After a major storm in November 2001, beachgoers along the Pacific Coast from San Francisco down to Santa Cruz spotted seabirds, known as the common murre, washing ashore covered in oil. The birds and other wildlife began showing up in record numbers. It appeared that there was a major oil spill somewhere off the coast, but where?
As volunteers took the oil-covered animals to the San Francisco Bay Oiled Wildlife Care and Education Center in Cordelia, investigators from various state agencies teamed up to determine the origins of the spill.
Samples were taken from the murres and an “oil fingerprint” was created. Bill Castle, a chemist with the state’s Petroleum Chemistry Lab, then compared the oil analysis from the birds with oil found on tankers in the area.
“None of these matched the oil on the feathers from the birds that were coming in,” recalls Castle. “We said, okay, what about ships, sunken ships?”
The investigation turned to five possible shipwrecks at which point it became apparent that one wreck, the SS Jacob Luckenbach, was the most likely source of the oil. Castle compared the oil from the Luckenbach with the oil from the birds, and it was a match. The same oil had been the source of mysterious spills that killed thousands of birds from Monterey Bay to Sonoma County for nearly a decade.
In the spring of 2002, the Coast Guard and the Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response decided to clean up the Luckenbach in order to prevent any further disasters. By October of 2002, they had contained the estimated 300,000 gallons of oil on board the Luckenbach at a cost of nearly $20 million.
“It was a remarkably successful operation,” says Roy Mathur, an officer with the state lands commission. “We got most of the oil that could have soiled and spilled out. The rest has all been tombed.”
Despite the success of this operation, future oil spills of this nature cannot be prevented under current policy. Because of the high cost of salvaging sunken vessels, potential leaks can only be dealt after they have caused environmental devastation.
Update November 30, 2006
There have been no more leaks from the Luckenbach. In 2006, the CA Department of Fish and Wildlife issued a damage assessment and restoration plan for the Luckenbach and other mystery spills. The trustees have proposed 13 restoration projects that are designed to restore and replace bird and otter populations and their habitats. Birds that will benefit from these efforts include common murres, pelicans, snowy plovers, cormorants and gulls.
Old shipwrecks continue to pollute the ocean and poison wildlife. Officials have recently green lit a new oil removal program for the S.S. Palo Alto which is in Monterey Bay. The clean up will be a very dangerous job, because parts of the ship are deteriorating.