Birds at Spill Needed Study, So She Flew Into Action

It had been a hectic few months, and by mid-May Marge Gibson was ready for a break. Besides rearing a teen-age daughter and managing the chemistry laboratory at Orange Coast College, Gibson, 40, had for weeks been caring for nearly two dozen hawks, falcons and owls wounded earlier in the year in an unprecedented rash of bird shootings in the county.

The summer, she had hoped, would be less demanding.

But then came the phone call. It was an official with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who wanted Gibson to work as part of a special team being assembled in Alaska to assess the impact of the oil spill from the Exxon tanker Valdez on the bald eagle population of Prince William Sound.

Gibson, a specialist in rehabilitating birds of prey, could not resist. This would be a chance to study one of Nature’s largest and most powerful birds in what many experts believe was North America’s worst environmental disaster. She left her Villa Park home for a 2 1/2-month stint in Alaska, having contracted with Exxon through the federal government to head up one of two research teams.

“It was an incredible opportunity,” Gibson said by phone last week from Alaska, before she returned home. “It’s been hard on my family, being away this long, but I couldn’t pass it up.”

An estimated 2,500 to 3,000 bald eagles inhabit the sound and surrounding backcountry. Indeed, the area is believed to have one of the highest concentrations of the species in the world. The bald eagle, whose wingspan can reach 7 feet, is a solitary predator, and it can live as long as 30 years in the wild.

Biologists and environmentalists feared that the March 24 spill, which involved 240,000 barrels of thick North Slope crude oil, would endanger the species. Beyond the immediate concern of rescuing oil-soaked birds, officials were worried about how much oil the birds had ingested through fish, their primary prey, that had been contaminated, and also the effect on their ability to reproduce successfully.

Gibson and her three-member team spent their time there searching the oil-stained islands and inlets for bald eagles, capturing them, cleaning them and assessing their health. Her team operated out of the port city of Valdez (the second team was based in Kodiak, about 250 miles away). The teams managed to capture 75 of the birds.

Gibson said she was at once “exhilarated” by the area’s beauty and saddened by the sight of the spill.

“Miles and miles of beaches are coated with black tar,” she said. “What took thousands of years to take shape was spoiled in a few weeks.”

Exxon officials largely credit Gibson with setting up a blood test to determine whether any of the birds’ vital organs--liver, kidney or spleen--had been contaminated with oil. Blood was drawn at the capture site, and after a few quick tests, the researchers were able to determine whether an individual bird was healthy enough to be released or whether it needed to be taken to a wildlife rehabilitation facility in Valdez for observation and treatment.

“Marge was instrumental in shaping the eagle capture project,” said Tom Monahan, Exxon’s coordinator of wildlife rehabilitation.

Gibson is one of a small number of people licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game to rehabilitate endangered species such as golden eagles and peregrine falcons.

Exxon has spent more than $300,000 on the project, Monahan said. It appears that, based on the number of eagles the two teams had trapped through last week, the species has weathered the spill in relatively good shape. The “vast majority” of birds captured were released, he said. Monahan cautioned, however, that it may be several years before a complete assessment of the spill’s impact can be made. More than 800 miles of beaches were befouled, and local fisheries are threatened with years of dislocation.

Gibson, who returned home this past weekend, agreed: “It is much, much too soon to know what long-term effects this may have” on the species. “All we can do is hope our work may provide some clues.”

From Valdez, Gibson and her colleagues used float planes or boats to reach nesting areas, often staying out a week or longer. The researchers used fish as bait to capture the eagles, Gibson said; they did not used any tranquilizers. A monofilament line would be tied around a fish, usually a herring, then the fish would be tossed into the water near where a bald eagle had been spotted. When the bird swooped in after the fish, grabbing it with its talons, the researcher would pull the fishing line, pulling it like a noose around the bird. A piece of driftwood was attached to the fishing line, so that the bird would only be able to rise a few feet above the water when it tried to fly. The researchers would then grab the bird, put a hood over its head to calm it down, then examine it.

A primary concern, Gibson said, was whether feathers on the underside carried even a trace of oil. A single drop of petroleum can penetrate an egg and kill an embryo, so cleaning the underside of an adult eagle was a critical concern. Monahan said the rescuers discovered that a simple solution of household dish soap and water was most effective in removing oil from birds’ feathers.

Each captured eagle was banded with a silver tag labeled with a number so that it could be tracked in the future.

The long separation from family and friends for a cause such as this was worth it, she said. “The bald eagle is such a proud bird,” Gibson said. “It is truly a treasure worth fighting to save.”

One of the eagles Gibson captured was too crippled to be freed, so Gibson will care for it in her rehabilitation center in Villa Park, and she intends to show it during lectures.

“The aim is always to release birds,” Gibson said, “but we couldn’t safely do that with this bird. But at least I’ll get a chance to share it with a lot of people who otherwise might never see one.”