1. Oil Spills oil spills happen when people make mistakes or are careless and cause an oil tanker to leak oil into the ocean. There are a few more ways an oil spill can http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/oil_spills.htm

Imagine yourself as a killer whale. You are swimming around when you decide to stick your head out of the water to take a breath. As you are taking a breath, you see a large stream of thick black oil heading your way. You go back under water only to find other animals dying one by one because the oil is damaging their bodies. This is the way some animals must die in the ocean. They die because of an oil spill occurring in their habitat What’s an oil spill? Oil spills happen when people make mistakes or are careless and cause an oil tanker to leak oil into the ocean. There are a few more ways an oil spill can occur. Equipment breaking down may cause an oil spill. If the equipment breaks down, the tanker may get stuck on shallow land. When they start to drive the tanker again, they can put a hole in the tanker causing it to leak oil. When countries are at war, one country may decide to dump gallons of oil into the other country’s oceans. Terrorists may cause an oil spill because they will dump oil into a country’s ocean. Many terrorists will do this because they are trying to get the country’s attention, or they are trying to make a point to a country. Illegal dumpers are people that will dump crude oil into the oceans because they do not want to spend money on decomposing their waste oil. Because they won’t spend money on breaking up the oil (decomposing it) they will dump oil into the oceans, which is illegal.

2. NOAA's National Ocean Service Office Of Response And Restoration | Emergency Res When we talk about oil spills, how much oil are we talking about? oil spills into rivers, bays, and the ocean are caused by accidents involving tankers, http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/kids/spills.html

Emergency Response Pollutants in the Environment Serving Communities Natural Resource Restoration Information for: Emergency Responders Students and Teachers Interested Public Research Institutions ... FAQs Catalogs of: Publications Web Portals Links Downloads ... Responding to Oil Spills What's the Story on Oil Spills? When we talk about oil spills, how much oil are we talking about? Quite a lot: The United States uses about 700 million gallons of oil every day. The world uses nearly 3 billion gallons each day. The largest spill in the United States so far was the Exxon Valdez spill into Prince William Sound, Alaska in March 1989. An oil tanker ran aground to cause this spill of almost 11 million gallons of crude oil. While this was a big spill, it was actually only a small fractionless than 2 percentof what the United States uses in 1 day! These big numbers are hard to relate to everyday life, so let's make some comparisons. To better understand how much 11 million gallons of oil is, check the table below. It shows how many familiar rooms or buildings would be filled up by the approximate amount of oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez . For example, that oil would have filled up 9 school gyms or 430 classrooms.

3. EPA - Oil Program Information about programs for preventing, preparing for, and responding to oil spills that occur in and around inland waters of the United States, http://www.epa.gov/oilspill/

@import url("http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/s/epa.css"); @import url("http://www.epa.gov/emergencies/s/oem.css"); Jump to main content. Emergency Management Contact Us Search: All EPA Emergency Management You are here: EPA Home Emergency Management File Not Found Navigation Home Our Programs Our ... Sources The EPA Oil Spill web area has moved! Quickfinder Border Programs CAMEO EPCRA Facility Response Plan ... More... Please visit the new EPA Emergency Management homepage, use the links to the left, or browse these popular topics: Facility Response Plan (FRP) Rule National Contingency Plan (NCP) Product Schedule Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Rule You may also visit our new site map to find relevant pages or browse our A-Z Topic List For assistance, please contact us Local Navigation Emergency Management Home Basic Information Where You Live About Us ... Jump to main content.

4. ITOPF - About Marine Spills - Effects Of Oil Spills oil spills can have serious effects on marine life, as highlighted by the photos of dead birds which regularly appear in the news after such an event. http://www.itopf.com/marine-spills/effects/

Skip Navigation 24-hour Emergency No: Search our site: Home About ITOPF What We Do History ... Contact Effects of Oil Spills Oil spills can have serious effects on marine life, as highlighted by the photos of dead birds which regularly appear in the news after such an event. Such images fuel the perception of widespread and permanent environmental damage after every spill, and an inevitable loss of marine resources with serious economic repercussions. A science-based appraisal of the effects reveals that whilst damage occurs and may be profound at the level of individual organisms, populations are more resilient and natural recovery processes are capable of repairing the damage and returning the system to normal functions. The first stage on the road to recovery is usually a well conducted clean-up operation but in some specific habitats aggressive clean-up methods can cause more harm than good and then it is better to let natural cleaning processes take their course. Many spill impacts have been documented in the scientific and technical literature, and although not all the effects of oil pollution are completely understood, an indication of the likely scale and duration of damage can usually be deduced from the information available. However, it can be difficult to present a balanced view of the realities of spill effects, given the often highly charged and emotional nature of a spill and its aftermath. The scientific community can become polarised into opposing camps with one side intent on quantifying every aspect of damage, and the other emphasising the capacity of the environment to recover naturally. The simple reality is that sometimes significant damage occurs, sometimes not and the aim of these pages is to draw together what general information is known about spill effects and their longevity.

