- Sea otters dead - 6 (based on the 10/1 Loss to Recovery Ratio - estimated 60)
- Birds dead - 1,622 (based on the 10/1 Loss to Recovery Ratio - estimated 16,000)
- No other marine mammals reported as of yet
Marine Habitat
Shoreline habitats in Skan Bay and Makushin Bay include salt-brackish water marshes, eelgrass beds, and tidal flats that are important feeding areas for shorebirds and waterfowl during the spring and summer.
Bird Species
Wildlife carcasses recovered as of January 30 include over 1,500 birds and six sea otters, with total initial mortality estimates of perhaps 10-20 times that number. This is considered to be a major mortality of seabirds. In addition, chronic oil effects on wildlife are expected to linger for years. A longer-term concern is the possibility that rats, typically present on such freighters, could reach shore. Rats are rapacious predators of ground nesting birds.
Species known to have been oiled from initial observations include: double-crested cormorant, pelagic cormorant, horned grebe, red-necked grebe, common loon, black scoter, harlequin duck, long-tailed duck, rock sandpiper, glaucous-winged gull, glaucous gull, common murre, pigeon guillemot, crested auklet, and whiskered auklet.
The Christmas bird count in Dutch Harbor, for example, routinely identifies more than 70 species of birds, many in concentrations numbering in the hundreds. Most of these species can be expected to occur in the spill area as well. In addition, new birds, and new species of birds, are migrating into the area at this time and will continue to do so through the winter. Birds in the general area will also continue to move about in response to weather, etc.
These waterfowl, seaducks and seabirds winter in the sheltered bays and nearshore waters of Unalaska Island, including emperor geese, loons, scoters, goldeneyes, eiders, harlequin duck, scaup, pigeon guillemot, auklets, murrelets, cormorants, and kittiwakes. Risk also falls on resident bald eagles and ravens who may scavenge on oiled birds that come ashore with the storms.
Bogoslof Island, one of the remote islands near the accident source, is a nesting ground for Red-legged Kittiwakes which were recently assigned "vulnerable" status on World Conservation Union's Red List of Threatened Species. (US Fish Wildlife Service).
Seabird nesting colonies are located on these islands' cliff faces and offshore rocks and occupied during the summer by horned puffin, tufted puffin, common murre, glaucous-winged gull, black oystercatcher, double-crested cormorant, pelagic cormorant, and pigeon guillemot.
Marine Mammals
Before this spill, the Bering Sea area had already suffered an 80 percent plummet in Steller sea lions. Oil now has apparently reached beaches important for these endangered Steller sea lions.
Northern fur seals are at risk, with a known rookery on Bogoslof island near the accident source. Northern Fur Seals have been at a 60% decline since 1950s in the breeding population on Pribilof Islands (Roughly 185 miles North of Aleutian Islands); pup numbers declining steadily since 1970s (National Marine Mammal Laboratory, 2004). During the breeding season, approximately 74% of the worldwide population of northern fur seals are found on the Pribilof Islands.
Sea otters and other marine mammals, as well as fresh and saltwater fish and other marine species, are found in these areas and are of concern.
Fisheries
Over half of America's commercial fish catch is caught in Alaskan waters.
The local Tanner crab fishery scheduled for January 2005 in Makushin Bay was canceled by State of Alaska due to oil contamination in area.
Most of the Groundfish fisheries in the Bering Sea will not be largely impacted because they are far enough out to sea.
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