New Front Opened in Oil Spill Battle : Booms Rushed Along Gulf of Alaska as Slick Moves Out 100 Miles

As thick ribbons of oily mousse glided 100 miles into the Gulf of Alaska, threatening a national park, state and federal officials opened a second front in their battle to contain the nation’s largest oil spill.

Booms to contain the advancing menace were rushed to the towns of Seward and Homer and to Kodiak Island, which is nearly 300 miles from the spill site in Prince William Sound. Exxon and federal scientists estimate that about half the oil lost in the spill has exited the sound and entered the Gulf of Alaska, creeping south at between 15 and 20 miles a day.

At the same time, another sea mammal rescue and recovery center was being opened in Seward, 100 miles southwest of Valdez on the scenic Kenai Peninsula, at a time when the Valdez center was being taxed beyond its capacity to care for growing numbers of otters and sea birds.

Threat Heads Westward

“We’re beginning to move our resources westward to contain the potential threat to the Gulf of Alaska,” Exxon Shipping Co. President Frank Iarossi said Friday.

So far, efforts to protect Prince William Sound’s four salmon hatcheries have been successful.

Multiple booms have been stretched in front of their entrances. But officials and fishermen alike kept a wary eye on weather reports.

While there are no immediate indications of a storm, they warned that should a “southeasterner” blow in with gale-force winds, damage in the sound could be doubled and the salmon hatcheries decimated.

“If we have a southeasterner, we’ll have hundreds of miles of beaches impacted,” Alaska Environmental Conservation Commissioner Dennis D. Kelso said Friday.

“Depending on the strength and longevity of the storm, it would easily double the area that’s impacted now,” he warned, and for the first time stain the Kenai Fjords National Park. The park, with its coastline of dramatic oceanfront canyons and rocky inlets, is located on the Kenai Peninsula.

“I’m sure some of it will be hitting the park. I’m just not sure what quantity,” Kelso said.

Late Friday, Kelso issued an emergency order, effective immediately, imposing strict new rules on the Valdez oil terminal and threatening the oil industry with criminal and civil penalties if it fails to follow the state’s new get-tough policy. The order calls for limited oil tanker loading at the terminal until a long list of spill equipment is in place.

Meanwhile, the grim and often disheartening task of attempting to save injured birds and animals continued unabated here.

Best Efforts Not Enough

As of Friday, 85 oil-soaked sea otters have been retrieved from the once-pristine sound and rushed to the animal recovery center here. But half of those animals have died, despite the best efforts of an overworked team of volunteers and marine mammal experts.

A pathologist has been brought to Valdez to conduct necropsies on the dead animals, trying to find a way to cut the losses. Results of tissue sample analyses are due within days, said Suzanne Stolpe of the rescue center.

An additional 109 dead otters have been turned into the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, bringing the official otter death toll to 151 otters. But, scientists believe that an untold number of dead seals and otters have either been swept out to sea or sank to the bottom.

Five of the otters were shipped by the rescue center to Sea World in San Diego, but only three remain alive.

Some 166 birds have been rescued, but 60 of those died. Another 300 dead birds were turned over to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Tom Williams, a veterinarian with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, said sea otters often will not fight to live.

“A cat will fight with you. But an otter will just look at you with those eyes and say, ‘ sayonara , I’m going,’ ” said Williams.

For several days, the animal rescue center was unable to handle the volume of otters being brought in from the sound, and the Fish and Wildlife Service ordered a halt to the rescue.

Otter Transfer Stopped

And, when state officials here attempted to dispatch 12 sick otters to Vancouver, British Columbia, to be cared for by experts at the Vancouver Aquarium, the Fish and Wildlife Service prohibited the transfer because travel is extremely stressful for the animals.

A day earlier, a rag-tag fleet of fishing boats and volunteers organized by Kelley Weaverling of Cordova was ordered to halt its otter rescues.

“I didn’t like it at all,” Weaverling said.

The Alaska Fish and Game Department said it may be “years” before Prince William Sound can support the levels of fish and wildlife that existed before the spill.

It said some areas such as marshes may be affected for decades by the spill.

There are between 300,000 and 400,000 birds resident in the sound now and another 1 million waterfowl and 10 million shore birds will pass through the sound within weeks on their way to interior breeding areas or elsewhere in coastal Alaska.

Some May Be Safe

Many of these birds, the state said, will safely pass over the eastern portion of the sound not affected by the spill. Others, however, will pass through area severely hit by the March 24 spill from the Exxon Valdez.

So far, no bald eagles--the national symbol--have been found dead, but biologists believe it is only a matter of time.

During a visit to Green Island, reporters found an oil-soiled dead duck that had apparently been eaten by an eagle. The duck was found below an eagle’s nest. There is concern that as eagles and other predators ingest the oil on the carcasses of birds and mammals that they will begin to die.

Takes Many Forms

Overflights by specialists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicate that the slick is taking on many different forms. In Prince William Sound, the oil remains thick and heavy along the eastern shore of Knight Island and the northern fringes of Green and Smith Islands. In these areas, it is a frothy mousse or thick pancake.

As it enters the sound, it dissipates somewhat, as smoke wafts from a cigarette. In the gulf, the goo ranges from a very thin iridescent sheen on the water to windrows, or ribbons, of pale brown mousse outlined in vivid violet.

“It’s looking more like a thin layer of latex paint on the water,” said Hal Alabaster of NOAA. “Brown and orange latex paint.”