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Seabirds plague Valdez tanker terminal Alyeska Pipeline tries to discourage black-legged kittiwakes from nesting on loading berths; guano poses messy workplace hazard Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. has a serious bird problem on its hands.
It seems a multitude of black-legged kittiwakes has taken a shine to the Valdez oil terminal as a place to nest.
Specifically, the kittiwakes like the tanker loading berths that extend out into the waters of Port Valdez.
The birds present an operational nuisance and even a safety concern for Alyeska, which operates the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline and the Valdez terminal where tankers for BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil take on Alaska North Slope crude.
In particular, seabird guano can “create quite a mess,” and presents a slip-and-fall hazard for workers, an Alyeska spokeswoman said.
Population shift The black-legged kittiwake is a small gull that normally nests on narrow cliff ledges on offshore islands or inaccessible areas of coastal mainlands. Kittiwake colonies are abundant in Alaska.
Alyeska says the kittiwakes seem to have settled at the tanker terminal as part of a regional shift of the species to the northern part of Prince William Sound.
“Prior to the mid-2000s the kittiwakes seemed to prefer the nearby Shoup Bay rookery, but the infrastructure of the berths became a favored location for their communal nesting habits,” Alyeska spokeswoman Michelle Egan said in an email to Petroleum News.
“Trying to maintain a clean and safe working environment while working around thousands of birds can become challenging,” Egan said. “Alyeska personnel are currently working under state and federal permits to limit the availability of nesting locations to cause the birds to move on to more suitable natural habitat. This is an ongoing multi-year effort that has required innovative solutions.”
What to do? One tactic to deter kittiwake nesting is running wires above the berth railings, Egan said.
Another tactic: “We drape netting below the infrastructure so that the birds can’t get into areas beneath the berth where they could roost.”
The kittiwake problem has caught the attention of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council, a Valdez nonprofit that monitors the terminal and associated tanker traffic.
“Alyeska has indicated that it has spent considerable sums of money and has gone to considerable efforts to make the birds nest elsewhere,” the council said in a recent status report.
The bird problem is worst on the relatively inactive tanker berths 1 and 3, the council said. Alyeska uses mainly berths 4 and 5 for tanker loading.
“Actions to date to manage the bird population have been unsuccessful,” the council said.
But Alyeska noted: “Studies have shown the population has reversed its growth, and the problem is slowly getting better.”
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