Wildlife Observations from the 2015 Refugio Beach Oil Spill in California

NOAA documented wildlife observations on May 24, 2015, following a 21,000-gallon pipeline rupture near Refugio State Beach. The dataset captures the immediate environmental impact of the spill into the Pacific Ocean. It was published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to support investigation and restoration efforts.

Use Cases

• Assessing immediate wildlife exposure based on observation locations mentioned in the description
• Modeling habitat vulnerability to oil spills based on the documented spill area
• Supporting natural resource damage assessment for legal restoration based on the described investigation purpose
• Tracking spatial distribution of observed species during a contamination event

Strengths

• Focuses on a specific, documented environmental event from May 24, 2015.
• Produced by the authoritative National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
• Metadata indicates a last update in March 2026, suggesting potential maintenance.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is provided in PDF and HTML formats, which are not ideal for computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Likely contains field observations collected by NOAA and partner agencies during the spill response.

Time Range

May 24, 2015

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 22:25:43.832196; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Refugio Beach Oil Spill area, Santa Barbara County, California, USA