PROVIDENCE - Governor Lincoln Almond and federal officials announced today the owner, operator and insurer of the vessel North Cape have agreed to restock 1.24 million lobsters at a cost of approximately $8 to $10 million, while paying $8 million to restore other natural resources harmed by the 1996 oil spill off the southern coast of Rhode Island. Restoration efforts are expected to begin as early as Spring of 2000.

A "settlement in principle" has been reached between state and federal officials and West of England Ship Owners Mutual Insurance Association, the insurer of the companies responsible for the spill. The trustees, including the state Department of Environmental Management (DEM), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, must submit a mutually acceptable consent decree along with the responsible parties to the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island for final approval of the settlement. After submission, there will be a 30-day public comment period.

"Maintaining Rhode Island's superior quality of life continues to be a top priority," said Almond. "We all know that our environment is our state's most treasured natural resource. This settlement will enable us to regain what we have lost and to protect our environment for generations to come."

The settlement will provide funding to implement the following restoration projects: building predator exclusion cages to protect the piping plover; acquiring land to maintain loon and eider productivity; acquiring land adjacent to coastal salt ponds to prevent ecological impacts from future land development; undertaking anadramous fish restorations; transplanting shellfish, such as quahogs, from a portion of the Providence River to shellfish sanctuaries in Narragansett Bay; providing oversight of the lobster restocking effort and providing for a comprehensive lobster monitoring program, tagging more than 10 percent of the re-stocked lobsters.

Jan Reitsma, DEM director, and trustee for Rhode Island said, "This settlement represents a big win for the people of the state who use and enjoy our magnificent natural resources. We can now get the restoration underway as soon as possible."

Ronald E. Lambertson, regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Service's Northeast Region said, "From the perspective of the Fish and Wildlife Service, this has been an amazing collaborative effort. The settlement will help us work to restore populations of loons, plovers and eiders, and to compensate the public for injury to the environment caused by the spill."

In January of 1996, the tug Scandia and the barge North Cape grounded on Moonstone Beach in Southern Rhode Island, resulting in the state's largest oil spill-828,000 gallons of home heating oil.

The spill killed roughly nine million lobsters, more than 400 loons, and 1,600 other marine birds, as well as more than a million pounds of clams, oysters, amphipods and other species. The spill shut down the lobster industry for five months and reduced the productivity of the area's piping plover population.

Shortly after the North Cape spill, new regulations for conducting natural resource damage assessments under the federal Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990 took effect. These regulations were designed to expedite the restoration of injured natural resources and provide opportunities for the responsible party and the public to participate in the damage assessment process. For the North Cape spill, the trustees worked collaboratively with the responsible parties including: Eklof Marine Corporation, Thor Towing Corporation, and Odin Marine Corporation.

Said Craig O'Connor, acting general counsel for NOAA, the agency responsible for the new regulations, "NOAA's primary goal was to ensure the restoration of the natural resources injured by the North Cape oil spill, and to get there as quickly as possible. We believe the North Cape settlement demonstrates the benefits of working cooperatively with the public and those responsible for the spill toward the goal of restoration. NOAA is very pleased that we could harness the expertise of our National Ocean Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to restore these coastal resources for future generations of Americans."