Owners of Oil Spill Tankship Reach $1.96-million Settlement

Owners of tankship 'Dubai Star' reach settlement in civil suit brought by San Francisco, Oakland Dept. of Fish & Game

Bay area East Bay beaches and birds took the brunt of the damage, but the Dubai Star spill was also bad news for crab fishers says SF Weekly.

The owner and operator of a tanker that spilled oil in the bay has agreed to a $1.96 million settlement with San Francisco, Oakland and the California Department of Fish and Game.

The Dubai Star leaked between 400 and 800 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay in October 2009 about 2 1/2 miles south of the Bay Bridge.

Teresa Drenick, with the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, said the settlement is separate from a $10-million class action lawsuit that was filed against the ship's operators by crab fisherman less than a month after it became the second tanker in less than two years to leak oil into the bay. The spill took seven months to clean.

The Dubai Star is owned by South Harmony Shipping Inc. of Panama. The ship was carrying light jet fuel as cargo on the day it leaked into the bay, but its propulsion fuel --  not its cargo -- leaked into the bay.