The Guardian | California oil spill despoils coastline in tar-blackened reprise of 1960s disaster The Guardian Mark Massara was eight years old in 1969, when a blowout at a Union Oil well off the California coast spilled more than three million gallons of crude along the beaches of Santa Barbara and devastated one of the northern hemisphere's most prized ... Sea Lion Rescued From Santa Barbara Oil Spill Dies At SeaWorld California oil spill company under local, state and federal investigation Not Again: How a 1969 Oil Spill Devastated the Santa Barbara Coast |