Oil From Ruptured Pipeline Threatening Western Snowy Plovers

Oil from a ruptured pipeline at Refugio State Beach is showing up at Sands Beach on the Coal Oil Point Reserve where threatened shore birds are in the middle of their nesting season.

Coal Oil Point Reserve is one of the few places on the west coast where the Western Snowy Plover can breed and live.

According to the Coal Oil Point Reserve Director Cristina Sandoval, only about 1,500 plovers are left on the entire west coast.

During breeding season about 40 birds can be found at the reserve.

In winter about 300 birds are there.

Five days after the oil spill at Refugio, tar balls started washing ashore on Sands Beach at Coal Oil Point, just feet away from where the plovers were nesting.

“Saturday night we started smelling the oil. By Sunday morning this place looked awful. All the kelp that washed into the high tide was covered in oil,” Sandoval said.

Soon after, Sandoval said she noticed some of the tiny barrel chested birds were showing up with oil on their feet, beaks and feathers.

“We were starting to see oil stuck to their feet as they pecked the kelp. They got blobs on their beaks and feathers. We saw many of the plovers that were more heavily oiled preening themselves all the time,” Sandoval said.

For days, Sandoval supervised the beach clean-up which was a delicate process.

Crews couldn’t remove all of the oiled kelp because the birds eat insects and beach hoppers feeding on kelp.

Sandoval said crews used scissors to cut the tar away from the kelp and brought fresh kelp to the high tide lines for the birds to eat.

Sandoval is mostly concerned that the birds may have ingested some oil before the kelp was removed or while cleaning themselves when they were soiled.

“We are counting birds every day to make sure they are accounted for. If we see any signs of a sick plover that can’t fly or doesn’t look good, then we are going to capture to see if we can rehabilitate it,” Sandoval said.

Sandoval said most of the oil has been removed from the shoreline and anticipates more will not wash ashore.

She is hopeful the plovers will be OK and said one of the heaviest oiled birds found days after the spill recently mated and has a nest with three eggs.