Shift in Wind Would Be a Wildlife ‘Disaster’

Wildlife officials conceded Friday that even their best preparations to protect Orange County’s richest marshlands will not be enough to divert “disaster” if a shift in winds pushes oil from Wednesday’s tanker spill their way.

Even with protective oil containment booms outside the marshes, officials said, strong tides will push the oil under them if the slick comes closer to shore.

“It would be a disaster,” said Larry Sitton, a wildlife management supervisor with the California Department of Fish and Game.

Federal officials responsible for a 5,000-acre wildlife refuge in Seal Beach, for instance, readied an oil skimming boat, established an emergency communications system and activated a bird-washing station. They said they anticipated the oil will begin washing ashore there Friday night.

Despite all the preparations, officials said they could only stand by and wish for luck.

“There certainly will be some oil that gets beyond those booms if the current is greater than a knot and a half, and in most of the entrances, the currents do exceed that,” said Brian Baird, an oil spill specialist for the California Coastal Commission.

Even if the marshes are spared, biologists said they expect the disaster will take its heaviest toll on birds, which lose their insulating capacity when their feathers are oil-matted, and warned that the “fairly light” number of bird deaths and injuries so far will mount as the days pass.

“You are probably going to see a lot of dead and dying animals rolling around in the surf,” said Robin Lewis, a state Fish and Game marine biologist. “All we can do is stand on the beach and try to minimize the effect by picking (the oil) up as quickly as possible.”

Birds that are now only minimally affected will be forced ashore for warmth within two to five days, biologists said.

So far, 37 oil-covered birds, including two pelicans, have washed ashore and are being treated. Volunteers have found another 12 dead birds.

“Any oil in our ecological system is bad, really bad,” said John Grant, a state marine biologist. “We’re not going to know the results until the future.”

Robert Howarth, a professor of marine ecology at Cornell University, said birds are “incredibly vulnerable” because they either freeze to death when their feathers are matted or poison themselves by trying to clean their feathers.

“A lot of bird species will actually seek out oil spills and dive into them, maybe confusing them with schools of fish,” Howarth said.

Despite the outlook for birds, the timing of the spill was lucky for most wildlife, coming before the spawning season for many fish.

“If this had happened two to three weeks from now, we would have millions of grunion on the beach and halibut in shallow water,” Grant said.

About 30 oil-slicked seals perched on buoys near the disabled tanker, but officials said no marine mammals are believed to have been hurt by the spill so far. Whales, for instance, will be unharmed if they continue to hold to their migration route outside the oil slick, officials said.

Officials said they were most concerned about the marshes because cleaning them is almost impossible, and the damage can persist for decades.

Birds in these marshes--off Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Sunset Beach and Newport Beach--are going through courtship displays and will begin to lay their eggs on the sand in March. Of special concern were the Bolsa Chica Wetlands in Huntington Beach and the refuge at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, which were most threatened by the moving slick.

“If oil residues were deposited in there, they would remain and the birds would bring it back to their nests,” said Sitton. “Oil on eggs is instant disaster because it causes them to cool down and kills the young birds inside them.”

He said some birds spotted with oil but appearing otherwise healthy were seen paddling around an ecological reserve in upper Newport Bay on Friday. Officials feared most for three endangered birds: the California least tern, the Belding Savannah sparrow and the clapper rail.

“It could mean mortality to those birds which are endangered and so rare,” said biologist Jack Fancher of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “It potentially could lead to the extinction of those species if, and there is a big if, serious contamination occurred.”

As paid workers mopped up the oil-slicked beaches, volunteers from Seal Beach to Newport were bringing oil-drenched birds to the International Bird Rescue Center, the wildlife hospital set up at the lifeguard headquarters in Huntington Beach.

Meanwhile, directors of the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy, which overseas a delicate marsh area that is home to a variety of wildlife, prepared to build a sand dam across the mouth of the Santa Ana River to keep the oil from invading the fragile feeding ground of several endangered species there.

The rescue center, run by the same group that helped clean birds during the Alaska oil spill last year, was prepared to take in as many as 400 birds.

