Governor delays crab harvest, halts fishing after ‘very, very sad’ oil spill

SACRAMENTO -- With oil from a crashed cargo ship still lapping the shores of San Francisco Bay, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered a delay Tuesday in the opening of crab season and halted all fishing in the area for two weeks.

The governor’s executive order bows to the wishes of commercial fishermen, who asked for the delay to avoid public health concerns about the catch, in particular the harvest of Dungeness crab, off California’s north coast.

Originally slated to open Thursday, the commercial crabbing season will be delayed until at least Dec. 1.

“We’re pleased,” said Zeke Grader of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Assns. “We want to give consumers that assurance that we’re not going to have anything contaminated on the market.”

The spill already has curtailed the harvest of oysters.

Addressing the California State Assn. of Counties’ 113th annual meeting in Oakland, Schwarzenegger questioned how the 810-foot Cosco Busan, a container cargo ship equipped with high-tech navigational aids, could have sideswiped the Bay Bridge a week ago.

“It’s outrageous when you think about it,” the governor said. “I mean here we have all this huge space out there in the bay, and you have a ship that crashes right into the bridge.”

Six of the two-dozen crew members have been subpoenaed as part of an investigation, which is focusing on possible equipment glitches and communication errors between the Chinese crew and English-speaking harbor pilot at the helm in the bay.

Compounding the “unbelievable human failure” of the accident, Schwarzenegger said, was that it took so long for the mop-up to begin after the 58,000 gallons of heavy, viscous bunker fuel streamed from a gash in the ship’s side.

Authorities say the first cleanup boats arrived about 90 minutes after the accident. It then took the U.S. Coast Guard 12 hours to update local government officials and the public about the mushrooming size of the spill, initially estimated at 140 gallons.

“When the next day comes around, the oil is all over the bay and is polluting of course the area, and the birds are wiping out and so it’s really very, very sad,” Schwarzenegger said.

The spill has spread around the bay and outside the Golden Gate, coating the shoreline as far north as Point Reyes National Seashore, more than 15 miles up the Marin County coast.

With the slick on the water spreading and dissipating, the thrust of the cleanup has shifted to the shoreline.

About 1,500 people were involved in the effort Tuesday, and more than 60 vessels hit the water to mop up what remains. Seven miles of containment booms have been deployed to corral the slicks.

More than two dozen beaches remain closed.

Authorities estimate that about 17,000 gallons of oil has been collected or has evaporated or dispersed naturally, leaving 40,000 gallons still swirling on the waters or onshore.

The most obvious casualties have been birds, with about 1,200 found blackened by the goopy ship fuel. Nearly 700 have survived.

But other sea creatures also could be harmed.

Juvenile crabs that use San Francisco Bay and other coastal estuaries as nurseries could be hit hard, Grader said.

They are bottom feeders, and any oil that settles beneath the swells could prove toxic.

If so, “we could be looking at bad seasons for two, three or four years to come,” Grader said.

--

eric.bailey@latimes.com

Times staff writers Nancy Vogel and Tim Reiterman contributed to this report.