ABSTRACT
From 1992 until 2002, oiled birds, predominantly common murres, were found along the central California coastline during the winter months, but no significant oil slicks were observed. These repeat “mystery” oil spills puzzled investigators for 10 years while several similar cases of bird impacts occurred from November through February to varying degrees each year. In 2001, the same pattern began yet again. The response to oiled wildlife was the most significant to date. Extending over 220 miles of coastline, more than 2000 birds were recovered and transported for care to California's Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN) facility. Motivated by this serious threat to wildlife, federal and state investigators utilized the historical data collected in previous cases combined with current technology to solve the mystery. An extensive Oil Spill Source Identification Task Force was formed consisting of 20 federal and state agents working together to get to the source of the problem. Through these current technologies, including oil sample analysis; satellite, aerial, and on-water observations; and hindcasting, the Task Force was able to eliminate alternative possibilities and focus the investigation on the last potential source, a sunken shipwreck. The Task Force sifted through four different databases of sunken vessels indicating over 700 shipwrecks off of the San Francisco coast alone to establish eight ships as potential targets. During the first underwater search planned to visually investigate each of these vessels, oil was located in the surface waters above the SS JACOB LUCKENBACH, a C-3 freighter sunk in 1953, 17 miles southwest of the Golden Gate Bridge. Analyses of oil samples collected from the vessel's tanks confirmed the LUCKENBACH as the source impacting California seabirds. Further research showed that all possible responsible parties have been absolved of any liability regarding the sinking of the LUCKENBACH. After spending over $3 million on the 1997–1998 and 2001–2002 incidents for the wildlife response alone and with no party from which to recover the funds, the spill response community is faced with an enormous financial task for the future: responding to inevitable oil spills off the coasts of the United States from thousands of deteriorating shipwrecks sunk decades ago with, in most cases, no responsible parties.
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