federal government set up a claims office in the town of Ucluelet, where applications for compensation could be filed. Various social groups were affected by this oil spill. These included the commercial fishermen, the local residents, the native Indians, the resort owners, Parks Canada and the staff of Pacific Rim National Park, and finally, the tourists. The impact was not all negative in that the small businesses in the towns of Tofino and Ucluelet benefited from the influx of people during the cleanup, which is an off-season period for tourists. Some even visited to see for themselves the effects of the oil pollution, particularly after the heavy coverage of the event by the media. I have to class myself in that category, during a visit over the long Easter weekend, 24-27 March, although we visited the area in part to see the gray whale migration. By that time, there was no evidence of oil on the beaches, except to the discerning eye. One could still find occasionally specks of oil on the sand and little blobs of oil encapsulated in organic
Marine Counter-pollution Exercise A major two-day oil pollution and chemical control exercise was recently held in the southern North Sea off Great Yarmouth. The exercise, called 'Norfolk Punch', was one of a series of annual major exercises organized by the Marine Pollution Control Unit (MPCU) of the Department of Transport. It as designed to exercise the UK's response to both oil and chemical pollution incidents occurring simultaneously.The exercise was planned in conjunction with Nor420
material on the beach, particularly in the tangle of castoff casings from tube worms. Some oil could be seen on the underside of drift wood, where it seeped in. A consultant sampling the bottom waters in the area using a pump to draw up samples, informed me that he had still found oil on the bottom at one location. The Wickaninnish Interpretive Centre at Pacific Rim National Park still had a sign at its entrance requesting visitors to check their shoes, and if they had oil on them to please remove them. Otherwise, there was little external evidence of what had been only two months before a devastating episode of oil pollution. What can be learned from the Nestucca oil spill and its aftermath? This was a small oil spill by global standards and about two one-hundredths, by volume, of the recent Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska. But it caused damage greatly out of proportion to its size. For one thing, it was bunker C oil, which does not disperse or degrade rapidly, particularly in winter. The leaking barge was obviously towed into the path of a northward-setting current that, combined with wind and tidal currents, transported the oil onto the shores of Washington State, and eventually, onto the British Columbia coast. The oil hit highly ecologicallysensitive areas, first the Olympic National Park in Washington and then the Pacific Rim National Park in British Columbia. Clearly, it would have been much better to enclose the Nestucca in an oil boom in Grays Harbour, where the oil still present in the barge could have been pumped out, and the oil that had been leaked already could have been skimmed off by an oil skimmer. At the time of the accident, of course, the immediate concern was about preventing pollution in Grays Harbor and the sensitive areas of Willapa Bay. There was no thought on anyone's part that such a comparatively small volume of oil could be moved so far afield to foul shores hundreds of kilometres away after being adrift for such a long time. But a close examination of the prevailing currents and winds at that time of year should have led to a conclusion of a possible drift of the oil northward and onshore. M. WALDICHUK
folk County Council and assumed a collision some 40 miles offshore between a laden 72 000 dwt oil tanker and a chemical tanker carrying hazardous cargo. As a result about 1000 t of oil were assumed to be released into the sea followed by the discharge of a dangerous chemical with a resultant toxic gas cloud. The MCPU responded to the threat of oil pollution to the East coast by the deployment of its specialist remote sensing reconnaissance aircraft and its dispersant spraying aircraft. Further anti-pollution measures, including the use of beach-cleaning equipment and mechanical oil recovery equipment, were also successfully deployed. The toxic chemical threat was dealt with by the MCPU Chemical Strike Team who evaluated and secured the position of the chemical tanker.
