Birds Stricken by Fish-Oil Slicks in Monterey Bay
A white, glue-like substance that washed ashore at Sunset State Beach, along with more than 15 dead shorebirds, is a nontoxic fish oil, officials said Saturday.
The oil--which can be found in large slicks in Monterey Bay--poses no threat to humans. However, once birds dive into it, many are not able to fly and often die of hypothermia, officials said.
An additional hundred birds--most of them grebes and loons--were alive but stuck on shore Saturday and in need of rescue, said Stephanie Price, the supervising ranger at Sunset State Beach, which is between Capitola and Moss Landing.
“Any bird that dove through the oil is coming up on shore and sitting there waiting for volunteers to come and pick them up,” Price said Saturday. “We’ll be saving first the ones that are strongest and will survive.”
She added that officials from the California Department of Fish and Game and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would be in charge of saving the birds.
The beach was temporarily closed at 10 p.m. Friday after the first of several large oil slicks in the bay washed ashore earlier in the evening.
Price said it will take a while to figure out where the fish oil is coming from. But she said it smells like sardines.
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