Birds are the wildlife most visibly affected by oil spills, Ziccardi said, but marine mammals like dolphins and whales may feel the impacts of an oil spill later. “Oftentimes external coating doesn’t affect them,” he said, but they are at risk of eating oiled prey, and their eyesight can also be damaged. Years after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, dolphins washed up dead onshore. Their deaths were likely not directly caused by the spill, but researchers suspected the oil spill essentially caused them to have pre-existing conditions.
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Huntington Beach is home to a number of endangered and threatened wildlife, including brown pelicans like the one that was euthanized. The nearby Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, a 1,300-acre area that provides some of the nation’s best birding, is home to 200 species of birds—many of which are now in danger thanks to the spill. In a tweet posted Saturday, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said she heard from Mayor Brad Avery of Newport Beach that he’d seen dolphins swimming through oil slicks after the spill. Multiple media outlets reported that dead fish and birds washed up on shore over the weekend.
A two-mile stretch of nearby marshes is also a key route along what’s known as the Pacific Flyway, a 4,000-mile (6,400-kilometer) stretch of habitat from Alaska to Mexico that 1 billion birds migrate through each year. More than 90 species of birds use Talbert Marsh and surrounding wetlands as a stopping ground along the route. Oil booms have been deployed by the state to try and protect the critical wetlands from further damage. However, reports Monday said that an oil plume had already made its way past the first boom, showing that oil was seeping into the marsh.
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The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is working with the Coast Guard, Orange County, and Amplify Energy—the company that owns the pipeline—to help wildlife and address the spill.