U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Response to
Vessel Grounding/Oil Spill off Unalaska Island
February 25, 2005: After lightering operations on the M/V Selendang
Ayu wreck were concluded on February 11, 2005, the response effort
moved into a winter operations phase. Fisheries water quality sampling
and seafood inspections are ongoing during this period, but clean
up activities were curtailed and monitoring limited to two flights
per week weather permitting. Assessment activities will resume on
April 4 and full scale clean up activities on April 15.
The initial response effort resulted in the collection of approximately
38,000 bags of oily solid waste consisting of vegetation, wrack, sand/gravel,
and driftwood; 1,608 bird carcasses; 5 otter carcasses; and a total
of 144,931 gallons of oil, diesel and oil/water mixture. The bow of
the Selendang Ayu is now completely submerged and the Unified
Command estimates that 321,052 gallons of IFO and an unknown amount
of marine diesel fuel were released into the environment.
Beginning in April, Service personnel will head back out to Unalaska
to participate on Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Teams (SCAT), assigned
to assess the post-winter oiling shoreline conditions. Service biologists
will conduct wildlife reconnaissance, including observations of breeding
birds in the shoreline zone, oiled wildlife sightings, and presence
of oiled carcasses. Wildlife search and recovery teams may be activated
based on SCAT team observations. Service representatives will also
coordinate wildlife needs with SCAT activities and cleanup operations.