Birds Killed to Bolster Suit Against Exxon

Government officials have quietly ordered the killing of hundreds of birds, some seals and perhaps other mammals for studies that could strengthen their court case against Exxon Corp. for the 1989 oil spill in Prince William Sound.

The public reaction, though, is starting to be heard, and it is anything but quiet.

A spokesman said Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. reacted Friday to disclosure of the bird kills with astonishment, “like most Americans, and asked why.”

“Pretty incredible isn’t it?” said Lujan spokesman Steve Goldstein, in Washington, D.C. “The secretary did not know of this in advance and would not have approved it if he did.”

Federal officials in Anchorage confirmed that they had authorized the killing of birds for at least eight different studies in an attempt to more accurately determine how many animals were killed by the oil spill. The bird carcasses, some of them oiled to simulate the spill, were then tossed into Prince William Sound and tracked.

In one study this year, 250 or more birds were shot. In the others, federal officials indicated, the numbers were somewhat lower--a few dozen for each study.

That means the number of birds killed under government contract was half or more of the 797 injured birds found alive, cleaned of oil and released by a legion of rescue workers in the immediate aftermath of the grounding of the tanker Exxon Valdez.

Unlike the rescue, however, which was publicized in heart-tugging accounts around the world, the killings were undertaken in secrecy.

Meanwhile, the state of Alaska confirmed that it, too, “collected some animals” in preparation for a damage suit against Exxon. But a state official said lawyers in the case ordered on Friday that no specifics be released until the legal implications are studied. All that is known is a previously disclosed kill of 10 harbor seals, including three pups, in Prince William Sound in 1989.

In addition to seals, federal authorities said that the state of Alaska may have killed river otters, deer and other mammals as well as an unknown number of sea ducks as it builds a scientific foundation for its impending litigation.

News of the animal killing started emerging this week after some digging through contract paperwork in Washington, D.C., by a reporter from the Anchorage Daily News.

Lujan was not alone in expressing alarm at the notion of killing birds to add to the evidence against Exxon. Cleveland Amory of the Fund for Animals, reached in Tucson, Ariz., denounced the shootings as “the most asinine plan I have ever heard of. And I mean no put-down of donkeys.”

Exxon spokesman Karsten Rodvik in Anchorage noted that the company figures it spent $25 million trying to rescue sea birds after the spill. As for the killing, he said: “We think they could have found alternatives that would not have resulted in the destruction of wildlife.”

Bird Study No. 1, as it was called, is apparently the largest of the bird kills and the only one about which details have been released. It was sought by lawyers from the Department of Justice, who believed the government lacked precise enough information about the number of cormorants, scoters, murres and other species killed by the nearly 11 million gallons of oil that burst from the tanker in America’s worst oil spill.

So, the Interior Department’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, apparently reluctantly, approved a $600,000 contract with an ecological research company from Portland, Ore. The company was authorized to shoot up to 350 sea birds, but Fish and Wildlife spokesman Bruce Batten said the actual number killed was about two-thirds that number.

Government lawyers and scientists have on hand as evidence the frozen carcasses of 36,471 dead birds recovered from the oil. But officials said these were not adequate for the kind of research the lawyers wanted.

According to federal officials, the contract killing in Bird Study No. 1 occurred this summer on various islands, including, ironically, national wildlife refuges. The coast of Alaska is summer home to more sea birds than all other places on the planet combined, according to the U.S. government.

By tracking the movement of the bodies through the water, the study sought to devise a formula for determining how many birds may have succumbed to the effects of oil.

Previously, the Fish and Wildlife Service said it could only estimate bird casualties at 90,000 to 270,000. Justice Department lawyers said they found that estimate too vague.

Batten said the contract shooting was undertaken despite some internal disagreement within the Fish and Wildlife Service. “We don’t normally go out and kill animals to make a point,” he said.

“But the lawyers thought this was important . . . . It’s a government case, and, as a government entity, it’s our responsibility to support that case. In theory, at least, the damages collected will go to restoration of those (bird) populations in the future. And the better the case, the higher the damages.”

In addition to Bird Study No. 1, Batten said he had been informed that birds were killed in two other studies this year and five in 1989. Each case involved a couple of dozen birds.

Researcher Doug Conner contributed to this story.