From Pacifica Riptide:

From Greg Cochran of Pedro Point Surf Club: "I just got off the phone with Supervisor Jerry Hill (San Mateo County Board of Supervisors). He so graciously called the San Mateo County Director of Environmental Health at home and got this word from the Director, Dean Peterson.  They (County, City, Feds) are going to do one more walkthrough on our beaches at 8AM tomorrow morning (Friday, November 16th). At that time, if all goes well and there is no evidence of oil, the County will issue a Press Release, opening the beaches by 10AM."

There’s more information about cleanup efforts, etc. in the linked article.

Someone who attended four-hour HazMat class in Pacifica on Tuesday has written up what he learned. He took the training to become an official volunteer to help with the clean up of the oil spill. "This is the minimum training required to be able to participate in the cleaning officially," he says. 

Thanks to Pacifica Riptide for the tip.

The governor issued an order suspending all fishing in Bay Area waters contaminated with fuel from Thursday’s Golden Gate oil spill, reports Julia Scott in the County Times. The ban is in effect until Dec 1, but htis oculd change if the Dept of Fish and Game decides there is no major human health risk.

The no-catch zones are expected to include all Bay Area counties from San Francisco and San Mateo to Solano County, but the California Department of Fish and Game has yet to determine the exact boundaries of the closure.
...
The ban affects commercial and sport fishermen and arriveson the cusp of Thursday’s highly-anticipated Dungeness crab season opener. Fishermen throughout the Bay Area voted to ask the governor to delay the season last weekend due to the chance that someone could become sick from eating a contaminated crab, and thus ruin the season for everyone.

There’s a lot of great detail from Pillar Point Harbor in the original story.

From Surfrider, San Mateo Chapter:

Some of the oil has now arrived in Pacifica. This might continue to spread further south. For those who can help or be prepared for cleanup effort in San Mateo area, it is important that you must be trained from the authorities and not do it on your own.

The next Haz-Mat training (mandatory to join the cleanup) will be held in Half Moon Bay on Thursday at the IDES hall, Main Street from 5-9pm. We have been advised that it is mandatory that we attend this 4-hour training session in order to be allowed onto and help clean up the beaches.

Trampling of the oil into the sand in a disorganized effort will push the oil balls deeper into the sand making it harder to clean up in the long run as more material will need to be removed.

If you would like to be prepared for getting alerts and to find out when and where trained volunteers will be needed…go to:
http://smcalert.info

San Mateo County Environmental Health has ordered the closure of Esplanade, Linda Mar, Rockaway and Sharp Park beaches as a "precautionary measure". Tar balls from the Golden Gate oil spill washed up on Esplanade Beach in Pacifica Monday. The tar balls range in size from tear drop to a couple of inches in diameter.

Contractors employed by the ship owners are assessing the extent of the contamination and will be cleaning up the beaches, according to the county.

Grey Whale Cove and Montara State Beach have been placed on "Warning" status due to bacterial contamination.  No oil has been spotted there, according to Beverly Thames, Public Information Officer, San Mateo County Health Department. Earth911 is reporting that Gray Whale Cove and Montara State Beach have been closed due to the oil spill, but Thames says this is incorrect.

You can check the status of beaches in San Mateo County on the Health Department’s website.

Information from Mark Massara, Save the Coast/Sierra Club

If you see oiled wildlife, don’t pick it up—- the oil is toxic. Instead, report it by calling (877) 823 6926 so that a search team can come to your area.

If you want to help volunteer with caring for and treating oiled wildlife, call (800) 228 4544. A good source for getting involved with volunteering to rehabilitate oiled wildlife is the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, at http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/owcn/.

If you want to help with cleaning up the beaches, training sessions are being held around the Bay Area so citizens can learn how to help. Check out http://www.baykeeper.org/news/oilspill.html for news about the training sessions, and help clean up your coast!

Three oiled surf scoters were found on Francis Beach in Half Moon Bay Sunday afternoon. One was already dead, one died shortly after being picked up and one seemed well enough that it might survive. The latter was unable to fly and was slowly losing its body heat.

This could be a really big deal if the oil starts washing up on the beach. That is due to happen soon,  but no one knows how bad the oil will become. The oiled birds, we now know, are likely to be a serious problem.

There are Peninsula Humane Society and Marine Mammal Center persons working along this coast and are coordinating with State Parks volunteers.

Volunteers will be accepted today at the Half Moon Bay State Beach—Francis Beach—and the need for volunteers the rest of the week depends upon how things progress.  Volunteers will need to check in at Francis Beach, but may be asked to go to another location in this area. Volunteers should call the State Park Kiosk at

650-712-8820

(650)726-8820 to be sure there is a person available to show what needs to be done.

Darin Boville has posted some great photos of Comet Holmes in the Montara sky, along with instructions on how to find it for yourself, over at Montara Fog.  There’s also more at Sky & Telescope.

As I was Plover watching on Francis Beach this afternoon, I saw a distressed Surf Scoter (a large sea duck) up on the sand, trying desperately to clean off its feathers.  Like other injured birds, it did not fly off at my approach.  

Suspecting that the Scoter was a victim of the cargo ship oil spill in the Bay, I contacted State Park personnel.  Having no net, we failed at two rescue attempts. The bird was still able to fly. On the second try, the ranger got within one foot of the Scoter, before it flew off.  We did not want to stress it any further.   

It’s sad to think that this bird might not survive because of all the toxic oil it’s ingesting from its feathers.  

It’s unclear whether the bird had been oiled elsewhere and managed to fly here, or whether we have an off shore oil slick here on our Coastside.  Maybe others can monitor our beach conditions in the next few days.