Photos Eric J. Kos

Clean up crews from Alameda’s National Response Corporation scour Crown Beach Sunday morning for any tar balls that may have washed ashore from the Dubai Star which leaked as much as 800 gallons of bunker fuel into the Bay.

Crews continued to work along Alameda's shoreline Tuesday cleaning up after last Friday's oil spill. According to Coast Guard Captain Paul Gugg the Dubai Star spilled between 400 and 800 gallons of oil that left a sheen some two miles long and 200 yards wide on the San Francisco Bay. At the time of the spill, the vessel was located at Anchorage No. 9, about 2.5 miles southeast of the Bay Bridge.

Shortly after the Dubai Star reported the spill at 6:48 a.m., the Coast Guard and South Harmony Shipping, which owns the vessel, teamed up with the Department of Fish and Game's Office of Spill Prevention and Response to create a central command to manage clean-up operations. The National Response Corporation (NRC) and the Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC), two private contractors, created in the aftermath of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, were tasked with shoreline clean up.

An oil skimmer plies the waters along the boom that National Response Corporation set up to prevent oil from contaminating the Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary located at the south shore of the main island.

Pioneer Ship Management Services Company, which manages the Dubai Star, told Emirates Business writer VM Sathish that the company had the insurance to cover any liability.

"We are handling the situation on the ground and everything is under control now. Every action has been taken and we have P&I (Protection and Indemnity) insurance," Ram Moorthy, the company's general manager told Sathish. According to Moorthy, the insurance provides protection to the ship owners and charters against third-party claims. Such insurance provides protection against environmental pollution as well.

Pioneer says that the spill happened "during bunkering operations near Anchorage No. 9 at approximately 6:15 (a.m.) local time." The Coast Guard says that the Dubai Star did not report the spill until 6:38 a.m., almost 25 minutes later.

The Coast Guard reports that after the accident workers deployed some 53,000 feet of nonabsorbent barriers known as booms. The Coast Guard also deployed patrol boats, helicopters, skimmers and utility boats.

The shoreline clean-up efforts were largely focused on Bay Farm Island, Ballena Bay and the Robert Crown Memorial Beach, with Crown being the only area closed to the public.

According to the Coast Guard's Web site, 80 percent of the clean-up efforts on Crown Beach had been completed by Monday, with aerial and waterside assessments "being conducted to determine the cleanup progress at Ballena Bay and Bay Farm Island."

Wildlife experts deployed to the Alameda shoreline, had recovered a total of 47 birds, 36 alive, 11 dead, two of which died on the way to a recovery center. The birds are being treated at the San Francisco Bay Oiled Wildlife Care and Education Center in Cordelia, California.

Anyone noticing oiled birds or wildlife along the Alameda shoreline is asked to call (877) 823-6926. If residents notice leftover oil spillage, they are asked to call 437-3186.