5. Oil Spills And Disasters — Infoplease.com Related content from HighBeam Research on oil spills and Disasters California s American Trader oil spill effective interagency and publicprivate http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001451.html

Site Map FAQ in All Infoplease Almanacs Biographies Dictionary Encyclopedia Spelling Checker Daily Almanac for Jan 24, 2008 Search White Pages Skip Navigation Home Almanacs ... Word of the Day Editor's Favorites 2007 Year in Review Black History Month Leap Year Martin Luther King Day ... 2008 Calendar Search: Infoplease Info search tips Search: Biographies Bio search tips World Disasters Oil Spills and Disasters March 18, Cornwall, Eng.: Torrey Canyon ran aground, spilling 38 million gallons of crude oil off the Scilly Islands. Dec. 15, Buzzards Bay, Mass.: Argo Merchant ran aground and broke apart southeast of Nantucket Island, spilling its entire cargo of 7.7 million gallons of fuel oil. April, North Sea: blowout of well in Ekofisk oil field leaked 81 million gallons. March 16, off Portsall, France: wrecked supertanker Amoco Cadiz spilled 68 million gallons, causing widespread environmental damage over 100 mi of Brittany coast. June 3, Gulf of Mexico: exploratory oil well Ixtoc 1 blew out, spilling an estimated 140 million gallons of crude oil into the open sea. Although it is one of the largest known oil spills, it had a low environmental impact. July 19, Tobago:

6. Major Oil Spills In Australia A summary of the major oil spills that have occurred in or near Australian waters is provided below, together with several smaller offshore spills that http://www.amsa.gov.au/Marine_Environment_Protection/Major_Oil_Spills_in_Austral

contact us site help site map levies and fees ... Register of Local Fuel Oil Suppliers You are here: Home Major Oil Spills in Australia A summary of the major oil spills that have occurred in or near Australian waters is provided below, together with several smaller offshore spills that resulted in significant legal action. Date Vessel Location Oil amount Petriana Port Phillip Bay, VIC 1,300 tonnes Oceanic Grandeur Torres Strait QLD 1,100 tonnes Sygna Newcastle, NSW 700 tonnes Princess Anne Marie Offshore, WA 14,800 tonnes World Encouragement Botany Bay NSW 95 tonnes Anro Asia Bribie Island QLD 100 tonnes Esso Gippsland Port Stanvac SA unknown Nella Dan Macquarie Island 125 tonnes Korean Star Cape Cuvier WA 600 tonnes Al Qurain Portland VIC 184 tonnes Arthur Phillip Cape Otway VIC unknown Sanko Harvest Esperance WA 700 tonnes Kirki WA 17,280 tonnes Era Port Bonython SA 300 tonnes Iron Baron Hebe Reef TAS 325 tonnes Mobil Refinery Port Stanvac SA 230 tonnes Sydney NSW 250 tonnes Sylvan Arrow Wilson's Promontory VIC Pax Phoenix Holbourne Island, QLD Pacific Quest Border Island , QLD Global Peace Gladstone, QLD

7. Show Number 1005 Oil Spills What parts of the environment are affected by an oil spill? How does the ecosystem work to help clean up an oil spill? What technology is available to help http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexperiments/agesubject/lessons/newton/Oilspil

