Apparently, things haven't improved at Coal Oil Point, where a group of volunteers is trying to protect a breeding colony of Western Snowy Plovers from the oil spill at Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara. Apparently, now a number of plovers show evidence of oil. Here's the latest update from Cristina Sandoval, preserve manager at Coal Oil Point:
Just as I thought we were spared, yesterday evening, after my update, we started smelling more oil. By sunrise this morning the beach seemed to have more oil than ever. A crew of 5 started cleaning it up with rakes and by hand and putting the oil blobs and oiled kelp in plastic bags, and then hauling them uphill, also by hand. It was hard work, and by the end of the day, we realized we only did a small portion of the beach. The high tide in the evening brought more oil everywhere including areas that had already been cleaned. It seemed a worthless effort but, if the oil is not cleaned, it will be buried and continue to release toxic chemicals. In total, we have seen 3 plovers with oil on the feathers but, at a closer look, Suzanne, one of our docents and photographer, noticed that many of them had oil in their beaks.
For tomorrow, we requested a bigger crew (15) to clean up the beach. Our plan is to escalate the clean up only as needed to keep the disturbance to the nesting plovers to a minimum. It has not been possible to predict when and how much tar we will get. So, we monitor the beach all day. Several boats were sweeping and booming the ocean in front of the Reserve. Some thought these sleeks were from the natural seeps but most of us are now seeing a type and quantity of tar that we have not seen before. The tar fingerprinting will reveal for sure where this tar is from.We are all sleep deprived and tired so it is disheartening to see the problem increasing when we thought it was going away. But we have excellent professional people working from many different levels and friends volunteering to watch out for oil birds. I am enjoying meeting so many great people.
Thanks!
Cris
(photo of oiled Western Snowy Plover from Coal Oil Point Reserve staff)
