Disastrous Oil Spill in Our Bay

On Wednesday, November 7th the Cosco Busan crashed into the base of the Bay Bridge, spilling 53,000 gallons of heavy-duty bunker fuel oil into the San Francisco Bay.

Quickly, the oil spread across the Bay, under the Golden Gate Bridge and out into the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, one of the most extraordinary and environmentally sensitive areas in the world.

From day one Sanctuary and Association staff, as well as Beach Watch volunteers have worked round the clock to provide information on natural resources status and distribution. Many volunteers are trained to work with hazardous materials and these volunteers continue to survey beaches and oiled wildlife, assist with the rescue effort as well as collect dead seabirds and tarballs as evidence. The important data collected by the Sanctuary's programs is making a critical contribution by monitoring beaches and rocky shores to assess the impact of the spill on these fragile areas.





The stories from our volunteers on the front lines are inspiring and at times, heartbreaking.

Update on the number of birds killed, cleaned and released, click here.

Tell Your Legislators: No Offshore Oil Drilling or Seismic Exploration of our Oceans

After four years of wrangling, congress delivered an energy bill to the president. On August 8th, President Bush signed it into law. This is a bill that only energy companies could love as it provides them with $8.5 billion in tax breaks and billions more in loan guarantees and other subsidies while doing nothing to address global warming or reduce our dependence on oil.

What most people don't realize about this egregious bill is that it is a serious threat to marine life in our oceans. The bill allows an offshore oil and gas inventory to be conducted on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) of the U.S. coast. This is the first step to undermining and dismantling the 24-year bipartisan moratorium on offshore drilling that protects America's most sensitive coastal national treasures.

The inventory would be conducted using destructive seismic survey ships that tow air guns emitting underwater explosions over thousands of miles along the coast.

Take Action: Mercury in San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is rife with mercury. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has listed San Francisco Bay waters as impaired due to mercury contamination, in accordance with the National Clean Water Act (CWA § 303 (d) List).

Take Action: Marine Debris

The National Academy of Sciences estimated in 1975 that cargo ships and cruise liners dumped an estimated 14 billion pounds of garbage into the ocean. In 1988, the U.S. entered a treaty with 64 other nations (MARPOL) that made it illegal to dump plastics into the ocean.