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Motor Vessel Selendang Ayu Unified Command Joint Information Center | |
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Date: Jan. 23, 2005 Coast Guard information officer: (907) 581-7158 |
Selendang Ayu update -- 1:00 PM January 23, 2005
KODIAK, Alaska -- Dependent on weather, today’s response activities will include shoreline cleanup, water
quality sampling and wildlife recovery operations. Due to inclement weather, today’s air
operations will be on hold until weather permits. As a result the shoreline assessment
team will not be surveying any areas and there will be no lightering operations today. The protection
group will continue to assess sites with protective booming and reconfigured the boom to increase
effectiveness and remove boom that is ineffective or no longer needed. When weather permits
the lightering team will resume pumping fuel oil 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.
Saturday shoreline cleanup crews worked in Skan Bay, Portage Bay and Humpback Bay. They
collected 1,593 bags of oily waste (27 cubic yards). To date, cleanup crews have collected 25,868
bags (431 cubic yards) of oily solid waste.
The lightering team removed 17,216 gallons of fuel oil from #4 port tank. The total volume lightered
from the vessel to date is 76,937 gallons of fuel oil/water and 2,647 gallons of diesel for a total of
79,584 gallons of fuel oil/water/diesel.
On Saturday, the wildlife recovery team reported 72 additional bird carcasses and one dead oiled
fox. Also, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported that a total of 967 dead birds have been recovered. To date, 29 live oiled birds have been captured and sent for rehabilitation, 10 were later released, 17 died and two were euthanized. To date, five sea otter carcasses including two skeletons (cause of deaths unknown) have been recovered.
Water quality sampling continues in the Akutan and Unalaska areas and the team encountered one BB sized tarball and three oil smears in Iliuliuk Bay. There has been no evidence of oil in Akutan Bay or east of Priest Rock, in outer Unalaska Bay or in Broad Bay since January 18. A new M/V Selendang Ayu Oil Spill Fisheries Water Quality Sampling Plan is being developed for the next phase of the program.
To date, seafood inspections at the Dutch Harbor and Akutan processing plants have found all
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 the crab fleet advisories to minimize contact with random tarballs
that may be encountered during the vessel’s return to port.
The crab fleet left Dutch Harbor and Akutan on January 13, and the 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 Captains 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.
Predicted weather in Dutch Harbor for Sunday is cloudy, temperatures low to upper 30s, southeast
winds building to 10-20 knots, and seas four feet. Tomorrow weather forecast calls for rain and snow, temperatures low to high 30s, southeast winds 35-40 knots, seas at six feet.
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