The Nestucca Oil Spill The barge Nestucca, carrying Bunker-C oil, was rammed and punctured by a tug towing it, during an attempt to retrieve a tow line in rough seas, near Grays Harbor on the-southwest coast of Washington State, on 22 December 1988. As a result, 875 000 1. of the fuel oil leaked into the sea. It was considered to be the second largest oil spill in Washington State history .after the Arco oil spill in Port Angeles Harbor in December 1985. To a.void polluting Grays Harbor, and the oyster beds and bird Sanctuary in Willapa Bay, the barge was towed, on the recommendation of the Washington State Department of Ecology, about 50 km out to sea in a southwest direction to a point opposite the mouth of the Columbia River. The hope was that the oil would drift out to sea and disperse. Unfortunately, there is a seasonal, nearshore winter current, the Davidson Current,-that flows from south to north at this time of year. This, combined with onshore winds and tidal currents, moved the oil slick northward and toward the coast, leading to the worst case of oil pollution along the west coasts of Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on record. On 24 December, more than 7000 dead and dying sea birds began washing up on the Washington coast. The Pacific coast area of Washington's Olympic National Park was subsequently particularly hard hit. A well-organized volunteer cleanup began, with assistance from two US federal a n d t h r e e state departments. About 2500 v.olunteers worked at cleafiing birds. Oiled birds were even cleaned at Friday Harbor, San Juan Island by the Islands Oil Spill Association and the Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. On 29 December, the US Coast Guard tracked a small slick off the Washington coast but missed a larger slick headed for Vancouver Island. By 1 January 1989, the oil was spotted off the Carmanah Point Lighthouse, the NW entrance to Juan de Fuca Strait, on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. But no Canadian clean-up plan was developed, because it was felt that the oil slick would drift out to sea in the seaward flow from Juan de Fuca Strait. Regrettably, this did not happen. On the morning of 3 January, heavy black oil was observed on 8 km of beaches at Pacific Rim National Park on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. Samples taken on 4 January confirmed that the source was the Nestucca oil spill. What followed was some of the most intensive oil cleanup activity in Canadian Pacific coast history. The Canadian Coast Guard, Environment Canada, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the British Columbia Ministry of Environment and numerous volunteers were actively involved in the cleanup. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans initiated a research programme to study the immediate and longterm effect of the oil on the coastal ecology. At stake were valuable fisheries for crabs, molluscan shellfish and herring. Colonies of sea otter, Enhydra lutris, that
0(125-326X/89 $3.()0+0.()0 © 1989 Pergamon Press plc
had been introduced to the west coast of Vancouver Island from Alaska in 1969, 1970, and 1972, to replace the native stocks that had become extinct early in the century, were endangered by the oil. The California gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus, that passes through these waters on its annual migration from Baja California to the Bering Sea, and feeds by scooping up bottom sand and gravel to filter out amphipods and worms, could be affected. There are also colonies of Steller sea lion, Eumetopias jubatus, and California sea lion, Zalophus californianus, on small rocky islands off Pacific Rim National Park. The northern fur seal, Callorhinus ursinus, migrates northward past Long Beach to its breeding grounds on the Pribilof Islands each year during April, about 35 km offshore. Shortly after the oil reached the west coast of Vancouver Island, the areas affected and threatened by the oil pollution were closed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for harvesting of crabs, gooseneck barnacles, and molluscs. The fisheries for molluscs and gooseneck barnacles were reopened after a few weeks on 25 January. The fishery for Dungeness crab, Cancer magister, along Long Beach of Pacific Rim National Park, remained closed as late as 1 April, but this continued closure may have been due in part to annual seasonal closure for this species, because of moulting followed by a soft-shell condition. The Dungeness crab did not appear to avoid the oil, and crab traps as deep as 30-50 m captured crabs with oil smeared on their carapace, pincers and mandibles. The gooseneck barnacle, Pollicipes polyrnerus, a commercially exploited species, is quite common in these exposed oceanic waters and is vunerable to oil pollution because of its intertidal habitat. The oil kept creeping northward along Vancouver Island, and by 9 January, oil was found on the beaches of Bajo Point, north of Nootka Sound, near a colony of about 300 sea otters. On 18 January, aircraft tracked the movement of an oil slick theatening the Queen Charlotte Islands, where a new national park is being established at the southern end of Moresby Island. By 20 January, the Scott Islands, between Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands, were hit by the oil. Re-oiling of beaches at Tatchu Point, near Nootka Sound, and Florencia Bay in Pacific Rim National Park, was spotted on 25 January after gale-force storms plagued cleanup operations. On 7 February, small oil blobs continued to wash up on Long Beach. However, no oil could be seen that day below the surface by volunteer scuba divers checking Ahous Bay, Triangle Island and Long Beach of Pacific Rim National Park. Obviously, the oil had dissipated by this time, 47 days after it was first spilled near Grays Harbor. What was the ecological effect of the oil pollution on the west coast of Vancouver Island? It is difficult to estimate the full effect. Thousands of dead sea birds, particularly the common murres, were collected on the beaches. One dead sea otter was found on 22 January on the Bajo Point beach, near Bajo Reef, where one of the introduced colonies of sea otters is located. It is unknown if more sea otters died and their bodies were scavenged by wolves which regularly visit the beaches. 419
