Restoration Settlement Reached for North Cape Oil Spill

The owner, operator and insurer of vessel North Cape have agreed to restock 1.24 million lobsters and pay $8 million to restore other natural resources injured by the 1996 oil spill off the southern coast of Rhode Island. The Governor and federal officials announced they have reached a "settlement in principle" with West of England Ship Owners Mutual Insurance Association, the insurer of the companies responsible for the spill. The trustees and responsible parties will draft a mutually acceptable consent decree, which must be submitted to the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island for approval. The restoration funds will benefit several wildlife species, including piping plover, protected by the Endangered Species Act, common loon and eider, migratory fish and shellfish, including quahogs and lobsters. Land adjacent to coastal salt ponds will also be acquired to improve water quality. In January of 1996, tug Scandia and barge North Cape grounded on Moonstone Beach on Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge in southern Rhode Island, resulting in the state's largest oil spill - 828,000 gallons of home heating oil. The spill killed roughly nine million lobsters, more than 400 loons, and 1,600 other marine birds, as well as more than a million pounds of clams, oysters, amphipods and other species. The spill shut down the lobster industry for five months and reduced the productivity of the area's piping plover population.