How Marine Science Institute researchers helped solve the 2021 Huntington Beach oil spill

Sessile creatures like this barnacle were the key to determining when the oil pipeline was compromised, an event that eventually led to the oil spill

Participating in a federal investigation was not on UC Santa Barbara marine biologist Mark Page’s agenda back in 2021, but after he got the call from the Coast Guard that October, he became part of a “dream team” of scientists and investigators that unraveled the mystery behind a spill that coated Huntington and Newport beaches with about 25,000 gallons of crude oil.