Lab tests confirmed that an oil sheen off Santa Barbara County’s coast last week was from natural seepage, the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday.
The slick was spotted Wednesday afternoon about 1,000 yards off Goleta Beach by a pair of kayakers who paddled to shore with their legs and kayaks stained in brown and black. They reported the sheen to local authorities, who asked the Coast Guard to go out by air and sea to investigate.
The sheen spread across six square miles but was so thin it couldn’t be sopped up. Authorities said it will naturally dissipate. Tests of the sheen matched samples from tar balls caused by natural seepage, the Coast Guard said.
At Coal Oil Point, a seep field in the Santa Barbara Channel, thousands of gallons of oil flow into the ocean each day, something residents have grown accustomed to.
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