The San Francisco Bay oil spill

In what has become one of the greatest threats in recent history to the San Francisco Bay ecosystem, a cargo tanker on Nov. 7 collided with the Bay Bridge and released approximately 58,000 gallons of hazardous bunker fuel into the waters of the bay.

While the environmental impacts of the spill have reached across the entire ecosystem, the story of the disaster has largely been written through images of dead or suffering birds. This is natural as the well-being of birds is a remarkably accurate indicator of the health of a specific ecosystem.

“If something is wrong in the environment, birds will typically be the first to tell us,” said Gary Langham, director of bird conservation for Audubon California. “The San Francisco Bay is a vital ecosystem for migrating birds in this hemisphere, so it’s not surprising at all that they are bearing the brunt of this disaster.”

Since the spill began, staff and volunteers at the Richardson Bay Audubon Center and Sanctuary in Tiburon have observed more than 200 oiled birds, most of which were dead or out of reach. We have transported about two dozen birds to recovery facilities.

“These numbers are particularly frightening because Richardson Bay is only one small part of the larger bay ecosystem, and it has so far escaped the massive oil slicks that have hit other regions,” said Langham, who estimates that by the time the numbers are tallied for the entire bay, thousands of birds will die. Many of these, he notes, are already under threat from habitat loss and other dangers.

The San Francisco Bay has been designated an Important Bird Area of Global Significance by Audubon California. It was given this high designation because it hosts well over a million birds annually and some of the last remaining wetlands in California. San Francisco Bay is host to the largest shorebird concentration in the West.