The proclamation made additional state personnel, funding and equipment available to assess and clean up the environmental damage.

[5] The National Transportation Safety Board determined the following probable causes of the accident:[6][7][8] Other contributing factors included:[6] Master Mao Cai Sun meekly abdicated control of his ship to a pilot who was affected by pharmaceuticals.

Based on a careful analysis of the accident documents the author proves that technical weaknesses were overlooked as well as failures in displaying and processing of information had not been taken into account.

[10]Senator Barbara Boxer and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom criticized the Coast Guard for its response, as its initial reported figures, between 100 and 400 US gal (380 and 1,510 L) of oil, were significantly lower than those of the actual spill.

[citation needed] On 23 July 2008, a federal grand jury indicted Fleet Management Ltd. of Hong Kong, the company that operated Cosco Busan.

[13] On 6 March 2009, Cota negotiated a plea agreement with prosecutors to federal water pollution and migratory bird killing charges.

[15] On 19 September 2011, federal, state, and local agencies announced a final comprehensive civil settlement for $44.4 million.

The eggs laid by herring, which typically enter the bay in December, were killed in areas affected by the spill.

[21] As of 30 November, State biologists had tested more than 1100 samples of fish, mussels and Dungeness crab in San Francisco Bay and coastal waters outside the Golden Gate.

[22] For the first few days OSHA rules were interpreted as requiring HAZWOPER certification, a minimum of 24 hours of classroom time, before involvement in any effort that may result in oil contact.

[23] OSHA rules require exactly 240 minutes of classroom time, and the certification is valid for only one incident, e.g., this oil spill.

Ad-hoc volunteers were discouraged from cleaning beaches during the early days following the spill, as government workers and private contractor The O'Brien's Group handled the official disaster response.