WILDLIFE RESPONSE IN A REMOTE ALASKAN SPILL: TESTING A CENTRALIZED SYSTEM

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 1991 the International Bird Rescue Research Center, Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, and Alaska Clean Seas teamed up to design and implement a wildlife response system that could work successfully in a state with an area of nearly 600,000 square miles, more than 6000 miles of coastline, and hundreds of islands. In a state that is spread over more than 15 degrees of latitude and 45 degrees of longitude, the system would need to work in all sorts of weather and at all times of the year in three major climatic zones (marine coastal, subarctic, and arctic). It was decided that the best way to maximize resources and coverage was to design a system with a centralized oiled wildlife rehabilitation center in Anchorage: the Alaska Wildlife Response Center. This would allow one to use resources that would otherwise be unavailable in a timely fashion in many of the areas at greatest risk for an oil spill. It would also maximize cost effectiveness by minimizing the amount of equipment and personnel that would have to be moved and supported in remote areas of the state. A centralized system would, however, potentially require that the affected wildlife be transported long distances to be rehabilitated. In February 1996, a spill off the north coast of St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea provided the first real test of this system. It required the capture, stabilization, and transport of nearly 200 oiled birds under quite difficult and typical Alaska conditions. This paper will discuss the problems and solutions encountered in mounting a wildlife response to an oil spill in a remote area with inclement weather conditions and few local resources. It will focus on what makes responding in Alaska different from responding in most other parts of the United States, and on what was done differently in this response to make it a success. This paper will show how a system based on a centralized facility can work successfully, as was evidenced by the high percentage of released wildlife, when it involves teamwork among all organizations, agencies, and individuals involved.