Bad Weather Delaying Cleanup of Oil Spill in Alaskan Waters

With 24-foot seas and 50-knot winds continuing to pound the Aleutian island where a soybean freighter cracked in half, officials Saturday could take only a few small steps toward cleaning up the massive oil spill left behind.

Three days after the 738-foot Selendang Ayu wrecked on the west side of Unalaska Island, about 800 miles southwest of Anchorage, Coast Guard officials still didn’t know how much of the more than 400,000 gallons of thick oil had spilled because they hadn’t been able to board either half of the wreck.

The agency’s first priority is avoiding casualties. Six crew members from the ship were lost when a helicopter crashed after lifting them off the vessel Wednesday; four other people were rescued. A search for the missing crew members was suspended Friday night.

Capt. Ron Morris, the Coast Guard’s incident commander, said salvage efforts Saturday were limited to three missions, including a flight by a Coast Guard helicopter to survey the broken freighter.

A private vessel was to attempt to lay more protective boom in front of streams within Makushin Bay, and a ship hired by the Selendang Ayu’s owner was to leave Dutch Harbor, on the other side of Unalaska Island, to bring wildlife experts to the island today.