Oil's effects on shorebirds could have been worse

Before ocean-borne freighters a city block long became familiar with the local waters, an entirely different kind of world traveler had frequented these shores.

Birds by the tens of thousands, representing a profusion of unique and intriguing waterfowl, continue to make themselves at home in the Golden Isles throughout the four seasons.

Brunswick’s natural deep-water port has been a shipping destination for only a few centuries, and the humongous floating parking garages known as Ro Ro vessels have been calling on Colonel’s Island in large numbers for a few decades. In that time, the shipping of vehicles worldwide has made Brunswick a national leader in the roll-on, roll-off industry, its port having the capacity to move hundreds of thousands of vehicles annually.

Then came Sept. 8, 2019. Everything changed when the 656-foot Ro/Ro ship Golden Ray capsized in the St. Simons Sound with a cargo of 4,161 vehicles and an estimated 380,000 gallons of bunker oil in its fuel tanks.

Oil leaks from the shipwreck have repeatedly fouled marsh habitat and beaches in the nearly two years since the shipwreck.

By most accounts of the wildlife experts who are keeping track of it, oil from the Golden Ray has tarnished the feathers of hundreds of shorebirds hereabouts, maybe more. Fortunately, the actual damage has been minimal. At least on paper.

Since 2019, some 29 dead birds with oiled carcasses have been found in habitat surrounding the shipwreck, according to Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research, a Delaware group contracted by organizers of the cleanup. In that time, 18 oiled shorebirds have been captured, treated and released. Ten oiled birds were euthanized, records show.

“There certainly were impacts,” Tim Keyes. Keyes is a wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. “We can’t quantify some of this, butit would be hard to imagine there were not larger impacts.”

ST. SIMONS SOUND INCIDENT RESPONSE A shoreline cleanup team applies sphagnum moss, a natural adsorbent coating that promotes the natural breakdown process of oil, to the oil on marsh grass near Wylie Street public beach access Aug. 2.