Motor Vessel Selendang Ayu Unified Command

Joint Information Center

Unified Command Press Release

JUNEAU, Alaska – Officials and response teams with the Selendang Ayu Unified Command continue to progress with clean up efforts near Unalaska Island.

Today’s response activities will include over flights, shoreline assessment and cleaning, vessel lightering, water quality sampling and wildlife recovery operations.

Today's weather calls for partly cloudy skies, temperaturs in the 40s and 15-to-25 mph winds.

The shoreline assessment team will work in Pumicestone Bay 6, Makushin Bay and Portage Bay segments. Clean up crews are expected to work in Skan and Humpback Bays, while the lightering team will continue to remove oil from tank number four starboard and begin preparations to access tank number four on the stern’s portside. Crews will also continue to maintain boom and clean up shoreline areas, weather permitting.

There are 880 gallons of Coreexit 9500 dispersant in Dutch Harbor. Unified Command officials approved the dispersant’s application plan for airborne and water use.

The barge Kashega with two Marco skimmers and the Current Buster systems are aboard the Western Viking vessel, on scene and ready for deployment.

Saturday’s shoreline clean up consisted of crews working in Skan Bay eight and 14, along with Humpback Bay 11 and segment 12. Crews collected 1, 451 bags of oily waste. The total amount of oily solid waste collected to date is 9,185 bags (153.1 cubic yards).

Saturday’s salvage and lightering operations found crews removing 8,141 gallons of intermediate fuel oil (IFO) 380 from the number four IFO tank on the vessel’s starboard stern section. It is believed that this tank contained an estimated 29,000 gallons of IFO.

It’s also located below four diesel tanks, three of which crews already pumped.

The lightering team can transport as many as seven portable tanks daily from the wreck to Dutch Harbor. The total volume lightered from the vessel to date is 35, 077 gallons of IFO/diesel as of Saturday.

There is no change in the status of the Selendang Ayu. The Coast Guard reported Jan. 5 that they located a hole in the starboard bow directly below the ship’s name. The stern sections remains hard aground and is listing three degrees to port. The Unified Command is exploring all possible methods to ascertain the condition and contents of number one and number three centerline tanks.

Crews recovered 21 oiled bird carcasses Saturday, bringing the total number of dead birds to 536. To date, crews located 29 live, oiled birds and transported them for rehabilitation. The International Bird Rescue and Research Center officials report the release of 10 rehabilitated birds from Whittier. Officials also found five sea otter carcasses including two skeletons.

Saturday, officials conducted a water sampling survey relating to the ongoing Unalaska Bay Water Quality Sampling Program. Teams are using a fine mesh tow net to sample for tar balls, tar patties, fresh oil, mousse, or other forms of whole oil. While towing the net about three miles offshore near Driftwood Bay, the tow net revealed light contamination and trace amounts of a substance appearing as oil. Crews could not analyze the substance because of its small amount.

The Unified Command website, located at www.uscgresponds.com contains fisheries fact sheets and particulars on the closure of all state waters of Makushin and Skan Bay areas of the eastern Aleutian District and the sampling plan.

Safety of response personnel remains the Unified Command’s highest priority. Officials are also greatly concerned with protecting sensitive areas, wildlife, and shoreline clean up, on-water recovery and lightering/salvage continuance as weather allows.

Unified Command officials approved and signed the Waste Management and Disposal Plan Jan. 7. The Winter Operations Plan is also finalized and signed as of Jan. 3.

Officials also conduct public town meetings in Unalaska each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 

-30-