Date of incident
December 8, 2004
Location: Off Spray Cape, Unalaska Island, Alaska
Trustees: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (representing the Department of Interior and serving as the Lead Administrative Trustee); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (for the Department of Commerce); Alaska Department of Fish & Game; Alaska Department of Natural Resources; Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation; and Alaska Department of Law.
Overview: On December 8, 2004, the 738-foot cargo vessel M/V Selendang Ayu, ran aground and broke in half off Unalaska Island in the Aleutian Islands. Six of the vessel’s crew members were lost in the rescue effort. The cargo vessel, which was bound to Asia with a 60,000-ton soybean load, was carrying approximately 425,000 gallons of Intermediate Fuel Oil 380 and 21,000 gallons of marine diesel oil; an estimated 354,218 gallons of those oils were released into the environment.
The wreck is located between Skan Bay and Spray Cape (53° 38’ 04”, 167° 07’ 30”) on the western shore of Unalaska. Shoreline Cleanup Assessment teams examined 474 miles of shoreline and found 123 segments (70 miles of shoreline) required clean up much of the shoreline affected is managed as part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and is accessible only by water or air.
For more information about the response effort, visit the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s Selendang Ayu website.
While the Unified Command worked to contain and clean up the oil, the natural resources trustees undertook preassessment activities associated with the natural resource damage assessment and restoration process.
