Rescuers Vow Long Hours as Toll Climbs

Wildlife rescue workers at McGrath State Beach vowed Monday to work from “first light to last light” for several weeks, if necessary, to find animals injured by the McGrath Lake oil spill.

By late afternoon, rescuers had found up to 40 dead waterfowl coated with sticky heavy crude. Another 15 birds coated with oil were alive and being treated at the county’s animal shelter in Camarillo, but officials said the outlook for their survival is not good.

The dead and injured birds included sandpipers, coots, ruddy ducks, shoveler ducks and other shorebirds, said officials of the California Department of Fish and Game.

“A lot of the rescued birds won’t live,” said Fish and Game veterinarian Dave Jessup, who evaluated the birds immediately after they were pulled from the lake in a specially equipped motor home.

“This oil is particularly nasty stuff,” he said.

Officials said they could not estimate how many more birds or other small animals might remain beneath the surface of heavy oil that covered tiny McGrath Lake, a freshwater pond just south of the campground at McGrath State Beach fed by storm and agricultural runoff.

“There could be a lot of them,” said Heidi Togstad, Fish and Game’s coordinator for wildlife restoration and rehabilitation for the incident. “But they will all be carcasses now.”

None of the dead or injured animals were endangered species, many of which nest or forage at McGrath Lake and the nearby Santa Clara River Estuary. It appeared Monday that the estuary had not been contaminated, officials said.

Both the estuary and the lake are stops along the migratory birds’ flight path--known as the Pacific Flyway--used by thousands of birds every year.

Wildlife officials are hopeful that no migrating or resident birds will visit the area until the cleanup is complete.

“We’re crossing our fingers that the birds will avoid the lake because of all the activity,” she said, referring to more than 100 workers with heavy equipment, lights and helicopters.

Mimi Wood of the International Bird Rescue and Research Center said that some animals, such as the endangered California brown pelican, could have been partially coated with oil and could now be sitting on nearby ocean breakwaters, getting dehydrated and hypothermic as they lose body heat.

Efforts to find the birds could continue for days or weeks, she said. “We’ll stay here as long as it takes. And we’ll work as long as we can, from first light to last light.”

A team of eight people walked the ocean shoreline from the Ventura Pier to Channel Islands Harbor Monday looking for damaged shorebirds that had not been recovered.

And Wood was preparing to venture out to the breakwaters in an inflatable boat in search of pelicans or other victimized birds.

The spill, which was discovered early Christmas morning, coated the lake and spoiled nearby beaches. Officials are still investigating the cause.

Throughout the day, volunteers and other workers carried oil-coated animals from the water to Jessup’s waiting mobile station. There, the birds were tagged and assessed for injury. They also were photographed and samples of their feathers were taken to document the damage caused by the spill.

Then the birds were treated for dehydration with forced fluids and warmed to prevent hypothermia. Wood said they are allowed to rest for several hours before being washed.

Volunteer Joyce M. Kennedy, director of the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge, emerged from the lake area Monday afternoon clad in knee-high rubber boots and jeans, exhausted from the morning’s rescue efforts.

Kennedy, a member of the Santa Barbara Wildlife Network, was contacted by the network on Sunday.

She went through the required training session Monday morning before suiting up in protective clothing and heading off.

“People say one person can’t make a difference,” she said. “But here is a chance to make a difference. You’re glad you can contribute.”

Gabriele Drozdowski, another volunteer with the network, complained that volunteers were prevented from going in to save the birds by public officials who insisted that volunteers participate in a training session. Sessions were held Sunday night and Monday morning and more were planned.

“We could have saved a lot of birds,” she said. “They’ve got too much red tape.”

Jay Holcomb, director of the International Bird Rescue and Research Center, said the injured birds that are still alive may soon die from hypothermia.

“The problem is it’s going to take a long time to clean it up,” he said.

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Correspondent Jeff McDonald contributed to this story.