Experts Mobilizing to Try to Save Gulf Wildlife : Spill: Officials seek information on best ways to tackle what threatens to be a massive and difficult undertaking.

What’s the best way to shampoo a cormorant? Can a human safely feed a dugong?

Answers to these and other questions were being urgently sought Tuesday from wildlife experts around the world as officials in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and other Persian Gulf states attempt to assess the ecological impact of a massive oil spill moving south through the Persian Gulf.

Defense officials already have deployed floating booms around water desalination plants and electricity generating stations in an effort to keep floating oil from clogging the water intakes. But protecting wildlife in the region may prove a far more difficult task.

Walter Vreeland, an environmental adviser to the Bahrain government, said he has sent out appeals seeking advice from the National Audubon Society in the United States and European bird preservation groups on how to clean oil from the feathers of cormorants, which are now nesting on islands just south of Bahrain.

Socotra cormorants breed only in the gulf and some scientists are concerned that the spill could wipe out the species. The rare birds feed by diving into the water after fish, Vreeland said. When they dive through the slick, their feathers become soaked with oil and they are unable to fly.

According to Alice Berkner, executive director of the International Bird Research Center, between 40% and 80% of treated birds survive, depending on how long they have been exposed to the oil, its toxicity and their condition before exposure.

But many birds die because they are never found, Berkner said from her office in Berkeley. She said that during the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, substantially more birds died than were treated and released.

Most birds are cleansed the same way. The bird’s overall condition is first assessed to make sure it is strong enough to endure the washing. Anemic birds may not be able to take the stress. The water for washing has to meet certain conditions--it can’t be too hard, for instance--and the preferred soap is a gentle dish-washing detergent.

“Because cormorants can inflict a lot of damage, you have to handle them carefully,” Berkner said.

Abdulaziz Abo Zenada, head of Saudi Arabia’s Committee for Wildlife Conservation and Protection, told a news conference in Riyadh on Tuesday that wildlife experts are trying to place floating booms around Saudi islands to prevent oil from reaching the birds.

Abo Zenada said a team of 10 Saudis and 10 foreign wildlife experts are surveying important areas off the coast to determine the best way to protect wildlife.

Another critical question facing scientists is the fate of the chronically shy dugongs, a huge marine mammal closely related to the Florida manatee.

The 10-foot-long dugongs are vegetarians, feeding on sea grass and other aquatic plants that could be devastated by the oil slick.

“There’s undoubtedly going to be an adverse impact on the sea grass beds,” said Tom O’Shea, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dugong expert. “If the animals ingest oil as tar balls, it can cause illness or mortality. We just haven’t had any experience with oil leaks and dugongs or manatees.”

Between 50 and 60 dugongs were found dead after a huge oil spill off Iran in 1983, but specialists found evidence that suggested the deaths--as well as a large loss of dolphins--may have been from natural causes rather than the oil.

Bahrain’s Vreeland said he has been deluged with calls from volunteers prepared to help clean up oil-covered birds and green sea turtles. But trying to help the dugongs is more difficult.

“If you get anywhere near a dugong in a boat, it will dive,” Vreeland said. “Even if you were able to get hold of one, they weigh 600 pounds, and it would probably die of a heart attack out of fright.”

There are an estimated 7,000 dugongs in the Persian Gulf--the second-highest population in the world after northwestern Australia. About 900 of them live on Bahrain’s eastern coast.

Saudi Arabia’s Abo Zenada said his government is considering transplanting beds of Persian Gulf coral to the Red Sea on the Saudi west coast in order to preserve it. He said coral has been successfully transplanted in aquariums.

Abo Zenada said loss of the sea grass beds would also devastate the area’s green turtles. He said 500 turtles died in the aftermath of the 1983 Iranian oil spill.

The current spill, estimated at up 11 million barrels of crude oil, will cause damage “much more than that,” Abo Zenada said.

Although oil floats on the surface, it begins to coagulate after a few days, forming tar balls and tar mats that sink beneath the surface. The clumps, some as large as truck tires, are carried ashore where they melt in the sun.

According to wildlife experts, the oil spill could also affect the reproductive cycle of the gulf’s shrimp, which normally spawn in March. The waterway’s abundant supply of fish--food for both man and wildlife--is also threatened.

The gulf’s sluggish water movement heightens the concern of experts over the long-term effects on sea life. While the spill may reach the wildlife areas of Bahrain in several more days, water takes from three to five years to transit the gulf, carrying pollution with it.

Times staff writer Maura Dolan in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

WORRIES ABOUT WILDLIFE

As the massive oil spill moved through the gulf, experts were trying to determine what wildlife might be affected and how to help:

CORMORANTS: A bird that dives for fish. Going through layers of oil would soak feathers, leaving it unable to fly. Many cormorants now nesting on islands south of Bahrain.

DUGONGS: A huge mammal, closely related to American manatee. The 10-foot-long dugongs are vegetarians, living off sea grass that would be devastated by an oil slick. Animals are chronically shy; trying to clean one could frighten it to death.

GREEN TURTLES: Loss of sea grass beds also could devastate the area’s turtles.

CORAL: It may be necessary to transplant beds of coral to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast to preserve it.

SHRIMP: Spill could affect reproductive cycle of gulf shrimp, which spawn in March, and waterway’s abundant fish.

OTHER FISH: Anchovies and mackerel abound in the gulf, where fishing is a key industry.

OTHER FISH: Anchovies and mackerel abound in the gulf region, where fishing is a key industry.