• Abnormal fish or macro invertebrate behavior, such as sluggishness, 

 disorientation, erratic swimming patterns, benthic infauna leaving 

 their burrows or tubes, etc. 



• Appearance of attached fauna or flora; i.e., pigment bleaching or 

 loss of turgor by the soft-bodied animals. 



• The movement in the near-shore rushes of waterfowl and/or wildlife 

 that may be distressed from oil. 



After the field activities and sampling sorties have been completed, 

 the biologists reassemble to discuss immediate observations and to brief the 

 OSC and the response team on damage assessment. In most cases, this briefing 

 emphasizes: 



• The overt damage to the fisheries and other dominant populations 



• The results of latent toxicity tests. (In most cases, this information 

 will not be available for 24 to 48 h after the tests are completed.) 



• The potential for sensitive habitats to become oiled 



After assembling these data and ancillary field observations, EPA biologists 

 then meet with biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the 

 State to provide the OSC with: 



• Recommendations on those biological communities and/or habitats that 

 should receive priority for special consideration during cleanup 

 operations. This treatment may involve boom placement at critical 

 locations to divert floating oil away from the sensitive habitats. 

 It may involve a judgment decision to remove oil from a contaminated 

 but sensitive habitat to lessen the impact. 



• Recommendations as to the types of cleanup operations that would be 

 most effective and least damaging to the environment. For example, 

 oiled marsh plants may be left to be washed by currents or tidal action 

 in locations where conditions are optimal for this to occur. In other 

 instances, it may be better to diminish long-term effects by cutting 



or cropping the oiled grasses. In most cases, the "rule-of-thumb" 

 that EPA advocates is to remove the oiled substrate to diminish the 

 chances of bleed or runoff. More insidious is the prospect for these 

 "loose" hydrocarbons to become active in the food web and be incorporated 

 into the energy pathways, thus eventually contaminating an exploitable 

 or consumable species. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS 



In the past, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not always had repre- 

 sentatives on the scene, in which cases, EPA biologists have worked with State 

 fish and game personnel to set up and operate oiled bird collection, cleaning, 

 and rehabilitation centers. This has meant that damage assessment activities 

 were not emphasized or did not occur at all. 



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