Fishers Clean It Better

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Regarding “Thousand-Gallon Spill in Santa Barbara Waters” [News, 12/11/08, independent.com/thousandgoil]. What no one seems to know is that the Fishermen's Oil Response Team (FORT) is a group of fishermen who represent the Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara. These fishermen dropped whatever they were doing and were on the scene in an hour and a half. The fishermen are trained and certified to handle hazmat situations. Their quick response, local knowledge, oil spill clean-up training, and enthusiasm were crucial in the successful clean-up.

I was one of the first fishermen on the scene and was immediately impressed with the level of organization already in place. The oil location had been identified by helicopter, buoy flags were already deployed, and containment booms were ready. We spent the remainder of the spill circling the small areas of oil and then calling for Clean Seas to come pump the oil into tanks.

The technology of oil extraction, the level of incident prevention, and time of response has come a long way in the 40-some years since the last incident at Platform A. Not a bad record. I think I have seen more oil from natural seeps off of UCSB than I saw at this spill. The people in Southern California should be giving kudos to the California Office of Spill Prevention and Response, DCOR [LLC, the platform’s owners], the Coast Guard, Department of Fish & Game, Clean Seas, and your local fishermen responders for doing the clean-up in a timely and safe manner. If only I could find a plumber as fast and efficient. — Michael Harrington

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