SAN FRANCISCO -- It seemed like a typical communication exchange between a ship leaving San Francisco Bay and the Coast Guard's Vessel Traffic Service and then came the call -- "We just touched the Delta span. I'm gonna go to trying to get our anchor."

The National Transportation and Safety Board late Friday released the transcripts of the calls between the Coast Guard and the Cosco Busan just before, during and after its collision with a bumper protecting the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

The "touched" gashed a 70-foot section of the container ship, ripping two of its fuel tanks and dumping 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel oil into the San Francisco Bay. The spill has touched off the region's most devastating environmental disaster in more than two decades.

Here is the exchange released by the NTSB that took place between the pilot of the Cosco Busan and the Coast Guard's Vessel Traffic Service on the foggy morning of Nov. 7.

"Roger, captain, are you still proceeding out?" Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service says at 8:29 a.m.

"Traffic?" responds the pilot, acknowledging the communication.

"AIS shows you on 235 heading. What are your intentions? Over," VTS asks. AIS is the Automatic Identification System, a shipboard tracking system.

"Um, I'm coming around. I'm steering 280 right now," the pilot says, indicating he was shifting the rudder as he made a turn.

"Roger, understand you're still intending the Delta-Echo span, over," VTS says, referring to the opening under the bridge between bridge supports labeled Delta and Echo.

"Yeah, we're still Delta-Echo," says the pilot.

"Uh, roger captain," VTS says at 8:30.

At 8:32 the collision has occurred, and the pilot says:

"Traffic, we just touched the Delta span. I'm gonna go to trying to get our anchor. Anchorage 9 ... Anchorage 7," the pilot says, suggesting some confusion about where he was.

"Roger, unit Romeo at the Delta-Echo span, diverting to Anchorage 7," the Coast Guard acknowledges. Evidently the name Romeo was assigned to the Cosco Busan.

VTS then proceeds to alert other ships in the area.

"Ferry San Francisco, Ferry Intinoli, do you copy, over," VTS says.

"Ferry San Francisco copies," says Ferry San Francisco.

"Traffic, Intinoli copies, Romeo diverting to Anchorage 7," the Intinoli says.

The released of the transcript came hours after the Coast Guard went on the defensive, claiming its radars could not have clearly shown a cargo ship was dangerously close to the Bay Bridge.

Capt. Jim McPherson said the Coast Guard's Vessel Traffic Service's role on the Bay is to keep ships from colliding with each other and to provide advisory information. It's not like air traffic control, which takes direct control of an aircraft, McPherson told The Associated Press. "It's a really important distinction," he said.

The NTSB, which is investigating the Nov. 7 crash and the Coast Guard's response, disclosed Thursday that the VTS had radioed the Cosco Busan's pilot to question his course, but had not advised him the ship was in trouble.

The VTS questioned the ship's course and intentions three times prior to the collision, according to a federal official with knowledge of the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

Then, as the ship struggled through fog, about two minutes of silence passed between the Coast Guard's inquiries and when Capt. John Cota reported he had struck a tower footing of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

According to McPherson, radar at the VTS operates on a 12-mile scale and does not have the level of detail to show the protective fenders on the bridge supports like the one sideswiped by the Cosco Busan.

"The resolution on the radar is such that you can't tell with certainty it's going to occur," McPherson said. "We had no way of knowing, on the type of scale it is."

Asked about McPherson's comment, Michael Hansen, a spokesman for ship owner Regal Stone Ltd., said: "The master and pilot make the decisions. At this point I'd have to agree with the Coast Guard. They were working under procedures and regulations in place at the time."

NTSB has acknowledged that VTS is not empowered to order a ship to do anything, but said it would probe whether such a Coast Guard facility should do more to guide the ship away from the bridge.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein called for granting the Coast Guard expanded powers in controlling the movement of ships.

"The Coast Guard should be able to control the direction and speed of ships when necessary," Feinstein said.

McPherson said that such a change would have to be made legislatively and that the Coast Guard would welcome the opportunity to work with congressional staff to look at possibilities for making it safer to come into and out of ports.

About a third of the toxic oil that leaked from a cargo ship has been scooped up by skimming boats or has evaporated, authorities said Friday as they prepared to release injured birds back into the wild.

Nearly 1,000 birds have been captured, but nearly 200 have died in captivity or have been euthanized, Edinger said. In all, the department has counted nearly 900 dead birds, he said.

Meanwhile, several area beaches closed by the spill have begin to re-open.

Beaches in Marin and San Mateo counties were back open Friday, and officials reopened many of San Francisco's beaches on Saturday.

The National Park Service says Baker Beach, Fort Funston and China Beach was re-opened at sunrise, and the public hopefully will be able to access Crissy Field and Ocean Beach by noon.

So far, the spill has cost the federal government $1.4 million. That cost does not include money spent in state or private cleanup efforts by the owner of the cargo ship that caused the spill when it struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Nov. 7.

Officials say the bill for all cleanup costs will be sent to Regal Stone Ltd.