Remainder of Oil Pumped From Ship

In an attempt to prevent further damage to a once pristine stretch of coast, salvage crews began pumping fuel oil from a grounded freighter into storage tanks on a Coos Bay, Ore., beach. The operation was expected to continue until early this morning. The salvage effort has been plagued by bad weather, broken equipment and environmentally costly delays since the New Carissa grounded Feb. 4 and began leaking oil. Huge pumps were set to drain the remaining 135,000 gallons of fuel oil from the Japanese-owned ship beginning at low tide. Some of the black oil has already fouled some of the most environmentally sensitive beaches in the state. A week after the ship ran aground, a Navy explosives team set it afire in an attempt to burn off the fuel on board. Heavy seas broke the fire-weakened hull in two later that night, but only half of the 400,000 gallons of oil aboard burned.