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ALAMEDA — More wildlife has turned up dead from a spill Friday that dumped 400 to 800 gallons of oil into the Bay.
Two of the 36 birds recovered Sunday night have died, and 11 birds were found already dead from oil exposure, said Carol Singleton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Fish and Game.
No marine mammals, such as seals or sea lions, have been hurt by the oil, and the oil is unlikely to harm any fish at this point, she said.
Sam Delson, deputy director of the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, said mussels are the most likely creature to show problems in oil. "They have slow metabolisms, and other species can metabolize contaminates faster," he said.
Mussels, which are stationary, can't get away from an approaching oil slick.
"If the mussels come back clean, it's a good indication that everything is clean," he said.
Samples of mussels have been taken, but test results are not back, he said.
The oil spilled into the Bay when something went wrong during the refueling of the Dubai Star, a ship bound to Richmond from Mexico with a cargo of jet fuel.
Ten vessels patrolled the area where the oil spilled and deployed almost 55,000 feet of boom, a protective curtain that holds in the sheen, Singleton said.
The spill initially was measured by a sheen that appeared to be 2 miles long and 200 yards wide.
Using a new technology that was tested during the Cosco Busan spill
Furthermore, officials said they flew a multispectral camera and thermal infrared over the spill to see how bad it had become.
Shoreline fishing has been closed from the Bay Bridge to the San Mateo Bridge along the Alameda County shore.
Much of the spill hit the western shore of Alameda. As of Monday morning, about 80 percent of the spill had been cleaned at Crown Memorial State Beach in Alameda, Singleton said.
At Ballena Isle in Alameda, which has more than 300 boats at its slips, the oil spill affected a dock with about 20 vessels.
"There were globs of the bunker fuel, but they were easy to get out of the water," said Tim Leathers, Almar Marina's regional vice president for Northern California.
Singleton said cleanup now is mainly centered on picking up tar balls and sifting through the sand. "(The tar balls) can be as big as a seat cushion or small as your fingernail," she said.
It is not known when the cleanup will be done.
Staff writer Kristin Bender and correspondent Janet Levaux contributed to this story.
