News Subscribe  to Our Newsletter Sign  up for Email Updates CGF  In the News Press  Inquiries Past  Articles Calendar			Settlement from 1998 oil spill benefits local beaches and far-away habitat by Lennie Roberts What do New Zealand, a leaky oil tanker and the San Mateo Coast have in common? The answer highlights the interconnectedness of life, particularly seabird species that migrate long distances between their nesting sites and their feeding areas. Oil washes up on the San Mateo County Coast The story begins close to home. In 1998 more than 3,000 gallons of oil  washed ashore along the San Mateo County Coast, impacting thousands of  seabirds and miles of seashore and impairing human use and enjoyment of  beaches.  Chemical sleuthing matched the unique fingerprint  of the oil recovered at sea to the cargo carried by the oil tanker Command  - the first time this technique had been used to identify the source of  an oil spill.  By the time the US Coast Guard apprehended the ship, it  was in Panama, thousands of miles from the spill. Scientists were able  to match the particular chemistry of the oil in the ship's hold to that  of the spill, which led to an early settlement. The owners of the Command  agreed to pay $5,518,000, of which $3,913,016 was allocated to restore  natural resource damages. Habitat restoration funds established The funds were placed in a Trustee Account for habitat restoration. The  Oil Spill Trustees, who include the US Fish and Wildlife Service, National  Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, California Department of Fish  and Game, California Department of Parks and Recreation, and California  State Lands Commission, have now selected several restoration projects  based on a number of criteria, including their connections to the injured  resources, technical feasibility, lack of threat to public health and  safety and opportunities for collaboration. Committee  for Green Foothills approves of the selected projects, all of which  we feel meet the selection criteria and are based on sound science.  Three San Mateo beach areas will benefit from restoration  funds. At the Fitzgerald  Marine Reserve, a heavily worn staircase to Seal Cove Beach will be  replaced; at Half  Moon Bay State Beach, a new beach access and pathways will focus public  access and protect resources; and at Mirada  Surf, funding will help with planning of the Coastal Trail.  But other funds are going further from the source  of the oil spill, to mitigate habitat for migratory seabird species that  were injured or killed by the oil spill. The most interesting project  is in New Zealand. Protecting the sooty shearwater One might ask why the Oil Spill Trustees would decide to spend money so  far from where the spill occurred. The answer lies in the life cycle of  the sooty  shearwater, a seabird known for gliding rapidly - or shearing - just  above the ocean's surface.  In the summers, these birds aggregate in large conspicuous  flocks to feed on shoaling fishes that concentrate in productive coastal  shelf waters off the San Mateo Coast and beyond. Shearwaters' feeding  territory happens to lie within the shipping lanes of oil tankers, which  makes them particularly vulnerable to oil spills.  Their numbers off the California coast have declined  precipitously, due to a combination of factors, including pollution. Although  we enjoy watching their continuous feeding activity in the summer, in  winter they disappear to New Zealand where they breed on islands of the  south coast and are known to the Maori as titi.  The Trustees determined that eliminating predators  where shearwaters breed at the Big South Cape Islands would have the most  impact in restoring shearwater populations. Norway rats introduced to  these islands are the main threat to the breeding colonies of several  species of petrels, terns and shearwaters. On Campbell Island, rats had  killed virtually every sooty shearwater. The rat elimination project will  bring an impressive partnering of native Maori community representatives,  the New Zealand Government, the U.S.-based research group Oikonos  and independent consultants. Protecting the fragile web of life This international effort provides a great illustration of John Muir's  observation, "when we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched  to everything else in the universe."  The next time you see a teeming flock of shearwaters,  think of the huge distance they have come to their feeding grounds and  the many threats facing them on their long journey, and appreciate the  difference this unusual restoration project is making in the sooty shearwater's  survival. Published July 2004 in Green  Footnotes. Page last updated July 13, 2004 .