What parts of the environment are affected by an oil spill? How does the ecosystem work to help clean up an oil spill? What technology is available to help clean up an oil spill? What can humans do to prevent oil spills? Oil Spills How do you clean up an oil spill? Peggy gets a progress report on the clean up of one of the most well-known oil spills, the Exxon Valdez. Segment length: 9:30 Insights When an oil spill occurs, often due to a ruptured oil tanker or leaking oil rig, people around the world are awed by the damage to the environment. Many oil spills are caused by human error, but there are also naturally-occurring oil spills, such as seepages from oil deposits beneath the ocean floor. Regardless of their origins, oil spills have an impact on the environment. The initial impact of an oil spill on the environment is familiar to those who hear about the event and see its effects on the evening news: a film of oil spreading across the surface of the body of water; oil-stained beaches and shorelines; waterfowl and marine mammals coated with oil, struggling to survive; and the carcasses of wildlife littering the shoreline. The environment sustains some of its most visible damage within the first few days or months of the spill. But what are the long-term effects of a large spill? Some evidence suggests that the oil from the Exxon Valdez spill may have entered the food chain, and that the crude oil itself could continue to wreck havoc with the environment. Since oil floats and crude sinks, both the surface and the bottom of the ocean ecosystem could be affected for a long time.

8. BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Comparing The Worst Oil Spills BBC News Online details some of the worst oil spill disasters over the last 35 years and compares their impact on the environment. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2491317.stm

CATEGORIES TV RADIO COMMUNICATE ... INDEX SEARCH You are in: World: Europe News Front Page World ... Programmes SERVICES Daily E-mail News Ticker Mobile/PDAs Text Only ... Help LANGUAGES EDITIONS Change to World Tuesday, 19 November, 2002, 13:09 GMT Comparing the worst oil spills The biggest spill was off Brittany in 1978 Environmentalists are warning that if all 70,000 metric tons of fuel oil escape from the Prestige which broke up off the Spanish coast it could rank as one of the worst environmental disasters. Greenpeace spokesman Dr David Santillo says that making comparisons can be difficult as the impact depends on the type of oil spilled, the weather conditions and the sensitivity of the region. The Exxon Valdez spilled 38,800 tons of crude oil into Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1989 and it took many years for the area to recover. Change of law Dr Santillo, who works for the Greenpeace research laboratory at Exeter University in the UK, explained that a combination of shallow water and a poor flush of water through the Sound magnified the impact of the spill on a particularly sensitive region. Many seabirds have been affected by the Prestige disaster More recently, in 1999, the Erika spilled 13,000 tons of heavy diesel oil off the coast of Brittany - a disaster which led to a change in the laws governing the shipment of oil by tanker.

9. Cleanupoil.com Oil Spill & Pollution Clean Up Contractors Directory Cleanupoil.com is the most comprehensive International Directory of Oil Spill Clean up Contractors, oil spills Response Organizations (OSRO s) and Oil http://www.cleanupoil.com/

A volunteer scroops up oil as crude oil spills over the Mallipo swimming beach after a Hong-Kong-registered oil tanker accident in Taean 08/12/2007 A volunteer scroops up oil as crude oil spills over the Mallipo swimming beach after a Hong-Kong-registered oil tanker accident, in Taean, about 170km (106 miles) southwest of Seoul, December 8, 2007. South Korean workers using skimmers and containment fences battled on Saturday to clean up the worst oil spill in the country's history, as part of the slick hit shore near a nature preserve on the west coast. REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak (SOUTH KOREA) Click here to view the map ATTENTION CONTRACTORS! - SEND YOUR UPDATES AND CORRECTIONS FOR INSERTION IN THE 4th EDITION OF THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK We are now working on the 4th Edition of The Little Black Book, which will offer even more detail on the oil spill community. The 4th edition will be printed in time for the 2008 International Oil Spill Conference.

10. Seagull Blood Shows Delayed Effects Of Oil Spills - LiveScience - MSNBC.com Seagull blood might help scientists monitor the health of ecosystems ravaged by oil spills. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22729382/

Skip navigation Web MSNBC Space Science Gadgets Internet ... Innovation Categories U.S. news World news Politics Business ... Local news Browse Video Photos Community Today Show ... MSNBC TV Seagull blood shows delayed effects of oil spills Tests might help in monitoring ecosystem health in aftermath of disasters Denis Doyle / AP file A bird coated in thick fuel oil on a beach after the 2002 Prestige oil spill off the coast of Spain. By By Dave Mosher Blood tests can tell a doctor a lot about a patient's health. Now, seagull blood might help scientists monitor the health of ecosystems ravaged by oil spills. A new study shows that pollutants from oil spills can be sampled from the blood of yellow-legged seagulls long after clean-up efforts conclude. "This study highlights the delayed effects of oil spills that we know very little about," said Stuart Bearhop, a conservation biologist at the University of Exeter in England who was not involved in the study. "It's very easy to see what happens right after an oil spill: everything dies. But there are probably a lot of later effects we've overlooked." Seagulls that eat oil from a spill, either through munching contaminated ocean critters or grooming, form dangerous chemicals in their bodies known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These compounds are linked to cancer in humans.

