Members of the U.S. Coast Guard Sector San Francisco Incident Management Division were notified by the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) on-scene coordinator that their contractor, Global Diving and Salvage, Inc. (GDSI), had discovered tar balls and heavy oil while removing sediment from the tug Respect in the Oakland Estuary Oct. 14, 2013. Further research on the Respect showed an estimated 300-500 gallons of oil had been left aboard during removal operations conducted in 1998. The Respect was then vandalized in 2007 and sank with an unknown oil potential.