Clams had also picked up a lot of oil and were holding onto it. The beaches and tide-pool areas were hit hard by the spill and cleanup. Many varieties of organisms dropped sharply in number, and much of the kelp, which is basic food for the ecosystem, was destroyed. Mussels placed on the shoreline to check for oil are still picking it up, according to the summary. Twenty-six archaeological sites were also damaged, including Native burial grounds and home sites.
Attention ought to be focused on what is out there right now, what people are seeing today.
And that is a viable, thriving and diverse biological community. Others were surprised by the severity of the bad news. When read excerpts of the summary, several people familiar with the oil spill said damage estimates appeared to be worse than anything they had previously heard, but they also added that little scientific information has been released before now. There's been lots of talk and speculation, but since we haven't seen any of the assessments, no one's had any hard information. Deborah Donahue, a lawyer for the National Wildlife Federation, said the mortality figures appeared higher than any estimates she had heard.