Fault Debated as Shetlands’ Cleanup Starts : Oil spill: Residents insist the tanker should have been farther from shore. Others involved say the crew should have stayed aboard to secure lines.

As aerial crews sprayed chemicals to try to disperse a huge slick and wildlife experts sought to save oil-sodden birds, recriminations were exchanged Wednesday over what caused the tanker Braer to run aground here, spilling its 25-million-gallon cargo of light crude.

While island residents insisted the tanker should have been farther from shore, others involved in the incident said the ill-fated ship’s crew should have remained aboard longer so a rescue tug could have installed tow lines that would have kept the powerless vessel from grounding.

The toll from Tuesday’s wreck grew clearer on Wednesday, when at least 100 sea birds--the first victims of the massive oil spill--were found dead on the coast. “I’ve seen a lot of oiled birds today,” said Jonathan Wills, a local author and environmentalist. “There’s at least 100 dead--and hundreds more badly oiled.”

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds warned that some 10,000 sea birds were endangered around the main island of the Shetlands. Wildlife experts said that seals, otters and the teeming fish in the area also risked being smothered by the Braer spill. It stretched at least seven miles along the coast, which is host to rare specimens of bird and marine life.

Throughout the short daylight hours on Wednesday, lumbering, old DC-3 aircraft began the grim task of trying to contain the crude that leaked from tanks of the hapless Braer, which lay stranded on the rocky coast.

The Braer, which lost power while transiting a 22-mile-wide channel here, ran aground on a stormy Tuesday, when hurricane-strength winds gusted and the ocean’s waves were whipped to towering heights.

The strong winds continued to blow Wednesday, combining the white-capped seas with the oil to form a spray that soaked the coast for up to half a mile inland, raising Shetland officials’ concern about the effects on their sheep and cattle. Some farmers reported the fleece on their sheep was turning brown from the oil-steeped wind.

The oily spray also reached the Shetlands airport at Sumburgh, which is on a peninsula on the main island; the oily slick on runways on Wednesday disrupted air traffic, including the flights of the chemical-spraying DC-3s.

“The smell of the oil was strong along the coast,” said Dave Hammond, a local environmental expert, “and it really made you sick after 15 minutes.”

Planes and helicopters operated close to the oil slick under lowering clouds, but salvage crews were unable to get aboard the tanker Wednesday. “We don’t have any idea how much oil the tanker has lost and how much is still aboard,” said Capt. George Sutherland, Shetlands director of marine operations. “Salvage is not an impossibility. If the weather moderates, there may be a chance.”

He said the fierce weather in the area may have worked to the island’s advantage, helping to dissipate and evaporate the Braer’s cargo of light, thin crude.

“The wave action has had a very considerable effect on the spilled oil that has worked in our favor to some degree,” he said. “At the moment, there is less movable oil than we might reasonably have expected, if we hadn’t had the severe weather overnight.”

The tanker was carrying crude from Norway to Canada when power failed early Tuesday and the ship was driven by winds and currents onto the rocky coast. The Braer did not break up in Tuesday’s heavy winds and seas, as it once had been feared; it appeared to be in one piece still when it was last clearly sighted in daylight Wednesday. But the vessel was wedged into the broken cliffs and seemed to be open to the sea.

That led some marine experts to doubt Sutherland’s hopeful views on salvaging the vessel; they said it is unlikely the ship can be towed off the rocks by tugs.

Experts hope to board the vessel today to determine whether its remaining oil can be pumped off--onto barges or through hoses and into tanks ashore. But weather continued to be a concern. Forecasts called for shifting winds today, and it was unclear whether that would help or hamper the cleanup.

“If the winds come from the south,” said environmentalist Wills, “it will drive the oil north along the coast, further damaging the shoreline.”

At a news conference here Wednesday, the Braer’s owner, Michael Hudner of New York, defended the actions of the tanker’s Greek captain and crew.

He said that the engine and auxiliary power shut down--for unexplained reasons--at 4:40 a.m. Tuesday, as the ship moved through the stretch between Shetland Island and Fair Isle to the south.

The captain contacted the ship’s owners in New York, then called the British coast guard at 5:05 a.m. At 5:19 a.m., a rescue tug was ordered. But it did not clear the harbor until after 7 a.m. and arrived too late to take the tanker in tow.

But David Theobald, captain of the tug Sirius Star, argued Wednesday that, if the crew had not abandoned the tanker prematurely, a line could have been rigged to the drifting vessel.

Wildlife at Risk

The Shetlands are home to birds, sea mammals and fish now at risk from a massive oil spill. How important a natural refuge is the area?

Birds: The Shetland Islands have 61 species of breeding birds, including 500,000 sea birds of 21 species. At particular risk are gulls, eider ducks, long-tailed ducks, black guillemots, shags and loons. Puffins were off at sea and not immediately threatened. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said at least 3,000 birds were in the bay.

Marine animals: The sea supports large shoals of mackerel, whiting, coalfish, sprats and sand lance on which the birds feed. Half a dozen seals had been covered with oil. Twenty porpoises were in the bay, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Source: Times wire reports