Crude oil from the Santa Barbara 

 spill polluted a large portion of the 

 mainland coast, and many of the Channel 

 Islands (Foster et al. 1971a). Damage to 

 kelp forest communities is discussed in 

 Foster et al . (1971b), and overall damage 

 to marine organisms is reviewed by Foster 

 and Holmes (1977). Assessment of spill 

 effects was complicated by record storms 

 that occurred at the same time as the 

 spill. Numerous birds associated with 

 kelp were killed by the oil, but other 

 than a decline in mysid shrimp abundance 

 (Ebeling et al. 1971), little damage to 

 kelp forest algae, invertebrates or fishes 

 was observed, even though considerable 

 quantities of oil fouled the surface 

 canopies (Figure 31). The partially 

 weathered crude oil appeared to stay on 

 the surface of the water, and did not 

 stick to the fronds of giant kelp. 



Additional damage may have occurred 

 if the more volatile components of the oil 

 had not had time to evaporate before 

 reaching shore, or if more toxic refined 

 products were spilled, as during the 

 Tampico wreck. If a spill like that in 

 Santa Barbara occurred in central Califor- 

 nia, it would probably have a severe 

 impact on sea otters (see Section 6.7 

 below and Siniff et al . 1982 for review). 



Santa Barbara and other areas along, 

 the southern California coast have natural 

 oil seeps in or near giant kelp forests. 

 The oil from these seeps fouls beaches and 

 produces surface slicks (Mertz 1959). 

 Flow rates of seeps near Santa Barbara 

 vary from 50 to 70 bbl/day (Allen et al. 

 1970), and oozing tar mounds are sometimes 

 visible on the bottom within giant kelp 

 forests (Spies and Davis 1979). The 

 latter investigators compared soft bottom 

 organisms around a subtidal seep with 

 those around non-seep areas, and found a 

 similar diversity, but increased abun- 

 dances near the seep. They suggested that 

 bacteria may degrade the oil and provide 

 an enriched food source for the local 

 infauna, and that some organisms adapt to 

 oil exposure by producing enzymes that 

 detoxify assimilated oil. 



6.5.4 Power Plant Discharge and Intake 



B 



« 



The San Onofre 

 Station (SONGS) near 



Nuclear Generating 

 Oceanside north of 



Figure 31. Aerial photography of giant 

 kelp canopy during the Santa Barbara oil 

 spill. A, oil streaming from kelp canopy; 

 B, black area of heavy oil on beach. 

 (Photo by Mark Hurd Aerial Surveys, 

 Goleta, Ca. ) 



San Diego currently discharges heated 

 water in the vicinity of a kelp forest. 

 Based on a variety of surveys, the dis- 

 charge from the first operating unit of 

 this plant has had little or no effect on 

 the San Onofre kelp forest 1 km away 

 (McGrath et al. 1980). Two new and larger 

 units recently began operation. These 

 have elaborate discharge diffuser systems 

 which should eliminate most thermal 

 effects (Murdoch et al . 1980). However, 

 by placing the intakes for these units in 

 more turbid, shallow water, and by en- 

 training large amounts of bottom water 

 during discharge, these units are 

 predicted to increase turbidity around the 

 discharge (Murdoch et al . 1980). Because 

 the discharge pipes for these units are 

 within 200 m of the San Onofre kelp 

 forest, the increased turbidity could have 

 significant impacts on Macrocystis and 



115 



