Frantic crews work to protect Texas shore after massive oil spill shuts down shipping lane and threatens wildlife on 25th anniversary of Exxon Valdez disaster

On Saturday, a barge carrying 900,000 gallons of oil collided with ship in the Houston Ship Channel, spilling nearly 170,000 gallons of thick oil across the busy waterway and closing it down



More crews arrived on Monday to skim oil from the surface of the water and place protective booms along the shore



Environmental groups fear that an important shorebird habitat 45 miles southeast of Houston could be hit



Company that owns barge is taking responsibility for the spill and its clear up costs

The disaster comes 25 years after an Exxon oil tanker spilled 11 million gallons of oil into the water at Prince William Sound, Alaska; two decades on and the area is still largely affected by the pollution




Crews are battling to clean up a major U.S. shipping channel in Texas after a barge carrying almost one million gallons of thick, sticky oil collided with a ship in Galveston Bay near Houston, threatening an important shorebird habitat.



No timetable has been set to reopen the waterway after nearly 170,000 gallons of tar-like oil spilled on Saturday, creating a huge oil slick. But on Monday, more help was being called in to contain the spill and protect wildlife.

A barge carrying about 900,000 gallons of the heavy oil collided with a ship in the busy Houston Ship Channel, spilling as much as a fifth of its cargo into one of the world's busiest waterways for moving petrochemicals, according to the Coast Guard.

Oil had been detected 12 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico by Sunday, and as many as 60 vessels were either waiting to get in or out. The Coast Guard - which called it a 'significant spill' - said it expected to deploy more containment booms on Monday, with 24 vessels working to skim the oil.

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Clean up efforts: Vessels work to skim oil off the surface of the water after 168,000 gallons of oil spilled into Galveston Bay, Texas on Saturday

Damage: United States Coast Guardsmen inspect oil washing ashore along Boddeker Road in Galveston as clean up efforts get underway

The cleanup effort comes exactly 25 years after the Exxon Valdez oil tanker slammed into the Bligh Reef in Alaska and spilled more than 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound. Two decades on and the coast remains polluted by the oil.

Environmental groups said the Texas spill occurred at an especially sensitive time. The channel in Texas City, about 45 miles southeast of Houston, has important shorebird habitat on both sides, and tens of thousands of wintering birds are still in the area.

'The timing really couldn't be much worse since we're approaching the peak shorebird migration season,' said Richard Gibbons, conservation director of the Houston Audubon Society.

He noted that just to the east is the Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary, which attracts 50,000 to 70,000 shorebirds to shallow mud flats that are perfect foraging habitat.

Fewer than 10 oiled birds had been found and recovered for transfer to a wildlife rehabilitation center as of Sunday afternoon, according to the Coast Guard. The Texas General Land Office has also deployed a bird rehabilitation trailer in the area for quick response.

'This is a significant spill,' Capt. Brian Penoyer, commander of the Coast Guard at Houston-Galveston, said. But he said the emptying the remaining oil from the barge on Sunday, a process known as lightering as contents are transferred to other vessels, was an important step and eliminated the risk of additional oil spilling.

Victim: A dead oil-covered bird is shown on the Eastern end of Galveston as environmental groups fear the effect on wildlife Fears: A seagull lands in heavy crude oil washing up on East Beach. The spill occurred near an important shorebird habitat, environmental groups said Covered: Almost 170,000 gallons of thick, sticky oil were spilled on Saturday. Pictured, the oil covers the shoreline in Galveston Mess: People photograph oil washing ashore in Galveston on Sunday as crews place a protective boom along the shoreline

More than 380 people - 'and we've ordered more,' Penoyer said - along with a fleet of oil-retrieving skimmers and other vessels were deploying some 60,000 feet of containment booms around environmentally sensitive areas worked to mitigate the damage.

Some black tar-like globs, along with a dark line of a sticky, oily substance, could be detected along the shoreline of the Texas City dike, a 5-mile-long jetty that juts into Galveston Bay across from a tip of Galveston Island.

'That is the consistency of what the cargo looks like,' Jim Guidry, executive vice president of Houston-based Kirby Inland Marine Corp., said when the substance was described to him at a news conference.

Guidry said the company - the nation's largest inland barge company and owner of the barge that spilled the oil - was taking responsibility for the costs.

'We're very concerned. We're focused on cleaning up,' he said.

The barge has been moved to a shipyard and is no longer at the scene of the spill, according to a statement Sunday evening from Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office.

Two cruise ships were allowed to travel through the incident area "to minimize inconvenience to the thousands of passengers aboard and limit economic impacts from the spill," according to a statement Sunday evening from the Coast Guard.

Queue: The Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas and the Carnival Magic sit idle with dozens of other ships off the coast of Galveston. At least 33 vessels, including two cruise ships, are waiting to enter the Houston Ship Channel from the Gulf of Mexico

Race against time: Oil containment booms cut across a sand bar covered with birds on Pelican Island. So far about 10 birds have been killed

Fight: Crews place a protective boom along the seashore near Port Bolivar in Port Bolivar as dozens of ships help in the clean up effort on Sunday

Struggle: Workers try to move an oil containment boom from the shore area on the Eastern end of Galveston near the ship channel Close to shore: Oil containment booms are spread out in Galveston Harbor after the collision spilled nearly 170,000 gallons of thick oil The channel, part of the Port of Houston, typically handles as many as 80 vessels daily. But it will remain closed for a third day Monday, and the Coast Guard said there was no timetable on when it may reopen. If the bottleneck of vessels in the Gulf eases in a day or so, there likely wouldn't be much impact on fuel prices. But a more prolonged backup could push up prices briefly, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Jim Ritterbusch and Associates in Chicago. The contents of the torn tank, equal to about 4,000 barrels, were lost or displaced into other vacant areas of the barge. Penoyer said currents, tides and wind were scattering the spill. 'Containment was never a possibility in this case,' he said. The Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board are still investigating what happened. 'It will take quite a bit of time, given the complexity of the vessels and a very busy waterway,' Penoyer said. Destruction: Marine fuel oil can be seen leaking from a partly submerged barge into the Houston Ship Channel after colliding with a ship on Saturday Slick: A vessel surrounded by a sheen on the water near the Port of Galveston. The company of the barge carrying the oil is paying for clean up costs Disaster: The spill comes on the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill. In this April 17, 1989 photo, a worker makes his way across the polluted shore of Block Island, Alaska after more than 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled Heartbreaking: In this April 9, 1989 photo, a local fisherman inspects a dead California gray whale following the spill in Alaska

Also closed was the Texas City dike, a popular fishing spot that goes out into the Gulf for a few miles.

Lee Rilat, 58, owns Lee's Bait and Tackle, the last store before the access road to the dike, which was blocked by a police car on a breezy, overcast Sunday. If it weren't for the spill, Rilat's business would be hopping.

'This would be the first spring deal, the first real weekend for fishing,' he said.

The spill site is 700 yards offshore from the Texas City dike. A crane and several small boats could be seen at the cleanup site, and dozens of trucks were at a staging area along the beach.