API Publ 355

Potential avian impacts are often a key liability component of Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRD) under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA). This paper has three purposes. The first is to provide NRD practitioners with an overview of methods commonly used to asses acute avian mortality following oil spills. The second purpose is to provide NRD practitioners with an understanding of the BBM, the data required to support BBM modeling, uncertainties associated with BBM results, and steps that can be taken to reduce those uncertainties. Finally, we outline methods designed to help Trustee and responsible party representatives cooperatively identify optimal strategies throughout the BBM process.