Santa Barbara Oil Spill Update

In news around the State. The oil spill along the coast of Santa Barbara is hurting some store owners this Memorial Day Weekend.

More than one hundred thousand gallons of crude oil leaked into the Pacific Ocean. It has impacting a nine-mile stretch of the coastline.

A shop owner at Santa Barbara Harbor says in normal times, business would be booming. But now, he says he’s lost tens of thousands of dollars in revenue, and he is worried about the rest of the year.

Garrett Kababik/Shop Owner: "We’re a feast and famine business. We don’t have very many days to make our money, so having this happen at a time where we’re expecting good revenues is tough."

Two state beaches in the area will be closed until June fourth, and the clean up could last for months.

As crews continue to clean up the oil spill, more and more animals are getting sick from the spill. Seaworld has deployed two of its specialists on the ground in Santa Barbara and the team says its ready for any more animals to come their way.

Jody Westberg with the Seaworld rescue team says they have been working hard, to save wildlife affected by the spill.

Jody Westberg/SeaWorld Rescue Team: I’m very proud of this team the time the effort and the energy and its, it’s not about–we’ve been rescuing an unprecedented number of sea lions and all that we’ve been putting into it.

Wildlife deaths have been reported from the spill.