Aerial television footage from ABC7 showed areas off shore with dark, oil-like masses and a shimmering slick stretching out across the surface of the water.
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Investigators descended on a Santa Barbara, California, beach Wednesday after two kayakers returned to the shore covered in oil.
The Coast Guard investigated a reported oil sheen Wednesday seen floating off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., near the site of a May oil spill.
The pair reported a large oil slick, Zaniboni said, adding that oil was on the kayakers’ legs and boats.
A U.S. Coast Guard petty officer told KTLA that a marine safety detachment team was investigating the oil.
The May 19 pipeline rupture occurred to the west at Refugio State Beach.
It’s still too soon to call it an oil spill, since the area is known for periodic seepage and the source is still unknown, Capt. David Zaniboni with the county fire department told ABC7. The break spilled more than 100,000 gallons of crude, including 21,000 gallons that flowed into the ocean. Zaniboni said the slick was unusually large but he refrained from calling it an oil spill because the source was undetermined.
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There were no reports of oil washing ashore and Goleta beach remained open, although authorities were keeping people out of water and had shut down fishing on the pier, he told the station.
