335 



In accordance with Alaska state law (AS 46.03.750) the terminal operator 

 would re(iuire that no ship be loaded at Poi't Valdez unless the master of the 

 vessel certifies that oil material has not been discharged at any point during the 

 incoming voyage. The context of this regulation, however, permits discharges 

 outside of State waters that are not in excess of r>0 ppm of oil residue. 



Thus, although the position of the United States as pre.sented at the Brussels 

 Conference on Oil Pollution of the Sea in November of 1970 is lo "achieve by mid- 

 decade a CO. -plete halt to all intentional discharge of oil and oily wastes into the 

 oceans by tankers and other vessels" (NATO, 1970. p. 42), current regulations 

 and practice allow substantial discharges. 



Very little research has been directed toward identifying the less obvious 

 effects of oil pollution due to intentional discharge at .sea. At the present time 

 the most conspicuous oil pollution incidents are localized and are caused by 

 accidental spills in nearshore areas ; a recent study reported S5 percent of the 

 major oil spills reviewed occurred within 50 miles of a port (Dillingham Cor- 

 poration, 1970, p. 13 ) . 



A study of critical environmental problems sponsored by ihe ^Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology (MIT, 1970) reported that, depending uiwn their loca- 

 tion, character, and concentration, petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants in the 

 ocean can produce the following unwanted consequences : 



1. Poisoning of marine filter feeders such as clams, oysters, scallops and 

 mussels : other invertebrates ; fish and marine birds. 



2. Disruption of the ecosystem so as to induce long-term devastation of marine 

 life from mass destruction of juvenile forms and of the food sources of higher 

 species. 



3. Degradation of the environment for human use by reducing economic, re- 

 creational, and esthetic values on both short- and long-term basis. 



The same study also pointed out that crude oil and oil fractions iX)ison marine 

 organisms through different effects : 



1. Direct kill through coating and asphyxiation or contact poisoning. 



2. Direct kill through exposure to the dissolved or collodial toxic components 

 of oil at some distance in space and time from the source. 



3. Incorporation of sublethal amounts of oil and oil products into organisms 

 resulting in reduced resistance to infection and other stresses (one of the prin- 

 cipal causes of death of birds surviving the immediate exposure to oil). 



EFFECT OF OIL POLLUTION AT SEA ON BIKDS 



Erickson (1963) noted that oil pollution may serve as an agent of intermittent 

 but continuing attrition, especially on those migrant birds using coastal and off- 

 shore waters. Most pollution-caused losses occur during the coldest months when 

 the birds are abundant along the coast and are concentrated at .stopover ix)ints 

 or on the wintering grounds. Losses under these circumstances may be especially 

 important because they may affect birds which have already survived the south- 

 ward flight and hunting sea.son, and have become the remaining potential breed- 

 ing stock for the next nesting season. 



Damage caused to .seabirds by oil j)ollution is often obscure because it is diffi- 

 cult to detect when birds are lost from more distant populations and because the 

 effect may be widely sjiread and difficult to distinguish from other causes of 

 mortality (Bourne, 1970). The affinities between wintering and breeding areas 

 and migration routes for most populations of seahirds are mostly either unknown 

 or l)ased on speculation. Better information is available for some populations of 

 waterfowl because of extensive bandings and relatively high recovery rates of 

 V>ands for some species. • 



The following di.scussion of the documented effects of oil pollution on birds in- 

 cludes estimates of mortality which are considered to be low. This is because the 

 estimates are based primarily on beach counts of oiled birds and such counts are 

 low for several reasons. Scavenging foxes and gulls quickly remove some carcasses 

 and others are either tossed high upon the shore or buried in sand. Circumstantial 

 evidence suggests that from 50 percent to 91 percent of the birds killed at sea 

 may never wash ashore (.Tones, et al., 1970; Tanis and Miirzer Bruyns, 1968) ; 

 but, rather, they sink or are eaten by gulls and fish. Additionally, birds may either 

 die some distance from the site of oiling or, as later discussed, they may be re- 

 I>roductively impaired. 



During February and March 1970. at least 10.000 birds were killed by oil 

 apparently derived from ballast pumped from tankers entering Cook Inlet, 

 Alaska, in what was referred to as the "Kodiak Oil Spill" (U.S. Department of 



