The State - News from Sept. 29, 1987

About 200 gallons of oil spreading a sheen over nine miles of ocean was all that remained of a slick that once threatened the habitat of marine mammals off Santa Barbara, officials said. High winds and choppy seas over the weekend created a “washing-machine” cleansing effect that diminished the threat once posed by the leak from a sunken freighter near a marine sanctuary at San Miguel Island, Coast Guard spokesman Charles Embleton said. “What we now have is no longer a slick or spill. It’s actually a sheen over the surface of the water and about 9 1/2 miles long,” Embleton said. More than 40,000 gallons of fuel oil have leaked from the Liberian-registered Pac Baroness since the vessel sank Sept. 21 after colliding with the freighter Atlantic Wing in heavy fog.