Natural Resource Damage Assessment for the Cosco Busan Oil Spill BIRD INJURY SUMMARY
February 2008
Live and Dead Birds Collected (n = 2940)
other, 145 other ducks, 197
Western or Clark's Grebe, 562
During the response to the Cosco Busan oil spill of November 7, 2007, 2,940 birds from over 50 species were collected live and dead. Of the 1,084 birds collected alive, 421 were cleaned and released. The table and charts below provide information on the species composition. While most of the birds enumerated below had visible oil on them, it is possible that some of them are not related to the oil spill. Additionally, it is likely that many more birds were impacted by the spill but were not collected. This is because they came ashore in inaccessible areas, were scavenged, or were simply missed. Further analysis is being done on all of these factors, which will eventually result in a total mortality estimate for each species.
Surf Scoter, 766
Eared or Horned Grebe, 288
Loons, 56 Common Murre, 288
Greater Scaup, 170
Cormorants, 248 Northern Fulmar, 56
other alcids, 45 Gulls, 119
Bird Collection by Day
250 200 150 100 50 0 7Nov 8Nov 9Nov 10Nov 11Nov 12Nov 13Nov 14Nov 15Nov 16Nov 17Nov 18Nov 19Nov 20Nov 21Nov 22Nov
live
dead
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Natural Resource Damage Assessment for the Cosco Busan Oil Spill
BIRD INJURY SUMMARY
Preliminary results from the Live and Dead Bird Intake Logs are below. All identifications and totals are subject to further analysis.
species Western Grebe Clark's Grebe Western/Clark's Grebe Horned Grebe Eared Grebe Eared/Horned Grebe Pied-billed Grebe Common Loon Pacific Loon Red-throated Loon loon, sp. Rhinoceros Auklet Common Murre Pigeon Guillemot Cassin's Auklet Marbled Murrelet Ancient Murrelet alcid, sp. Glaucous-winged Gull Herring Gull Gl-W x Western Gull Western Gull Glaucous Gull California Gull Mew Gull Bonaparte's Gull gull, sp. Parasitic Jaeger Northern Fulmar Northern Fulmar? Double-cr.Cormorant Brandt's Cormorant Pelagic Cormorant cormorant, sp. live 155 14 1 56 143 3 1 25 1 2 0 2 54 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 6 0 1 1 1 0 0 5 0 11 5 0 0 dead 249 16 127 22 58 6 0 12 9 6 1 29 234 2 5 3 1 3 9 4 2 50 1 15 3 0 24 1 51 1 55 123 8 46 total 404 30 128 78 201 9 1 37 10 8 1 31 288 2 5 3 1 3 11 4 2 56 1 16 4 1 24 1 56 1 66 128 8 46 species Brown Pelican Red-breasted Merganser Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup scaup, sp. scaup? Bufflehead Bufflehead? Long-tailed Duck White-winged Scoter Surf Scoter scoter, sp. Ruddy Duck duck, sp. Canada Goose Greater White-fr. Goose Black-cr. Night-Heron Great-blue Heron American Coot Common Moorhen dowitcher, sp. Dunlin Western Sandpiper Snowy Plover Black Turnstone shorebird, sp. Red-shouldered Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Crow Rock Pigeon Eurasian Starling Fox Sparrow unidentified bird TOTAL live 4 1 95 13 1 0 6 0 0 11 394 0 41 0 0 1 0 0 23 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 1084 dead 8 0 75 15 33 2 1 1 1 17 372 15 30 9 3 0 2 2 20 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 3 3 1 1 60 1856 total 12 1 170 28 34 2 7 1 1 28 766 15 71 9 3 1 2 2 43 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 3 1 1 60 2940
Contacts Steve Hampton: shampton@ospr.dfg.ca.gov (916) 323-4724 Greg Baker: greg.baker@noaa.gov (650) 329-5048 Al Donner: Al_Donner@fws.gov (916) 414-6566
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