Around 120 local fishermen will split $3.65 of a $6 million award in damages won though a class action lawsuit against the parties at fault for the horrific 2007 Cosco Busan oil spill. The spill, if you recall, poured an estimated 53,000 - 58,000 gallons of fuel into the bay after colliding with one of the Bay Bridge’s towers. It also killed scores of wildlife in the process. more ›

Winter weather exposes some old stuff at the coasts, and some mysterious tar balls, hundreds of them, appearing on beaches in Marin -- with a large number on Limantour Beach at Point Reyes. Apparently this has happened before, and the source may be some old shipwreck getting stirred up at the bottom of the ocean. As the Marin Independent Journal explains, some tar balls showing up as late as ten years ago were believed to be coming from a 1953 shipwreck, the S.S. Jacob Luckenbach, a freighter that sank with up to 450,000 gallons of oil in/on it. A $19 million cleanup effort in 2002 made an effort to remove remaining oil from the freighter, which was still being blamed for harming local wildlife. "There are hundreds of shipwrecks out there," says a spokesman for the Point Reyes National Seashore. more ›

There was an explosion this morning on the Vermilion Oil Rig 380, 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast, west of the site of the Deep Water Horizon blast. 13 workers were rescued by the Coast Guard, with only one seriously injured. The rig is owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy, and it's unclear whether it was a drilling rig or production platform. [CNN, NPR] more ›

So you know how BP and various others have been trying to sell us on the idea that the gargantuan oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico had somehow magically disappeared? Well, now some Berkeley scientists have confirmed that this actually may be happening, but it isn't magic. A newly discovered microbe, a particularly gluttonous form of oil-eating bacteria that have existed for millions of years on the ocean floor, appears to have multiplied rapidly since the April 20 spill and gobbled up so much of the dispersed oil as to render the plume "undetectable." more ›

BP successfully stopped the gushing oil well from gushing just now, choking off the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since April. About goddamn time, people. This is all part of an on-going test of the new "capping stack" that was put in place over the last few days... more ›

Brad Newsham, writer, cab driver, and organizer of the "Impeach" message at Ocean Beach from a few years back, is organizing a "Slash Oil" event that will take place on Saturday at 10 a.m. more ›

Citizen journalist and onetime e-friend of SFist, Zennie Abraham (we hope he's forgiven us for that Oscars incident, but we digress), was taking a break from World Cup mania and walking down the street recently when he had an epiphany about solving the Gulf oil disaster: What about oil-eating bacteria? He does a little investigating, finds a firm in Florida that makes the stuff, and wonders aloud why Florida governor Charlie Crist hasn't called on the company yet. Then, wouldn't you know, Crist pays a 40-minute visit to the firm. Coincidence? Perhaps not. more ›

BP CEO Tony Hayward apologizes for oil spill before House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee. more ›

While Karl Rove calls it Obama's Katrina, more reasonable minds are actually doing something about the hellacious BP oil spill. Take, for example, San Francisco and more than 180 California-based Coast Guard personnel headed to the Gulf of Mexico to aid in clean-up efforts. The Aspen, a 225-foot cutter, departed Yerba Buena Island yesterday to help out with the seemingly insurmountable task. more ›

Citizens across the country are taking to the streets tomorrow night with a Critical Mass style procession entitled the "Krewe of Dead Pelicans." The protest will serve as a voice for the country's outrage over the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, namely BP's lack of response -- the leak could continue until August, their reporting of allegedly false spill estimates, their continual efforts to block the media from accessing the spill sites, and the government's unwillingness to hold the company accountable. more ›

The Deepwater Horizon spill is a "a massive ongoing oil spill stemming from a sea floor oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico that started with a suspicious oil well blowout on April 20, 2010." As of today, the spill covers at least 2,500 square miles of ocean surface. Which is massive. Bigger than the Bay Area, in fact. more ›

UC Berkeley professor Dr. Robert Bea is an expert in off-shore oil rig accidents, and he was asked by the White House last week to analyze the BP disaster in the Gulf. As 60 Minutes reports, Dr. Bea also investigated the Challenger disaster, and the Hurricane Katrina disaster -- after which his voice never fully recovered. more ›

Sacramento Bee reports that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger "withdrew his support Monday for a controversial new offshore oil drilling project off the Santa Barbara coast in the wake of a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico." The Tranquillon Ridge project, which was one of Schwarzenegger's preferred way "to raise money for California's strapped budget," proved too great a risk. "[I] I have a choice between the $100 million and what I see in the Gulf of Mexico, I'd rather just figure out how to make up for that $100 million," chirped Arnold. [via Sacto Bee] more ›

