Sarah,
        Now, that sounds like our oil spill here in Humboldt Bay last year,
about 300 miles south of you. The cleanup will probably involve lots of
volunteers and the insurance company for the freighter will not have to pay
for that part of the cleanup.  Do the freighters come into Coos Bay often
enough to have your city fathers make up a "Clean-up Law", forcing the
companies to pay for damages of the bay, the oyster losses and the cleanup?
Here in Eureka, the City Council is afraid to make such demands and the
volunteer groups still get asked for help.  Fish & Game isn't much help
either.
Dan
 
 
>Here we go... finally a little info about the "lesser" animals that were
>involved in the oil spill.
>
>Sarah
>
>
>
>
>Crabbers Hit by Oregon Oil Spill
>
>.c The Associated Press
>
> By JEFF BARNARD
>
>COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) -- Though the decision to burn a grounded cargo ship kept
>thousands of gallons of oil off ocean beaches, oyster growers are angry that
>even the little oil flowing toward sheltered tidal flats threatens $10 million
>worth of shellfish.
>
>``This is prime oyster growing ground,'' said Lilli Clausen, who with her
>husband, Max, has been growing oysters in Coos Bay since 1980 and ships them
>around the world. ``Whoever made the oil spill response didn't consider
>oysters.''
>
>Tarballs and a light sheen of oil from the grounded cargo ship have flowed
>about five miles into Coos Bay, prompting the state's agriculture department
>on Friday to shut down harvests at the four oyster farms there.
>
>Officials will test to see if the shellfish have been contaminated.
>
>``My opinion is that with the light amount of oil coming, in they will
>survive,'' said John Johnson, shellfish biologist with the Oregon Department
>of Fish and Wildlife.
>
>Recreational shellfishing has also been banned in the area and crab fishermen
>have been unable to pull pots in an area around the grounded ship closed to
>the public.
>
>``We just don't want to take any risk of oiled shellfish getting out to the
>public,'' said Deb Cannon of the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
>
>The spill came just as oyster farmers were preparing to set out new oysters
>for the next generation. Clausen lets her oysters grow three years before
>harvesting them.
>
>The 639-foot Japanese-owned cargo ship New Carissa ran aground on the beach a
>mile north of the entrance to Coos Bay on Feb. 4 and last Monday began leaking
>oil from its fuel tanks.
>
>Faced with the threat of the ship breaking up in stormy weather and spilling
>nearly 400,000 gallons of tarlike bunker fuel oil on southern Oregon beaches,
>authorities came up with a bold plan to crack open the ship's fuel tanks with
>explosives and set the fuel on fire with napalm.
>
>With a fiery explosion Thursday night, the fuel was ignited and during the
>blaze the ship broke apart, spilling more oil. Authorities have estimated at
>least two-thirds of the fuel has burned.
>
>The ship fire, which was briefly reignited Saturday after burning out
>overnight, was out again Saturday afternoon.
>
>Less than 10 percent of the fuel is believed to have leaked out since cracks
>developed in the fuel tanks Monday.
>
>So far, 25 dead birds have been recovered, 11 of them oiled.
 
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Dan & Hiromi Yoshimoto
1164 Vista Dr.
Eureka, California
        95503-6018
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