By MacKenzie Elmer / Voice of San Diego / July 6, 2021
Around 11:50 a.m. on June 19, a whale watching tour captured drone footage of dolphins swimming through a 50-mile stretch of rainbow-colored oily mess about 70 miles from San Clemente Island, according to Gone Whale Watching Captain Domenic Biagini, who posted the video to his Instagram page.
That same day, only about an hour earlier, the Coast Guard had received another call reporting another slippery-looking sheen off Point Loma in San Diego, according to a press release. No dolphin casualties were reported in that case and the slick was much smaller, about three miles long and a half-mile wide. A Coast Guard helicopter did a fly-over.
The San Diego spill was also rainbow-colored, and since the Coast Guard actually had eyes on it, it hypothesizes the spill came from light fuel, like diesel – not the thick, black sludgy oil that renders pelicans flightless. There was no clean-up. If it was diesel, the fuel would disappear within half a day or so, Adam Stanton, a spokesman for Coast Guard San Diego, told Voice of San Diego.
For the balance of this article, please go here.
{ 0 comments… add one now }