UC Davis wildlife experts have been working since Oct. 30 to rescue and treat 39 birds oiled by a tanker spill near the Port of Alameda, on San Francisco Bay.

UC Davis veterinarian Michael Ziccardi, an international authority on oiled wildlife, said the U.S. Coast Guard called staff members at the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center into action early in the morning, shortly after an oil sheen was seen spreading from the anchored tanker Dubai Star.

Switching from their daily routines into spill-response mode, the wildlife center team took on their alternative identity as managers of the statewide Oiled Wildlife Care Network. The center, a unit of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, leads the network under contract to the California Office of Spill Prevention and Response, with interest funds from the $50 million California Oil Spill Response Trust Fund, built from assessments on the oil industry.

The mission of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network is to ensure that wildlife exposed to petroleum products receive the best possible capture and care by ensuring a rapid response, coordinating effective emergency care in a spill crisis and administering a research program.

In addition to giving veterinary care, the network conducts and funds basic research into the effects of oil on wildlife and applied research into treatments that will improve survival.

Following well-rehearsed spill protocols, field coordinators Nils Warnock and Yvette Hernandez immediately hitched up a boat and headed from campus to the Joint Incident Command that was being established on Coast Guard Island, in Alameda. Their roles were to organize and manage the search-and-rescue teams that would shortly start looking for oiled birds. (The next day, when it became clear that live oiled birds would be collected, Ziccardi took down a customized rescue trailer — a traveling wildlife emergency room — to provide immediate “first aid” on scene.)

Spill-response veterinarians Greg Massey and Shannon Riggs and technician January Bill began preparing the Fairfield rescue facility where the birds would receive medical care, be cleaned of oil and, hopefully, recover from their injuries.

Named the San Francisco Bay Oiled Wildlife Care and Education Center, the rescue facility is a 12,000-square-foot, $2.7 million facility capable of giving up to 1,500 birds the world’s most advanced veterinary care for oiled wildlife. It is the major Northern California rescue center in the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, which comprises 12 rescue facilities and 29 organizations prepared to care for oiled wildlife on short notice.

At the Fairfield facility, the first order of business is not to remove oil from the birds. Instead, it is to warm, hydrate and nourish them. Once stabilized, they will be better able to withstand the stresses of being washed. Under UC Davis’ leadership, the Oiled Wildlife Care Network typically releases 50 to 75 percent of the birds it treats, but is continuing to study the birds’ long-term survival rates using advanced tracking research.

This was the first major spill for volunteer coordinator Kaiti Fernandez, who has helped train hundreds of volunteers since she joined the UC Davis staff in 2008. Keeping the team organized, fed and supplied was administrative coordinator Lavonne Hull, and associate engineer Don Ballard kept the facility running smoothly.

By the time Dateline went to press on Nov. 4, 39 living oiled birds and 13 dead birds had been collected. Of the 39, five died in care or were euthanized. Most of the surviving birds were American coots, Ziccardi said, though several shorebirds, grebes and scoters have also been collected. These birds’ recovery may take longer than usual, he added, because many have oil burns on their skin. Once healed, they will be returned to the bay.

Read more about the oiled wildlife rescue effort at owcnblog.wordpress.com.