Marine PollutionBulletin From observations by a marine mammal specialist, the sea otters apparently avoided the oil. The gray whales made their annual migration northward, but they did not appear until March and few, if any, were seen to come inshore to feed. It is unknown what actual damage was caused to the fisheries resources. But certainly there was an economic impact from the closures, particularly for crabs, which support a substantial fishery in the area. Fortunately, the oil had been cleaned up or dispersed by the time of herring spawning in March, and no impact on this commercially-important species was identified. In terms of costs of cleanup, this must have been enormous, although no actual figures have been released. The Canadian Coast Guard removed large sections of oiled beach and replaced them with clean sand and gravel. The British Columbia government provided hot meals and replacement clothing for the more than 100 volunteers who worked from dawn to dusk cleaning up the thick, brown, oily sludge. An estimated 100 t of oil-soaked debris was held in storage in the nearby small town of Tofino, prior to suitable disposal. The federal government set up a claims office in the town of Ucluelet, where applications for compensation could be filed. Various social groups were affected by this oil spill. These included the commercial fishermen, the local residents, the native Indians, the resort owners, Parks Canada and the staff of Pacific Rim National Park, and finally, the tourists. The impact was not all negative in that the small businesses in the towns of Tofino and Ucluelet benefited from the influx of people during the cleanup, which is an off-season period for tourists. Some even visited to see for themselves the effects of the oil pollution, particularly after the heavy coverage of the event by the media. I have to class myself in that category, during a visit over the long Easter weekend, 24-27 March, although we visited the area in part to see the gray whale migration. By that time, there was no evidence of oil on the beaches, except to the discerning eye. One could still find occasionally specks of oil on the sand and little blobs of oil encapsulated in organic
Marine Counter-pollution Exercise A major two-day oil pollution and chemical control exercise was recently held in the southern North Sea off Great Yarmouth. The exercise, called 'Norfolk Punch', was one of a series of annual major exercises organized by the Marine Pollution Control Unit (MPCU) of the Department of Transport. It as designed to exercise the UK's response to both oil and chemical pollution incidents occurring simultaneously.The exercise was planned in conjunction with Nor420
material on the beach, particularly in the tangle of castoff casings from tube worms. Some oil could be seen on the underside of drift wood, where it seeped in. A consultant sampling the bottom waters in the area using a pump to draw up samples, informed me that he had still found oil on the bottom at one location. The Wickaninnish Interpretive Centre at Pacific Rim National Park still had a sign at its entrance requesting visitors to check their shoes, and if they had oil on them to please remove them. Otherwise, there was little external evidence of what had been only two months before a devastating episode of oil pollution. What can be learned from the Nestucca oil spill and its aftermath? This was a small oil spill by global standards and about two one-hundredths, by volume, of the recent Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska. But it caused damage greatly out of proportion to its size. For one thing, it was bunker C oil, which does not disperse or degrade rapidly, particularly in winter. The leaking barge was obviously towed into the path of a northward-setting current that, combined with wind and tidal currents, transported the oil onto the shores of Washington State, and eventually, onto the British Columbia coast. The oil hit highly ecologicallysensitive areas, first the Olympic National Park in Washington and then the Pacific Rim National Park in British Columbia. Clearly, it would have been much better to enclose the Nestucca in an oil boom in Grays Harbour, where the oil still present in the barge could have been pumped out, and the oil that had been leaked already could have been skimmed off by an oil skimmer. At the time of the accident, of course, the immediate concern was about preventing pollution in Grays Harbor and the sensitive areas of Willapa Bay. There was no thought on anyone's part that such a comparatively small volume of oil could be moved so far afield to foul shores hundreds of kilometres away after being adrift for such a long time. But a close examination of the prevailing currents and winds at that time of year should have led to a conclusion of a possible drift of the oil northward and onshore. M. WALDICHUK
folk County Council and assumed a collision some 40 miles offshore between a laden 72 000 dwt oil tanker and a chemical tanker carrying hazardous cargo. As a result about 1000 t of oil were assumed to be released into the sea followed by the discharge of a dangerous chemical with a resultant toxic gas cloud. The MCPU responded to the threat of oil pollution to the East coast by the deployment of its specialist remote sensing reconnaissance aircraft and its dispersant spraying aircraft. Further anti-pollution measures, including the use of beach-cleaning equipment and mechanical oil recovery equipment, were also successfully deployed. The toxic chemical threat was dealt with by the MCPU Chemical Strike Team who evaluated and secured the position of the chemical tanker.