OIL SPILLS, SEABIRDS, AND NRDA: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN U.S. WEST, EAST, AND GULF COASTS

ABSTRACT Oil released into the marine environment killed millions of seabirds in the twentieth century and every year tens of thousands of sick, debilitated, moribund, and dead oiled seabirds are beached or sink at sea (Piatt et al. 1990a, Camphuysen & Heubeck 2001, Wiese & Ryan 2003). In the U.S., hundreds to thousands of birds are killed each year by oil released from pipelines, platforms, and vessels (Burger & Fry 1993, Carter 2003, USFWS 2005). Huge oil spills from tankers have killed tens to hundreds of thousands of seabirds in a single event (e.g., Exxon Valdez, Prestige) and even relatively small volumes of oil released from a vessel at sea can kill thousands of seabirds (Page et al. 1990, Piatt et al. 1990b, Burger 1993). Prior to the March 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, little attention was paid to the loss of seabirds from oil spills and damage claims for injury to natural resources, such as seabirds, were rare. Since the Exxon Valdez spill, and the subsequent passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90), the pursuit of damages for injury to natural resources has become an expected element of the overall cost of an oil spill. This paper discusses: (1) how the enactment of OPA 90 appears to have affected the oil and marine transportation industries in the U.S., especially along the west coast, (2) how, following the Exxon Valdez spill, natural resource damage (NRD) claims for injury to seabirds have become commonplace, but distinctly different when comparing U.S. west coast oil spills with those on the U.S. east and Gulf of Mexico (hereafter “gulf”) coasts, and (3) predictions on the future source of vessel spills and the changing nature of NRD claim resolution nationwide. An earlier version of this manuscript was provided in Helm et al. (2006); this updated version is similar but provides more details on certain points.