Settlement from 1998 oil spill benefits local beaches and far-away habitat

by Lennie Roberts

What do New Zealand, a leaky oil tanker and the San Mateo Coast have in common? The answer highlights the interconnectedness of life, particularly seabird species that migrate long distances between their nesting sites and their feeding areas.

Oil washes up on the San Mateo County Coast
The story begins close to home. In 1998 more than 3,000 gallons of oil washed ashore along the San Mateo County Coast, impacting thousands of seabirds and miles of seashore and impairing human use and enjoyment of beaches.

Chemical sleuthing matched the unique fingerprint of the oil recovered at sea to the cargo carried by the oil tanker Command - the first time this technique had been used to identify the source of an oil spill.

By the time the US Coast Guard apprehended the ship, it was in Panama, thousands of miles from the spill. Scientists were able to match the particular chemistry of the oil in the ship's hold to that of the spill, which led to an early settlement. The owners of the Command agreed to pay $5,518,000, of which $3,913,016 was allocated to restore natural resource damages.

Habitat restoration funds established
The funds were placed in a Trustee Account for habitat restoration. The Oil Spill Trustees, who include the US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, California Department of Fish and Game, California Department of Parks and Recreation, and California State Lands Commission, have now selected several restoration projects based on a number of criteria, including their connections to the injured resources, technical feasibility, lack of threat to public health and safety and opportunities for collaboration. Committee for Green Foothills approves of the selected projects, all of which we feel meet the selection criteria and are based on sound science.

Three San Mateo beach areas will benefit from restoration funds. At the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, a heavily worn staircase to Seal Cove Beach will be replaced; at Half Moon Bay State Beach, a new beach access and pathways will focus public access and protect resources; and at Mirada Surf, funding will help with planning of the Coastal Trail.

But other funds are going further from the source of the oil spill, to mitigate habitat for migratory seabird species that were injured or killed by the oil spill. The most interesting project is in New Zealand.

Protecting the sooty shearwater
One might ask why the Oil Spill Trustees would decide to spend money so far from where the spill occurred. The answer lies in the life cycle of the sooty shearwater, a seabird known for gliding rapidly - or shearing - just above the ocean's surface.

In the summers, these birds aggregate in large conspicuous flocks to feed on shoaling fishes that concentrate in productive coastal shelf waters off the San Mateo Coast and beyond. Shearwaters' feeding territory happens to lie within the shipping lanes of oil tankers, which makes them particularly vulnerable to oil spills.

Their numbers off the California coast have declined precipitously, due to a combination of factors, including pollution. Although we enjoy watching their continuous feeding activity in the summer, in winter they disappear to New Zealand where they breed on islands of the south coast and are known to the Maori as titi.

The Trustees determined that eliminating predators where shearwaters breed at the Big South Cape Islands would have the most impact in restoring shearwater populations. Norway rats introduced to these islands are the main threat to the breeding colonies of several species of petrels, terns and shearwaters. On Campbell Island, rats had killed virtually every sooty shearwater. The rat elimination project will bring an impressive partnering of native Maori community representatives, the New Zealand Government, the U.S.-based research group Oikonos and independent consultants.

Protecting the fragile web of life
This international effort provides a great illustration of John Muir's observation, "when we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."

The next time you see a teeming flock of shearwaters, think of the huge distance they have come to their feeding grounds and the many threats facing them on their long journey, and appreciate the difference this unusual restoration project is making in the sooty shearwater's survival.