Friday morning, the dozens of Seldovia residents who had been working for free were signed up as employees with VECO, Exxon's contractor. Seldovia's boom brigade hoped to have the first halfmile of floating barricade in place by the end of the day Friday. Al Davis, who did pioneering research on Kachemak Bay shellfish during many years as a state biologist here, said the same forces that make the bay so rich in sea life make that life vulnerable to oil. Mileswide eddies in the bay collect and hold nutrients from the Gulf of Alaska and minerals from the nearby glacier rivers. The same eddies would be likely to trap and hold whatever oil comes along, he said.
Scientists say much of the most toxic part of the oil has evaporated or has been dissolved.
What's left could smother shore life or weaken other sea creatures such as salmon fry or crab and shrimp larvae. Most creatures would not eat the oil in the form of tar balls, said David Shaw, of the University of Alaska Institute of Marine Science. People in Homer and Seldovia said they would rather not take the chance. No one knows what is a toxic dose. First as citizens and now, slowly, with the help of Exxon and its contractor, VECO, people here are racing the currents to protect salmon streams and the state fish hatchery at Tutka Bay Lagoon.