Most of Huntington Beach oil sheen cleaned up, no remaining recoverable sheen Coast Guard says

The U.S. Coast Guard conducted an early Saturday morning flyover of the Huntington Beach ocean water oil sheen which was spotted Friday morning, and reported that there was no remaining recoverable sheen,

Friday, the slick was about 2.5 miles long, around 3 miles off the coast near the oil platforms named Emmy and Eva the U.S. Coast Guard reported.

The agency took samples from the oil sheen and used booms and absorbent material to limit the oil from spreading to minimize environmental impacts.

The Unified Command said about 85% of the sheen, roughly 85 gallons of product, was recovered by Friday night. A recovery team responded to the shoreline for assessments and cleanup.

Balls of tar were spotted in the sand in the Huntington Dog Beach area Friday.

The Oiled Wildlife Care Network responded to the area to investigate reports of oiled wildlife. So far, three oiled birds have been recovered, a cormorant, loon, and grebe.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife consulted with the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and based on information received from on-scene responders, the OEHHA found there is not likely to be a public health threat associated with consuming fish due to the incident. 

The agency did advise against fishing in areas with a visible sheen on the water. 

Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley visited Huntington Dog Beach and got some of the tar on her shoes, but she said the problem appears to be contained.

"It's contained is what I understand, but they're still investigating and the good news is we have all the resources out there," Foley said.

Foley said regular Dog Beach visitors reported the tar balls were worse than usual.