Struggle To Stem Alaskan Oil Spill

Freighter In Two Pieces; Six People Dead; Size Of Spill Unclear

(AP)  The Coast Guard lowered a salvage team to a freighter that broke in two pieces when it ran aground off Alaska's coast, seen as a key step toward cleaning up a destructive, oily mess stretching for miles.

A helicopter with a three-person salvage team took off from nearby Dutch Harbor on Sunday afternoon to undertake the short flight to the 738-foot Selendang Ayu, wrecked Wednesday in rough seas. Strong winds and waves had kept authorities from boarding either half of the ship.

For days the Coast Guard had wanted to get a team on the vessel to determine how much of the 483,000 gallons of bunker oil and 21,000 gallons of diesel fuel had leaked into the sea. But bad weather hampered efforts before Sunday.

The salvage team assessed only the stern section of the freighter because it was too difficult to get onto the bow, said Petty Officer Amy Thomas.

The team found that the ship's No. 2 hold, which had contained about 40,000 gallons of heavy bunker oil, was breached. When the ship split in half, it was over the No. 2 hold. The Coast Guard has said previously the No. 2 hold contained 140,000 gallons of fuel.

"It is completely open to the sea," said Petty Officer Amy Thomas.

The No. 3 hold, with an undetermined amount of oil in it, is leaking. The No. 4 hold appeared to be intact. However, three other holds that contained soybeans were breached and "oozing soybeans," she said.

An inspection of the ship's engine room showed that it is completely flooded. A flyover of the area showed about 2,100 gallons of oil on the water's surface, Thomas said.

She said it was still too early to know how much oil and fuel has leaked from the vessel. A team will try again Monday to board the vessel.

Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Darrel Wilson said the Coast Guard will proceed cautiously to avoid more casualties. Six crew members from the ship were lost during a rescue attempt when a helicopter crashed after lifting them off the vessel; four other people were rescued by a second helicopter. A search for the missing crew - five from India and one from the Philippines - was suspended Friday night.

The Malaysian freighter lost power to its main engine on Tuesday and wrecked Wednesday on the west side of Unalaska Island in the Aleutian Island chain.

The spill is near a wildlife refuge, home to sea lions, harbor seals, sea otters, tanner crabs and halibut. Environmental officials are concerned that resident bald eagles may scavenge on any oiled birds that could wash ashore.

The weather, however, also has been delaying cleanup efforts along the coast. Plans called for sending a Department of Fish and Wildlife response vessel with two biologists and two wildlife rehabilitation experts from Dutch Harbor to Skan Bay, a few miles north of the freighter.

A private fishing vessel hired to be a wildlife recovery and rehabilitation platform was on standby. Two other fishing vessels, meanwhile, deployed more oil containment booms in estuaries and streams near the grounded freighter.

Along the coast of the island, about 800 miles southwest of Anchorage, balls of oil about the size of tennis balls and ping pong balls have been seen in the sheen. Some of the oil that leaked from the vessel may have already balled up and sunk to the ocean bottom.