New Carissa owners will pay $6.5 million
PORTLAND – When the New Carissa cargo ship careened into the central Oregon coast five years ago, its owner blamed the resulting oil spill on the U.S. government, saying the Coast Guard’s maps were flawed.
But in a settlement this week, Green Atlas Shipping S.A. and its affiliates agreed to pay the federal government $6.5 million, most of which will be used to restore natural resources harmed by the shipwreck near Coos Bay, Ore.
Neither the shipping company, nor its operator, insurer or ship master, have accepted responsibility for the 70,000-gallon spill, which killed an estimated 2,300 seabirds.
But the $6.5 million the shipping conglomerate has agreed to pay is a victory for the six government agencies responsible for the restoration of wildlife habitat, said Larry Mangan, senior wildlife biologist for the Bureau of Land Management.
“What this settlement does is it makes the responsible party pay for the damage,” Mangan said.
On Feb. 3, 1999, the New Carissa dropped anchor two miles off the coast of Coos Bay on the high seas, just as a fierce winter storm began pounding the Pacific Coast. The next morning, the swells ripped the anchor out of the ocean floor and the vessel slammed onto Coos Bay’s North Spit.
The 600-foot-long freighter ran aground just south of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, a popular tourist destination.
Six days later, the hull broke in two and cleanup crews towed the bow out to sea – only for the towline to break in another storm, causing it to crash again.
The ship’s stern remains stuck in the surf off Coos Bay’s North Spit.
Because of the season, the most significant damage was to Oregon’s threatened marbled murrelet, Mangan said.
In the summer, the murrelet nests in tall Douglas fir trees on the coast. But in the winter, it rests on the waves – and a concentration of the birds happened to be in the path of the broken ship.
“What kills them is hypothermia,” Mangan said. “Like a hole in a wetsuit it lets the cold water seep to the skin.”