On January 19, 1996, the worst oil spill in Rhode Island history occurred when the tank barge, North Cape, and the tugboat, Scandia, grounded off Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown. The grounding occurred after the tug caught fire in its engine room during a winter storm.
An estimated 828,000 gallons of home heating oil spilled, spreading throughout a broad area of Block Island Sound and beyond, including the shoreline of the Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge (NWR).
According to NOAA, the spill killed massive numbers of marine animals including:
- 9 million lobster
- 150 million surf clam
- 4.2 million fish
- >1 million lbs of other organisms such as worms, crabs, and mussels.
The spill also killed massive numbers of animals in Rhode Island’s coastal salt ponds, according to NOAA:
- 500,000 fish
- 6.5 million marine worms, amphipods
- >1 million crabs, shrimp, clams, and oysters
- 2,100 marine birds, including 402 loons
The Trustom Pond NWR contains the only remaining undeveloped coastal salt pond in Rhode Island and is a nesting site for endangered piping plovers The oiling killed as many as 10 piping plovers and impaired hatching of piping plover chicks at the refuge…