– Doug McConnell

Islands have closed. Beaches are contaminated. Fisheries are shutdown. Birds are soiled. Tempers are short. Fingers are pointed. Hearts are broken. Nearly 60,000 gallons of oil follow the currents around San Francisco Bay and out through the Golden Gate into the Gulf of the Farallones. Prime wildlife habitats are under assault and it’s not at all clear how far the catastrophe will reach and how long its consequences will last.

Photo: Carl Bidleman

I don’t claim to have any great insights. But I recommend a number of organizations to you and you may know others you’d like to post here as well. I’m a big fan of the San Francisco Bay Keeper and the worldwide network of bay and water keepers. Locally, Save the Bay and The Bay Institute are fine and knowledgeable institutions which advocate for the understanding and protection of the entire bay and its far-flung watershed. I’m sure the Marine Mammal Center, Wildcare in Marin, and the Peninsula Humane Society are good sources of information, too.

If I weren’t so wrapped up in helping build OpenRoad.TV, I’d be much more involved in trying to figure out, as a reporter, how all of this happened and what could have been done to prevent or at least corral the spill. As a citizen, I’m reserving judgment until more facts are in but I am stunned and amazed at how poorly we were prepared for a spill. We have millions upon millions of gallons of oil and other hazardous materials coming and going through the Bay every day. This small body of water is one of the busiest in the world and one of the most vulnerable to the slightest human or technological failings. We’ve had spills here before. Did no one see this coming? Why was there not an instant response from all of the affected communities and agencies? Oil in the Bay, in huge or small amounts, should be an immediate “all hands on deck” emergency, but it surely doesn’t appear as if it were treated that way.

I covered the Exxon Valdez tragedy in 1989. The ship ran aground on Bligh Reef in calm weather. The oil seeped into the sea but could have been contained for several days had there been an adequate response capability. By the time serious oil containment efforts were underway, the weather had changed. The winds blew, the seas became rough and the currents carried the oil and their awful effects far and wide for hundreds of miles. The damage was done. People were left with the sad chores of counting dead animals, saving a few and uselessly and perhaps harmfully scrubbing rocks and sterilizing beaches. It was an exercise in near futility.

The San Francisco Bay spill looks to me like a microcosm of the Exxon Valdez calamity. Human error compounded by inadequate response. Those who depend upon the sea, mammals, birds, fish and fishers are left to bear the burden. Those of us who love Angel Island, Alcatraz, Marin Headlands and the beaches, wetlands and waterways in this region are left with broken hearts.