Coast Guard works to contain Bodega Bay diesel spill

An oily sheen fouls wetlands in Bodega Bay in this drone photograph taken Friday.
photo credit: Richard Charter

The Coast Guard continues monitoring conditions in Bodega Bay following a diesel fuel spill late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning at Spud Point Marina.

As of Friday afternoon, officials said clean up efforts have concluded. No marine mammals are known to have been impacted.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Second Class Brian Rojas is stationed at Bodega Bay. He described the incident.

"One of the fishing vessels, I believe they were loading fuel and one of the pipes ruptured, and it discharged about 200 gallons of diesel to the bay," Rojas told KRCB.

Rojas said officials are advising those fishing to cast their lines into the ocean rather than the bay. He said the spill was the largest he's aware of in the four years he's been stationed there, and crews did what they are trained for.

"They contained as much as they could, pretty much that's all that happened," Rojas said. "They boomed around [the source of the fule], the [Bodega Bay] fire department came over...and then also the [Sonoma County] sheriff went over and talked to the person in the boat. [Crews] cleaned whatever they could...not a lot of it didn't go out to the bay, but there was some."

Local environmentalist Richard Charter, with the Ocean Foundation, said he feared the spill might be considerably larger.

Charter shared photos taken by drone, showing an oily sheen on water in the wetlands on the south edge of the bay, a dead shorebird and crab. While acknowledging the spill was fairly minor, he said it happened in very sensitive habitat. He's concerned that abnormally high tides expected over the coming days will spread the spilt fuel further inland.

The Coast Guard's Rojas says small amounts likely reached the ocean due to currents and tidal action.

Since it was diesel fuel and not oil, much of whatever wasn't cleaned up, has mostly evaporated.