Although birds are the first victims of the spill, biologists warned that lower species on food chain, such as snails and mollusks, and then fish, eventually will begin to die.

The disaster has so touched nearby residents that the flood of volunteers has begun to scare away some of the ailing birds that may want to come to shore, marine biologist Grant said. During a helicopter ride over Orange County beaches, he said, he could see volunteers every five to 10 feet, with gloves on and carrying boxes, peering out for oil-slicked wildlife.

“We want people who want to help to lurk in the sand dunes so they won’t scare away the birds,” he said. “The birds are saying, ‘I want to go in, but those big people are scaring us.’ ”

The following Times staff members contributed to the coverage of the Huntington Beach oil spill. In Orange County--Eric Bailey, Leslie Berkman, Bill Billiter, Jim Carlton, Steve Emmons, Lily Eng, Shelby Grad, Dave Lesher, Lynn Smith, Jonathan Weber, Dan Weikel and Chris Woodyard. In Los Angeles--Richard Beene, John Hurst, Faye Fiore, Eric Malnic, Kevin Roderick and Tracy Thomas. In Washington--Rudy Abramson, Edwin Chen, Shawn Pogatchnik and Robert W. Stewart. In Hemet--Jenifer Warren.

WILDLIFE THREATENED BY THE OIL SPILL

OIL-SOAKED BIRDS

Among the oil-soaked birds washing up on the Huntington Beach shore are:

Surf scoter: This crow-sized bird, sometimes called “skunk-head” for the distinctive black-and-white markings on the male’s head, has been the shore bird most affected. Often seen diving for shellfish in breaking waves along coastal areas, it breeds in Alaska and the Canadian Arctic and winters along the Pacific Coast.

Western grebe: This slender diving bird with a long, graceful, swan-like neck is often seen in large flocks. It breeds in freshwater marshes from Washington and Central California to Southern California.

Clark’s grebe: This bird is similar to the Western grebe in range and breeding habits, but has an orange-yellow bill and a white face.

Double-crested cormorant: This is a large bird found in both freshwater and marine habitats and the only cormorant commonly seen in interior wetlands and other inland areas. It is a strong swimmer and diver, feeding chiefly on fish.

Ring-billed gull: This is a medium-sized gull whose buoyant flight enables it to pluck food from the water’s surface more easily than larger gulls. It also forages in plowed fields, parks and even parking lots.

Western gull: This is a common, dark-mantled, stout-billed gull found exclusively in coastal habitats. It nests in colonies on offshore islands.

ENDANGERED WETLANDS BIRDS

There are several state or federally endangered species of birds at the Bolsa Chica wetlands and in the Upper Newport Bay area that are threatened by the spill. They include:

California least tern: A robin-sized bird usually found near beaches or river sand bars. When skimming the water with its bill pointed downward, it has a distinctive hunchbacked appearance. It has largely been eliminated by man from its natural nesting habitat along the California coast.

Light-footed clapper rail: A coot-sized marsh bird, brown with long legs and bill and a short, upturned tail. It populates coastal marshlands from Santa Barbara to San Diego and extends into Baja California. The state Department of Fish and Game estimates only 180 pairs of these birds survived in 1988, 60% of which reside in the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve.

California brown pelican: A large, heavy-billed bird of coastal regions with a wingspan of up to seven feet and a large, unfeathered throat pouch. It often dives from 20 to 50 feet in the air to capture fish on the surface. The Southern California population is threatened by pollution, human disturbance of breeding colonies, loss or serious decline of food from human overfishing, loss of roosting sites, fishing gear entanglement and bacterial infections.

Belding’s savannah sparrow: A 5 1/2-inch-long bird that is heavily streaked on the back, breast and sides. It lives year-round in coastal salt marshes from Santa Barbara County to northern Baja California. In 1986 the population was estimated at about 2,200 pairs in 27 marshes throughout California. About 245 pairs then nested in the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve.

Source: Audubon Handbook of Western Birds, California Department of Fish and Game