Hundreds of people work hard to save wildlife and halt the spread of a large oil spill in the San Francisco Bay that has continued to spread and led to the closing of many beaches on the US West Coast. Sixty boats, including 20 special craft to remove oil from the water, were involved in the more than 500-man cleanup effort, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Only 8,000 gallons of oil has been cleaned up so far, and 18,000 feet of boom had been deployed to halt the spread.

On Friday, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had called a state of emergency for the area to free funds for the efforts.

"I have signed an emergency proclamation, so all the state’s resources can be coordinated to address this oil spill. I have also directed my Office of Spill Prevention and Response to work with the ship owner and federal and local authorities to bring in whatever resources are needed to clean this up immediately," said Governor Schwarzenegger.

More than 200 birds have been buried alive in oil and 60 have already died, radio broadcaster KCBS reported late Saturday. More than 58,000 gallons of ship oil have leaked into the bay since Wednesday after a huge container ship slammed into the Bay Bridge. No damage was caused to the bridge when the 65,131-ton Cosco Busan, a 900-foot-long container ship, struck a protective structure around the bridge's massive pilings in heavy fog, suffering a 75 foot gash.

Hundreds of thousands of marine animals and birds are threatened by the spill, which has already reached the Farallon Islands 25 miles away that serve as an important bird and wildlife sanctuary. Scores of volunteers who wanted to assist at the scene were turned away because of the dangers involved in cleaning up oil.

All crewmembers and the pilot of the Cosco Busan at the time of the accident were alcohol tested within the required two hour time limit, and the results came out negative. They were also tested for drugs within the first few hours, but those results will not be available until early next week.

Oil vapors caused mild health problems for people who live or work near the spill area, such as nausea and headaches, but breathing oil fumes is not associated with long term health effects. "Although the results from the monitoring show that the levels of hydrogen sulfide do not pose a threat to public health, it's prudent to minimize your exposure and stay away from the spill areas and avoid contact with bay waters," said Jack Broadbent, the Air District's Executive Officer, according to ENS.

The incident is similar to that of 1996, when cargo ship Cape Mohican dumped 40,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil into the bay off San Francisco's southeastern waterfront. Both incidents involved a similar fuel type and amount, and happened around the same area.