Motor Vessel Selendang Ayu Unified Command Joint Information Center | |
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Date: Jan. 22, 2005 Coast Guard information officer: (907) 581-7158 |
Selendang Ayu update -- Jan. 22, 2005, 1:00 p.m.
The protection group will continue to assess sites with protective booming and reconfigure the boom to increase effectiveness and remove boom that is ineffective or no longer needed. The lightering team will resume pumping fuel from the intermediate fuel oil (IFO) # 4 port tank. Oil sampling using net tows are scheduled for the Unalaska transit lane, Iliuliuk Bay, and vessel anchoring areas in Broad and Captains Bay.
On Friday, shoreline cleanup crews worked in Skan Bay, Portage Bay, and Humpback Bay, collecting 1,674 bags of oily waste (27 cubic yards). To date, cleanup crews have collected 24,275 bags (405 cubic yards) of oily solid waste.
The protection group continued to remove boom that is ineffective or no longer needed. All flights were cancelled Friday due to poor weather and there was no lightering.
The total volume lightered from the vessel to date is 59,721 gallons of IFO/water and 2,647 gallons of diesel for a total of 62,368 gallons of IFO/water/diesel.
Wildlife recovery teams reported 29 additional bird carcasses. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported that a total of 930 dead birds have been recovered. As of January 22, a total of 29 live oiled birds have been captured and sent for rehabilitation -- 10 were later released, 17 died, and 2 were euthanized.
Water quality sampling continued in the Akutan and Unalaska areas. Net tows in the Unalaska transit zone and Iliuliuk
Bay did not show any evidence of oiling.
Seafood inspections at the Dutch Harbor and Akutan processing plants countinue to yeild products free of oil
contamination. Inspections are conducted days and nights to check crab and pollock as they arrive at the docks.
Vessels from the opilio crab fishery in the Bering Sea continued their return to Dutch Harbor and Akutan to deliver
their catch for processing. The Unified Command provided to the crab fleet recommendations to minimize contact with random tarballs that may be encountered during the vessel’s return to port. The crab fleet has not reported any incidents of contamination thus far.
The Unified Command has implemented an enhanced program to protect seafood quality. Shorelines were surveyed in Unalaska Bay and Captain's Bay for tarballs and tar patties, vessels are using crab pots and tow nets to detect submerged oil, aerial surveys are checking for floating oil, and additional staff from the ADEC-Environmental Health seafood program are inspecting seafood at Dutch Harbor and Akutan processors.
Weather in Dutch Harbor Saturday is expected to be cloudy, with temperatures in the low to upper 30s, with southeast winds building to 10-20 knots and seas at three feet.
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KODIAK, Alaska -- Dependent on weather, today’s response activities will include over flights, shoreline assessment and cleanup, vessel lightering, water quality sampling and wildlife recovery operations. The shoreline assessment team will survey areas in Anderson Bay. Cleanup teams will be in Skan Bay, Portage Bay and Humpback Bay.
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