January 02, 1986 - Assessing the Fallout of an Oil SpillSecond Section/ The Suffolk Times Page 1A
January 2, 1986
Assessing the Fallout of an Oil Spill
By PAUL STOUTENBURGH
Because there has been much concern
about the oil barge that went down in
The Race off Fisher's Island, and be-
cause there is the potential of some of
that oil coming ashore on one of South -
old's many beaches, I thought it might
be worthwhile to see what happened so
far over on the South Shore where there
has already been some damage. It also
Focus on
Nature
gave me an excuse to get together with
some friends and do some reconnoiter-
ing along those lovely beaches that face
on Gardiners Bay.
I had made some preliminary calls to
East Hampton's Department of Natural
Resources and found out that the har-
dest hit area immediately after the spill
was around Montauk Harbor -- and that
was relatively slight. I also was told
that they had found 40 or more dead
loons and other water birds along their
beaches. This was a real shocker to me,
for the loon is a big diving bird that has
experienced a drastic loss in pepulation
in the last 10 years. On top of this, I
was told the other group of birds that
had been oiled had a strong possibility
of dying in the near future from expo -
sure.
From past experience, we know man
),as been able to do little in the way of
cleaning up oiled birds because it is al-
most impossible to clean them without
removing the natural oils in their feath-
ers that protect them from the cold
water. With that in mind, I wanted to
see for myself how the spill affected the
area and so we rendezvoused with
friends in Riverhead and headed to the
Montauk area.
Our first stretch of beach was at
Napeague, where we immediately
found a dead loon covered with oil. From
then on, every half mile or so we would
come across another one. Many were
half eaten by gulls who never mind
what or who their food source is. At one
spot we were barricaded by rocks along
the shore and had to turn back since
we were in a friend's jeep. We headed
inland through that wonderful park
area of Hither Hills and stopped off at
Hidden Lake, as I call it, to check for
ducks. Two loons, some bufflehead, a
group of black ducks, and mallards way
off to the west and a lone cormorant
sunning himself on a log is all we could
find.
Westward Ho
Our next approach was to ride from
Montauk Point along the north shore
to the west. At one point, the rocks al-
most prevented us from passing again,
but one thing nice about these rocks --
they extended out into the water where,
we spotted among the mergansers and
scoters two male harlequin ducks.
These are probably one of the most
gaudy ducks that the sea produces. This
was a rare treat and we all had to get
out and double check this winter visitor
from the north. All along we saw flocks
of sea ducks and the usual collection of
black- backed and herring gulls that are
always on the prowl. We checked them
over carefully with our binoculars for
what we call white -wing gulls, but
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
OILED LOON -- Although the oil spill from the sinking of a barge in The -
Race off Fisher's Island was minor, up to this date there have been
over 56 known sea birds found dead. Over 100 birds have been found
partially oiled. Their future is grim.
found none. These occasional visitors
sometime visit us from the cold Arctic
and there is no better place to find them
than at Montauk.
We also found more dead loons along
this stretch. It seemed as if they re-
ceived the brunt of the oil spill. Our
count was about 16 dead loons by now.
Since we had covered only a small por-
tion of the shore, we could now under-
stand why East Hampton had already
reported 40. I'm sure also by now many
of the dead had been picked up by pre-
dators such as fox and raccoons and had
been hauled away to a safer place where
they wouldn't have to share their meal
with the gulls.
We also found a dead deer that the
gulls were feasting over. This rang a
bell since I had just talked with Mike
Laspia at Shelter Island's Mashomack
Preserve, who reported a deer on their
beach half covered with oil. The one we
saw was so decomposed we couldn't tell
if it had been oiled. Whether the oil had
anything to do with the Shelter Island
deer's demise we don't know, but it evi-
dently had run into the oil while swim-
ming -- probably from Gardiners. It's
remarkable how far deer will swim, par-
ticularly when the bucks are looking
for mates.
A Rare Visitor
Further on down the beach we spotted
a handsome king eider. We've all heard
of eider down jackets and it is from this
species of duck that the world famous
down comes from. In the far north, the
natives collect the down from the nests
of the birds, being sure that they don't
take all the down and therefore cool the
eggs. It was a treat to see this visitor
among the other ducks. One of our party
was doubly happy for it allowed him to
add not one (the king eider) but the
harlequin ducks as well to his life list
of birds.
Our last stop was the tourist stop at
the park at the end of Montauk Point.
Here we saw a huge flock of red -
breasted mergansers fly by. Probably a
thousand or more. It was a breathtak-
ing sight. Further out there were gan-
nets fishing along with Bonaparte's
gulls and kittiwakes, again visitors
from the north. The gannets are beauti-
ful white birds with black wing tips,
which makes them easy to pick out from
a distance. Their wing spread is over
six feet.
It was good to be with friends on a
beautiful, clear winter day. Luckily the
temperature was in our favor and the
usual cold, and unrelenting winds of
Montauk had died to almost nil. The
disappointment was finding all those
dead loons. It made us wonder just what
the real potential could be if that barge
laying in 200 feet of water off Fisher's
Island should ever break up. There is
little we can do but put our faith in the
Coast Guard, which is keeping a sharp
eye on the situation.
There are risks we take living in
today's world. Our only hope is that
these risks can be minimized enough to
do the least amount of damage to our
environment, remembering always
that we are part of that environment.
Library Post to Tuthill
MATTITUCK- -Helen Tuthill has
been named children's librarian of the
Mattituck Free Library, it was an-
nounced this week. Ms. Tuthill, who has
been working at the library's circula-
tion desk for the past six months, will
assume her new duties Jan. 1.
Ms. Tuthill received her Bachelor's
degree in education at the State Univer-
sity at Oneonta. A teacher with 12 years
experience, she was most recently em-
ployed as a teacher in the Laurel School.
Earlier this year, she took over the re-
sponsibility of conducting the children's
story hours.
The Suff o& Ti mes
429 Main Street, P.O. Box F • Greenport, New York 11944
(516) 477 -0081
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(516) 727.3000
Interesting - Informed - In Touch
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