BUZZARDS BAY, Mass., April 29 (UPI) -- Experts Tuesday assessed the damage caused by an oil spill that forced the closure of three-quarters of the rich shellfish beds in environmentally fragile Buzzards Bay, Mass.
The Coast Guard said nearly 15,000 gallons of No. 6 heavy industrial oil leaked from a barge under tow Sunday night before being contained. The spill was the largest Buzzards Bay had in 25 years.
Oil spill recovery vessels and skimmer ships were working to clean up the oil, but blobs of the sticky substance had already come ashore in the southeastern Massachusetts towns of Fairhaven, Dartmouth and Westport.
The heavy black oil was blamed for the death of least five seabirds and several other oil-slicked birds were being treated.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society said it was "worried" more fouled birds would be found, and that beach nesting areas of the endangered tern and piping plover could be threatened.
State officials, meanwhile, closed 75 percent of the prime shellfish beds in the 228-square-mile bay as a precaution.
The Division of Marine Fisheries described the area as the "most productive" in the state for hard shell clams, known as quahogs, as well as soft-shell clams, oysters and bay scallops.
Shell fishing is a $4 million a year industry in Buzzards Bay, supporting some 500 commercial permits and 800 recreational permits.
It was not immediately known how long the beds would be closed.
"It knocks me right out" of business, said Richard Roh, a shell fisherman who wondered where he would be able to find another livelihood. "We have no insurance, we can't collect unemployment," he told New England Cable News. "It's just go find a job doing something else or something."
"There is going to be an impact" on the fishing industry in New Bedford, said Mayor Fred Kalisz Jr.
The Coast Guard said the oil leaked from a barge being towed to a power plant in Sandwich, Mass., from Philadelphia.
Morton Bouchard, president and chief executive officer of the company that owns the barge, Bouchard Transportation Co. of New York, apologized Monday night in a statement.
"We certainly apologize to the citizens of Massachusetts," he said, pledging to help clean up the oil.
The Coast Guard said a dive team found a 12-by-2-foot rip in the hull of the 376-foot barge. What caused the gash was under investigation, but could have been a submerged rock.
The barge was carrying more than 850,000 gallons of oil when a slick was discovered trailing the vessel. The Coast Guard said at one point Monday the slick covered an area 11 miles by 2 miles.
The barge, surrounded by booms to contain the spill, was anchored some four miles southwest of Woods Hole Tuesday awaiting a second barge to come to offload its remaining cargo.
The Coast Guard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection are overseeing the efforts to clean up the oil and minimize the environmental impact.
