Oil Pumped From Tanker in Wake of Spill

Salvage workers began pumping the remaining 16 million gallons of oil from the crippled Sea Empress tanker Saturday, while wildlife rescuers rushed to save oil-soaked birds and animals.

An oil slick spread 50 miles from the tanker, which shed more than half its load after running aground Feb. 15. The crude encircled Lundy Island, a marine nature reserve off the coast of Devon in southwest England.

Some 20 million gallons of crude oil spilled during the eight days it took salvage workers to get the Sea Empress into Milford Haven estuary on the southwest coast of Wales.

The spill is one of the 10 worst ever, nearly double that of the Exxon Valdez, which gushed about 11 million gallons into Prince Edward Sound in Alaska in 1989.

The Dutch and two British companies conducting the salvage operation said Saturday there were 16.2 million gallons remaining in the damaged tanker. Earlier estimates were that nearly 20 million gallons were left.

A smaller tanker, the Star Bergen, moved alongside the Cyprus-registered Sea Empress Saturday morning and started removing the cargo. The effort will take several days.

Hundreds of volunteers monitoring the environmental disaster watched as oil washed onto the beaches and settled in the coves of one of Europe’s most important wildlife conservation areas.

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In addition to destroying food and nesting areas, the oil soils the birds’ feathers, destroying their natural insulation and waterproofing, which makes them vulnerable to hypothermia. The birds also absorb and ingest oil, contaminating their blood and organs.

About 1,000 birds in the worst condition have been flown by helicopter to a cleaning center run by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Taunton, southwest England.