OIL SPILL DISRUPTS S.F. BAY : PETROLEUM CASTS PALL OVER BIRD MIGRATION, HERRING SPAWNING.

Byline: Jane Kay San Francisco Examiner 

The 8,400-gallon oil spill in San Francisco Bay may not be major in size, but it packs a significant ecological threat because of its timing.

Hundreds of thousands of migrating birds and ducks are stopping to feed in the bay on the fall voyage to Southern California and Central America. Some winter in the bay's marshes and mud flats.

``It's never a good time for an oil spill,'' said Marge Kolar, manager of the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. ``But this is a critical time for the bay. The birds stop over here on their way south. They come in hungry to eat. This is the time the birds put on fat reserves to fly further south.''

On Monday, a ship undergoing repair at San Francisco Drydock Inc. at the foot of 20th Street leaked 80,000 gallons of bunker fuel oil from an open valve. About a tenth of the oil reached the bay, according to the Coast Guard.

By Wednesday, oil coated the shoreline from India Basin, north of Hunters Point, to Crissy Field. Miles-long black streaks were floating under the Bay Bridge, washing up on Angel, Alcatraz, Treasure and Yerba Buena islands and several miles to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.

A sheen of oil moved east to the Alameda Naval Air Station and north beyond the Golden Gate, past the Cliff House.

The bay's last big spill occurred in 1988 when a broken Shell Oil Co. pipeline leaked 365,000 gallons of crude oil into Carquinez Strait.

The California Fish and Game Department and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigated the islands and shore Wednesday.

Scientists reported that more than 100 sea gulls, grebes, cormorants, loons, egrets, oyster-catchers and endangered brown pelicans had become oiled. The International Bird Rescue Research Center in Berkeley was caring for five gulls.

``As wildlife are oiled and grow weaker, they slow down and we can catch them and bring them into rehabilitation,'' said Fish and Game spokeswoman Alexia Retallack.

Scientists say about 90 percent of birds that die from poisonous petrochemicals or the cold are never found and counted. The oil mats the birds' feathers, reducing the insulating effect and leaving them vulnerable to hypothermia.

Bob McLandress, a researcher for the California Waterfowl Association, fears for the diving ducks - scaups and scoters - and the canvasback, mallards and pintail, which are arriving earlier this year because of cold weather.

On Wednesday, Fish and Game also started checking the herring run, the bay's only commercial fishery.

``The herring have just started to enter the bay to spawn,'' Retallack said. ``The concern is that the oil may settle on the underwater plants where they lay their roe during spawning.''

Meanwhile on Wednesday, the National Park Service advised people not to walk, surf, swim or wind-surf at oil-spotted beaches. Among them are Fort Funston, Ocean Beach to Land's End, China Beach, Baker Beach to Fort Point, Fort Point Pier and Crissy Field to the Municipal Pier and Aquatic Park. Others are Kirby Cove to Rodeo Beach and the waterfront along East Fort Baker.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) A sea gull covered with fuel oil travels through a portion of San Francisco Bay two days after Monday's 8,400-gallon oil spill.

(2) A crew skims fuel oil. A ship in dry dock leaded 80,000 gallons of oil Monday; about 10 percent reached the Bay.

Associated Press