Word: oils
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...oil and the chemicals that were used to dissolve and distribute the slick were deadly to sea life. Carl Hubbs, marine biology professor emeritus at La Jolla's Scripps Institution, predicted "a complete destruction of life in the intertidal regions along the shore for 20 miles, and considerable destruction for as many as 50 miles." As if in confirmation, the bodies of six seals floated onto Santa Barbara beaches. Autopsies performed on one of three dead dolphins showed that its blowhole had been clogged with oil, causing massive lung hemorrhages...
...spill, the Fisherman's Cooperative Association of San Pedro has not taken a fish out of the channel. "We haven't even seen one," says General Manager Tony Pisano. Lobster and crab fishermen retrieving their pots from the channel found their catch alive, but completely covered with oil...
...Union Oil announced that it would bear the full cost of repairing the mess, and instituted "Operation Sea Sweep." The company sent a huge cleaning contraption into the slick. Powered by tug, the V-shaped strainer-250 ft. across-skims the surface, and deposits oil in a barge. Trouble was, the swells constantly interrupted the devil's labor...
...rocks now are without a trace of tar, but the sea is practically devoid of plankton, which nourishes such underwater creatures as limpets and winkles. By contrast, when the slick floated to the coast of Brittany, the French insisted that toxic detergents should not be used. Scooping up the oil was slower, but less destructive to sea life. However, the bird population has never recovered from the oil. The rare puffin, which nests in the Channel islands, has almost ceased to exist...
...reason was that the various processes proved ineffective. But in their zeal to restore the beauty of Santa Barbara's beaches-some valued at $2,000 a front foot-crews incurred the ire of conservationists by steam-cleaning the rocks, thereby cooking marine life that had escaped the oil...