Oil Spillage in San Francisco Bay - 14.11.07

A container ship crashed into the San Francisco Bay Bridge and caused the largest oil spill in that area since 1988.  It spilt 58,000 gallons of crude "bunker fuel" into the bay.

The ship was the 810-foot Cocso Busan from South Korea, which had just left the port of Oakland and was moving out to sea when it collided with the Bay Bridge in a heavy fog.

The captain of the ship said that the heavy fog caused visibility problems, and this contributed to both the crash and the difficulty in assessing the extent of the spill.

The California Department of Fish and Game and the Coast Guard sent out absorbent skimmers to prevent the oil slick from spreading, but the inevitable tidal movements have already carried some of the oil to shorelines as far as 20 miles from the spill.

By the day after the accident, only about 9,500 gallons of the 58,000 gallon spill had been cleaned up. A privately-owned clean up company, O’Brien’s Group of southern California, has been hired by the ship’s owners to help out. Barry McFarland, a spokesperson for the company, said that there are eight vessels employed in the clean up effort, with 18,000 feet of "containment boom," and 115 employees working on the beaches. When asked how long it might take to finish the task, McFarland said, "It's too early to tell any timeline. We'll be here for quite some time."

State funds have been released for the rescue and clean up efforts.

It has been reported that the Cosco Busan is fully insured for clean up by the Steamship Mutual, a protection and indemnity club which in turn is a member of the International Group of P&I Associations, which provides reinsurance for club members up to a total limit of $1.05 billion for pollution claims.   

No statements in relation to any loss have yet been made by the owners or by the Steamship Mutual.  It will plainly take time for the full extent of the insured loss to become evident.