Sharjah24 – Reuters: A large oil spill off the southern California coast left fish dead, birds mired in petroleum and wetlands contaminated, in what local officials called an environmental catastrophe.
The U.S. Coast Guard, heading a clean-up response involving federal, state and city agencies, on Sunday announced an around-the-clock investigation into how the spill occurred.
An estimated 126,000 gallons, or 3,000 barrels, had spread into an oil slick covering about 13 square miles of the Pacific Ocean since it was first reported on Saturday morning, Kim Carr, the mayor of Huntington Beach, told a news conference.
She called the spill an "environmental catastrophe" and a "potential ecological disaster". The beachside city, about 40 miles (65 km) south of Los Angeles, was bearing the brunt of the spill.
Carr added: "Our wetlands are being degraded and portions of our coastline are now covered in oil."
The spill was caused by a breach connected to the Elly oil rig and stretched from the Huntington Beach Pier down to Newport Beach, an area popular with surfers and sunbathers.
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