Oil hazard surfaces for wildlife

By Ray Rivera
Seattle Times staff reporter

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As crews worked to clean up miles of oil-slicked coastline, other teams scattered throughout the affected areas surveying the damage to wildlife.

For now, the greatest risk is to creatures that live in shallow waters or feed at or near the surface, including diving birds and young salmon and herring.

"The risk to birds is probably much higher than it is for fin fish," said Doug Helton, rapid assessment coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "We don't expect bottom fish, octopus and deep-water species to be particularly at risk."

But those creatures can also become endangered when oil molecules stick to surface particles and sink to lower depths.

Thursday's spill sent an estimated 1,000 gallons into the Sound. By last night a thin, shiny slick of oil was spread along 21 miles of coastline. The spill extends from Tacoma Narrows into Quartermaster Harbor and Colvos Passage, and around Vashon and Maury islands.

The area sits along a migratory bird path. Each autumn, the narrow waterways become home to red-throated loons, Western grebes, cormorants and dozens of other bird species passing through on their way to warmer climes or snuggling in for the winter.

FACTS To report oiled wildlife Call 800-22-BIRDS

Schools of juvenile herring skirt the surface, feeding off bugs and plankton, and the birds slice into the water to scoop up the herring.

Bright note

One bright note is that the spill appears to have occurred before the busiest period of the fall bird migration, said Barry Troutman, a wildlife biologist with the state department of Fish and Wildlife. Only a handful of oil-slicked birds has been reported.

Troutman surveyed the area by helicopter yesterday to assess the damage to birds.

"I was prepared for a lot worse, to be honest with you," he said. "Not that any oil spill doesn't have its problems, but most of the birds I did see were in the northern part of Quartermaster Bay, a rich habitat for marine vegetation, shellfish, and fortunately the sheen had not reached the most sensitive areas."

The light slick, however, also makes it difficult to find affected birds, Troutman said.

The area along the shorelines is also rich in geoduck fisheries, clam beds and other mollusks.

Though not known as a sanctuary for large numbers of marine mammals, it is home to scattered sea otters and a few Northern sea lions.

Oil on eel grass

Already some oil was balling up in beds of eel grass, an important nutrition source in the Sound's ecosystem.

Calm waters appeared to keep the oil at the surface yesterday, lessening the risk for subtidal shellfish but increasing the risk for birds and surface feeding fish like young herring, a vital food source for a wide variety of bird and marine life in the Sound.

Eating the oil-soaked plankton and invertebrates can cause damage to the herring's liver and gills, among other problems. In turn, that presents a risk to the wide variety of bird and mammal life that feed off the herring.

"Herring are like the grass for cows in the Puget Sound," said Richard Kocan, a professor emeritus of aquatic and fishery sciences at the University of Washington.

"They're a food source for salmon, rock fish, seals, sea lions, and if we had whales here, the whales would be feeding on them."

Birds coated with oil can survive if rescued, but can show long-term health effects, such as breeding problems, according to the state Department of Ecology. Sea otters and other mammals lose their insulation, and can suffer lung, liver and kidney damage.

The long-term effect of an oil spill is the subject of debate among scientists.

According to some studies, marine mammals and other sea and shore life are still suffering nearly 15 years after the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska.

But some bacteria and organisms thrive off oil molecules, using them as a nutrient and in turn becoming food for other creatures.

"The oil adds hydrocarbon nutrients to some degree," Kocan said. "So it has multiple effects, not all toxic, not all bad."

Ray Rivera: 206-464-2926 or rayrivera@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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