ACTIVISTS RAP OIL TANKER STUDY.

Byline: Associated Press 

A federal study looking at the dangers of steering oil tankers through an off-shore wildlife sanctuary merely recommends further investigation - a conclusion that infuriates environmentalists.

Supporters of a proposed 50-mile buffer zone around the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary had hoped the study would come down on their side.

But the report by the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, made public last week, found that the risk of a major oil spill in the region is so small that no buffer zone is warranted.

``It's clear that sanctuary resources are abundant and delicate and a (tanker accident) would have a catastrophic impact on those resources,'' said Coast Guard Commander Chip Sharpe, who helped draft the report.

``However, the report didn't find any significant navigational risk occurring on the `coastwise' transit,'' he said. ``The great risk occurs in the port approaches. But in those places, we've already layered on a lot of regulations.''

The report left open the possibility of restrictions, after public hearings are held to discuss the matter.

But that also failed to satisfy critics, who were unhappy that the report took 4-1/2 years to produce yet recommended no specific actions.

Two California lawmakers - Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Monterey - who sought unsuccessfully to create the buffer zone through an act of Congress called the report bitterly disappointing.

``The Coast Guard has shirked its responsibility,'' Farr said.

Warner Chabot, Pacific region director for the Center for Marine Conservation, called the report ``a toothless masterpiece of mush.''

``The report is hypocritical and scientifically indefensible,'' he said.