POSTED: March 28, 2014 | UPDATED: March 30, 2014--The March 22 vessel collision in Galveston Bay (see Kirby Barge Oil Spill, Houston/Texas City Ship Channel, Port Bolivar, Texas) that resulted in an oil spill of approximately 168,000 gallons caused the closure of the heavily trafficked Port of Houston for 3 days. Some oil came ashore near the collision site in the Galveston area, but northeasterly winds carried the remainder out of the Bay. Longshore currents then carried the oil to the west, some as far as 150 miles, were it stranded on Matagorda Island.

A small fraction of the oil is still afloat off Mustang and Padre Islands. Although most all of the oil is still thought to be stranded on shorelines between Galveston and Matagorda, overflights this morning noted sheens and tarballs further west than anticipated, near Aransas Pass. This oil could impact Mustang and Padre Islands and the need for additional trajectory forecasts is being reconsidered. Overflight observers also noted that shoreline oil on Matagorda Island is rapidly being buried under clean sand. Burial of oil is common on active shorelines, but increases the complexity of the response, especially in areas where mechanical cleanup methods are not feasible or inappropriate because of their environmental sensitivity. NOAA is providing scientific support to the U.S. Coast Guard, including science coordination, trajectories, shoreline assessment, information management and common operational picture, overflight, weather, resources at risk, seafood safety, and marine mammal and turtle stranding personnel. The NOAA Weather Service Incident Meteorologist is on-scene. For further information, contact Doug.Helton@noaa.gov.