SPILL TAKES TOLL OF BIRDS IN THE GULF

By HAL BERNTON
Daily News reporter

ABOARD THE SNOW BIRD IN THE GULF OF ALASKA- The murres and kittiwakes are among the first of the spring arrivals to the cliff rookeries of the Chiswell Islands. The birds spend their winters out on the open sea, and come to these islands at the mouth of Resurrection Bay to nest in the safety of their rocky ledges.

The islands are gray, rock fortresses that tower above the sea, sheer granite and basalt walls that sea birds have clung to in defense of their eggs and young for millenia.

But this year, the deep green Gulf of Alaska waters that churn about the island roosts hold a dragon's breath of swirling death, the patches of brown oil, tar and sheen. The oil is part of the the 10 million gallons of North Slope crude that two weeks ago spilled into Prince William Sound from the tanker Exxon Valdez.

The Gulf oil lacks the sledgehammer force which turned the Sound's beaches's black. It is weathered by two weeks at sea, and, around the Chiswells, broken up into dozens of slicks some smaller than a bathtub, some miles in length.

Most of the island coastlines remain free of visible oil. Yet here in the Gulf, as in the Sound, the oil has begun to kill.

When tourists cruise these rookeries and their big charter boats pull up close, birds scatter quickly, fleeing to the safety of high rocks or diving beneath the water.

But when confronted Sunday by a National Park Service survey boat, some of the birds no longer had the strength to flee. At one rookery, nine oiled murres clung to a slight indentation in the rock face, too weak to fly and unable or unwilling to face the ocean with feathers that couldn't protect them against the cold.

By the day's end, Pete Fitzmaurice, a National Park Service ranger, had dipnetted out of the water the carcasses of five oilcoated murres and a marbled murrelet. He and park service skipper Bill Stevens spotted another 40 stained by the crude, as well as 39 kittiwakes and a pigeon guillemott.

"Once they get one little spot of oil on them and they're gone," said Stevens.

The oil is arriving at the start of a massive migration that will bring to the Chiswells more than 70,000 puffins, auklets and other seabirds, and thousands of sea lions. By summer, these islands and the neighboring Harbor and Barwell islands, will be some of southcentral Alaska's most populous rookeries.

The Chiswells have received special federal protection as a maritime wildlife refuge. But it is impossible to boom off the rookeries because of their location in the open and often turbulent water of the Gulf.

A new cleanup task force now mobilizing in Seward will attempt to attack the Gulf slicks with skimmers. But for the most part, the rookeries' fate will be left to the whims of the currents and wind that drive the oil.

"We don't know if the oil is going to clean out Prince William Sound in a matter of weeks, months or years, and when it comes out, it will all be headed this way," said Stevens.

A bird rescue center has been established in Seward, but trying to catch the oilcoated birds as they cling to the surfpounded island cliffs or float among the swells may be an exercise in futility, Stevens said.

The purpose of the Sunday cruise was to pick up dead birds that federal biologists wanted to autopsy, plot the advance of the oil and show the islands to a few members of the press.

Sunday began as the kind of day that Seward charter boat skippers pray for blue skies, mild weather and a flat calm.

And the first 15 miles of the trip were not much different than a summer tourist cruise. Then, on a small rookery at the bay's southeast outer edge, the first of the oiled birds were spotted, still lively, but with yellow stains of crude on their chest.

A bit further south, at Barwell Island, there were more oiled birds and the first signs of the spill, a few globs of oil floating just offshore.

"Within the month, there will be three times as many birds on these cliffs," said Stevens , the 55yearold skipper.

As the boat headed toward Seal Rocks, the southernmost of rookeries, Stevens spotted the first murre carcass floating among the swells.

Stevens throttled back and maneuvered toward the bird. On the back deck, Fitzmaurice donned a pair of plastic gloves and grabbed the dipnet. He missed the bird on a first swipe, then trapped a bloated murre in his net and emptied it into a plastic bag.

Toward the end of the day, Stevens saw his first puffin of the season, clean at least for now, skimming over the water.

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