San Francisco ? The helmsman of a cargo ship that set off a major environmental disaster in the San Francisco Bay was sentenced Friday to 10 months in prison.

John Cota pleaded guilty in March to two misdemeanor environmental crimes of illegally discharging oil in the bay and killing thousands of birds.

Cota apologized to the court and to the “people of the Bay Area for the damage I have caused.”

Cota’s attorney, Jeff Bornstein, had asked U.S. District Judge Susan Illston to impose a two-month sentence.

The spill killed 2,000 birds, fouled dozens of miles of coastline and cost commercial fishermen millions of dollars in lost revenue.