M/V Selendang Ayu; Unalaska-Aleutian Islands, AK

Unalaska-Aleutian Islands, AK | 2004-Dec-08

Initial Notification: During early December of 2004, a huge storm drove the floundering M/V Selendang Ayu onto the rockly shoals on the west side of Unalaska Island, where the vessel broke in two releasing over 75% (337,000 gallons) of its total petroleum fuel products of IFO-380 and marine diesel. Nearly all the oil was driven onto the mostly rocky shorelines of Makushin and Skan Bays. Within two weeks the bow section had sunk; however, the stern section remained afloat with the balance of the fuel. From early January, 2005, until mid-February, 2006, a heavy lift helicopter was used to lighter this fuel from the stern section with over 70 round trips to Dutch Harbor, 25 miles away, and using a 2000 gallon steel sling-loaded cube. Due to the potential for an additional release during this period, skimmers and dispersants (Corexit 9500) were maintained as standby response measures. Reasonable weather during these operations allowed for reconnaisance SCAT evaluation and some modest manual shoreline cleanup. 2005 winter operations were halted around mid February due to deteoriating weather conditions. In mid-April, 2005, SCAT and full shoreline cleanup teams returned to Unalaska Island and worked into October, 2005, until again winter weather shut down the operation with only a couple dozen of over one hundred shoreline segments needing further cleaning and/or inspection. Modest SCAT personnel and shoreline cleanup folks returned in May, 2006, to complete the final shoreline cleanup and inspections. Manual shoreline cleanup was the dominate technique utilized; however dry mechanical tilling and berm relocation were used quite successfully on the appropriate shorelines. One of the key peripheral issues involved possible oiling of the commercial sea food harvest that is caught around and processed on Unalaska Island. Heightened monitorning and inspections resulted in the finding of no oiled fish products. Another issue was the oiling and tainting of traditional and subsistence food harvested by the Alaska natives who live on the island. Task forces of federal, state, local, and industry representatives were established to deal with these issues.