Oil sheen off California possibly caused by natural seepage from ocean floor, Coast Guard says

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — The Coast Guard says an oil sheen spotted off the Southern California coast last week was possibly caused by a natural seep from the ocean floor, but the exact source still isn’t known. Authorities detected the sheen Friday morning off Huntington Beach. Crews recovered roughly 85 gallons from the water and 1,050 pounds of oily waste and tar balls from the shoreline. The Coast Guard says that lab tests so far have failed to definitively identify the oil source, but preliminary analyses determined it was not a refined product like gasoline or diesel. The samples are more characteristic of freshly produced oil typical of natural seepage.