According to a new study, the threatened species of small, white, dune-dwelling birds known as snowy plovers were especially lucky in surviving the major oil spill by the Cosco Busan in San Francisco Bay in November 2007. After two years of tagging and tracking both oiled and non-oiled snowy plovers, the report found that nearly all the birds survived. In total, approximately 7,000 birds of other species died as a result of the spill, including ducks, cormorants, gulls, and pelicans. In other feel-good, animal-related news, this injured sea lion nicknamed Abignale was rescued near Monterey. more ›

While transferring oil from a barge to an oil tanker a little after 6:30 a.m. this morning, oil spilled into the San Francisco Bay this morning, leaving a big sheen. (Ugh.) more ›

You may recall that container ship, the Cosco Busan, that plowed into one of the Bay Bridge supports back in November '07 and dumped 53,000 gallons of oil into the Bay, and the pilot of the ship is now facing sentencing in federal court in San Francisco. Pilot John Cota of Petaluma struck a plea bargain and faces 2 to 10 months in jail for 2 counts of negligently polluting the Bay and killing migratory birds. Defense attorney say Cota has "deep feelings of regret about the tragic events" but also say that there were other factors involved in the accident besides Cota's negligence, including heavy fog. Cota's blamed for causing upwards of $70 million in damages to local beaches, wildlife (like the oil-covered duck found at Lake Merritt, right) and the fishing industry. UPDATE: He got 10 months. more ›

The California State Assembly passed a bill on Tuesday "that lowers the allowable response time to an oil spill in the San Francisco Bay from from six hours to two hours." Penned by sanity-estranged Sen. Carole Migden, she says that the bill is "necessary to combat the bay's natural tidal action" that spreads oil spills right-quick. And it will, hopefully, prevent tragic events like this from getting even muckier. That's right, . (CBS 5) more ›

Although the National Transportation Safety Board has yet to release its report on the causes of last year's crash, today the pilot of the Cosco Busan, John Joseph Cota of Petaluma, was charged in federal court. The feds, it seems, found him in violation of two federal laws when he accidentally steered the container ship into the Bay Bridge on November 9 2007, which then released 53,000 gallons of oil into the bay. more ›

No more salmon in Muir Woods? more ›

Anonymous souces involved with the federal invstigation disclose information about drugs. more ›

Cosco Busan Update: more ›

Oh, those crazy hot-tubbing, wife-swapping, Al Qaeda-loving Marin County folk. It seems that now they're scalping their own children in an effort to tidy up the remaining Cosco Busan oil spill disaster. Students from Larkspur's Marin Primary and Middle School have willing lopped off locks of hair from their nubile heads, then donating said hair to Eco-Cuts, "a program designed by Marin Primary to help in the cleanup effort triggered by the Nov. 7 oil spill in the bay." Their dirty, dirty child hair will then go to Matter of Trust, a San Francisco-based environmental nonprofit that "weaves the hair into mats to soak up oil." According to the Marin Independent: more ›

What a pretty name for a barge, yes? more ›

In a Spearsian like maneuver, looking to trump both the recent storm and the Dhaliwal brothers, oil spill made a comeback this morning. It seems that a crane fell off of a san Francisco pier a little before 10 a.m. this morning, spilling "an unknown amount" of oil into the Bay. According to the Gate, "[t]he crane was on a sliding rail system at a dry dock at Pier 70 when it suddenly tilted to one side and fell into the water." more ›

S.F. files against the Cosco Busan more ›

Like the bad ass she is, occasional San Francisco resident and current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has written to the "Homeland Security Department's inspector general requesting an investigation of preparation for and response to last month's oil spill in San Francisco Bay," according to CBS 5. In a wordy missive to Inspector General Skinner, she fired off over a dozen issues she wants taken care of right-quick. A couple of points she needs to... more ›

Just what's up with our least favorite oil spill dilemma, you ask? Let's find out: -- After 29 years of military service, Coast Guard Captain William Uberti will retire after the oil-spill SNAFU is over and done with. According to the Examiner, "Uberti was the region's sector commander when a container ship sideswiped the Bay Bridge in dense fog, dumping 58,000 gallons of thick bunker fuel into the bay." Uberti was soon replaced after... more ›

Photo of a sexy photo shoot in front of a beach closed because of the oil spill more ›

An update on news about the oil spill more ›

-- Should MUNI boss Nate Ford get a raise? Gavin says sure. [N Judah Chronicles] more ›