Cleanup STAFF PHOTO BY PHIL REYNOLDS A worker uses a hose to suck red diesel fuel from the water surface after an oil spill on Tuesday, Feb. 5, in The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute marina. A 30-gallon diesel fuel spill in The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute (MSI) marina on Tuesday, Feb. 5, "could have been worse," a Coast Guard spokesman said late Tuesday.

The spill happened about 10 a.m. Tuesday when the Aransas Corpus Christi Pilot Association boat was overfilled as someone was fueling it, said Coast Guard Lt. Patrick Marshall.

"It was cleaned up fairly rapidly," Marshall said. He said a commercial contract company that cleans up spills was quickly on the scene and put out floating booms to contain the oil and keep it from drifting into the nearby ship channel.

Marshall said the spill was reported almost immediately, allowing crews to get on the scene quickly and begin containing it and cleaning it up.

Workers used absorbent pads to clean up part of the spill and collected part in one corner of the marina, where it was removed by a device called a "skimmer" and deposited in a waste clean-up truck.

The skimmer picks nearly all the pollutant off the surface of the water, said an employee of Miller Environmental Services, who asked not to be identified.

One casualty of the spill, a spotted sandpiper, was picked up and taken to the Animal Rehabilitation Keep (ARK) for treatment. Tony Amos, ARK director, said the bird was being kept in a heated cage and was showing signs of improvement.

The spotted sandpiper is not an endangered species. Tveten's authoritative "Birds of Texas" calls it "the most widespread of all the North American sandpipers."