Oil Spill Linked to Destruction of Grunion Eggs at Seal Beach

Crude oil that spilled from a leaking underwater pipeline last month is believed to have destroyed thousands of grunion eggs deposited in the sands of Seal Beach, state Department of Fish and Game officials said Wednesday.

“But we do not expect the incident to have a noticeable effect on the overall grunion population,” said John Grant, marine biologist and damage assessment coordinator for the department. “Only one small beach was affected, and those little fish breed on many beaches all along the coast from Ventura County down into Baja California.”

At the same time, another department officer said criminal misdemeanor charges may be filed against Exxon Co., whose pipeline stretches from a drilling operation on Belmont Island near the Seal Beach Pier to a processing plant in Seal Beach.

Samples to be Tested

The criminal charges would not be directly connected with the damage to the grunion eggs, said Lt. Lisa Cole of the department’s wildlife protection branch, but probably would concern the discharge of oil and hydrocarbons into protected state waters. She said a decision on filing the charges, as well as their specifics, will not be made until water and sand samples from the spill area have been tested at the DFG Rancho Cordova laboratory near Sacramento. That could take about two weeks.

Grant said the damage to the grunion eggs was assessed by taking samples from the three-mile stretch of shoreline in and near Seal Beach, where the mortality rate was found to be about 24%, contrasted with 6% on another beach that had not been exposed to the oil.

Degrading the Environment

He said that although the incident at Seal Beach could be considered a “very small one with no measurable effects” on the grunion population, “still, we should all feel reponsibilities because little by little, the environment is being degraded.”

The damaged eggs were deposited by the silvery little fish during May, a closed season for the popular sport of grunion-grabbing. During specified times of the year, fishermen using only their bare hands are allowed to scoop up the fish when the females wriggle ashore to lay their eggs and are followed by the males that fertilize them. Most of this activity takes place in the dark hours just after midnight.

DFG spokesman Pat Moore said the females come ashore about twice a month, and that each time a full-grown fish can lay as many as 3,000 eggs, more than 90% of which survive to adulthood.

Moore said the remaining legal times for taking them this year are June 27 through 30, July 12 through 15, July 27 through 30, and Aug. 11-14.

He said they spawn every two weeks from February to early September, but that during certain periods the fish are protected from human fishermen to ensure the integrity of their population, “which is believed to run in the millions.”

Exxon Not Notified

Carrie Chassin, spokeswoman for the Exxon’s western division production headquarters in Thousand Oaks, said Wednesday that the firm had not been officially notified of any civil or criminal action that might be taken by Fish and Game.

“We took responsibility for the spill, and we worked with Fish and Game during the cleanup, which took about three days,” she said. “They approved everything we did, even when we turned on big bright lights to try to scare the grunion from coming ashore one night while we were still working. That worked pretty well.”

She said the company hired four boats and their crews and equipment from Clean Coastal Waters, an oil industry cooperative that specializes in spill cleanup.

Cole said the possibility of a civil suit to recover “whatever undetermined losses there might have been” would require “careful assessment” if and when the criminal charges, which could carry a maximum penalty of $2,000 and/or one year in jail, are settled.