Authorities investigating a mysterious oil spill that has been killing seabirds from Point Reyes to the Monterey Peninsula for nearly a month say the death toll has continued to climb, and there is still no clue as to its source.
Investigators from the California Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Coast Guard report that the number of oil-coated seabirds found on the coast in what they have dubbed the "San Mateo Mystery Oil Spill'' has reached 725 since the first ones were spotted on Nov. 24.
Although staff members at the San Francisco Bay Oiled Wildlife Care and Education Center in Suisun City have been working nonstop to clean the birds and return them to the wild, 412 were dead on arrival at the center and another 150 died during treatment. Only 50 birds have been successfully treated and released since the spill began.
Nine birds were found dead on Thursday at Pillar Point and Salinas River State Beach, and four injured birds were captured at Half Moon Bay, Pillar Point and in south San Francisco County.
The Coast Guard is continuing daily flights over the ocean to look for possible sources of the spill. The most tantalizing piece of possible evidence, an oily sheen found near the Farallon Islands on Dec. 8, has long since broken up and disappeared, but the oil-coated birds continue to appear.<
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