11. Oil Fate During Oil Spills In The Marine Environment Oil behavior and fate during an oil spill in the sea. http://www.offshore-environment.com/oil.html

Offshore- environment.com Recommend this site to a colleague Environmental Impact of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry by Stanislav Patin - a unique summary of world-wide studies on the environmental issues associated with offshore oil and gas exploration and development Learn more ORDER NOW! Highly recommended by the Offshore-Environment.com! Oil spills in the sea by Stanislav Patin , translation by Elena Cascio based on "Environmental Impact of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry" Below you will find a short discussion of oil fate and behavior during an oil spill in the sea. Click on the links at the end of the page to find more information on Environmental Impact of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry. Oil spills in the marine environment Fate and behavior of oil in the marine environment Complex processes of oil transformation in the marine environment start developing from the first seconds of oil's contact with seawater. The progression, duration, and result of these transformations depend on the properties and composition of the oil itself, parameters of the actual oil spill, and environmental conditions. The main characteristics of oil transformations are their dynamism, especially at the first stages, and the close interaction of physical, chemical, and biological mechanisms of dispersion and degradation of oil components up to their complete disappearance as original substances. Similar to an intoxicated living organism, a marine ecosystem destroys, metabolizes, and deposits the excessive amounts of hydrocarbons, transforming them into more common and safer substances.

12. The Mariner Group -- Oil Spill History Following is a chronology of the world s worst oil spills in recent history http://www.marinergroup.com/oil-spill-history.htm

March 18 - UNITED KINGDOM - The Torrey Canyon ran aground off Cornwall spilling 80,000 tonnes (919,000 barrels) of crude. March 20 - SWEDEN - At least 438,000 barrels of oil spilled in a collision involving the Othello in Tralhavet Bay. December 19 - OMAN - After a collision with Brazilian tanker Horta Barbosa the South Korean tanker Sea Star spilled about 840,000 barrels of crude into the Gulf of Oman. December 15 - USA - The Argo Merchant ran aground off Nantucket spilling 183,000 barrels of oil and causing a slick 160 km (100 miles) long and 97 km wide. February 25 - PACIFIC - The Liberian-registered Hawaiian Patriot caught fire in the Northern Pacific spilling 723,000 barrels. March 16 - FRANCE - About 1.6 million barrels of crude spilled after the Amoco Cadiz ran aground near Portsall in France's worst ever tanker accident. The resulting slick eventually covered 125 miles of Breton coast. June 3 - MEXICO - An estimated 140 million gallons of oil spilled from an exploratory well in the Gulf of Mexico, 80 km NW of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche.

13. Islands' Oil Spill Association Or IOSA Home Page Island’s Oil Spill Association s mission is to provide a prompt, first line of response and prevention for oil spills in the San Juan Islands and http://iosaonline.org/

IOSA Home Page About IOSA Responder Info ... Services/Equipment Islands' Oil Spill Association San Juan County, WA Islands' Oil Spill Association (IOSA) provides a first line of response to oil spills in the San Juan Islands. Report Local Spills Welcome to the home page of Islands' Oil Spill Association (IOSA), a community-based, nonprofit organization providing prompt first response for oil spills in the San Juan Islands, shoreline protection, wildlife rescue and training for containment and oiled wildlife responders. The following list describes the links found at the top of each page. About IOSA helps you learn who we are, what we do and why we do it. Responder Info provides IOSA responders what they need to know such as where to go, who to call, what to bring, etc. You Can Help IOSA even if you are not a trained responder. A variety of opportunities exist to help during and between spills. Weather provides links for the San Juan Islands such as current conditions, forecasts and satellite imagery Maps will be provided as needed.

14. Seagull Blood Shows Promise For Monitoring Pollutants From Oil Spills Like the proverbial coal miners canaryin-the-cage, seagulls may become living sentinels to monitor oil pollution levels in marine environments. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080114090723.htm

Science News Share Blog Cite Print Email Bookmark Seagull Blood Shows Promise For Monitoring Pollutants From Oil Spills ScienceDaily (Jan. 17, 2008) See also: Marine Biology Sea Life Extreme Survival Pollution ... Marine conservation In the study, Alberto Velando and colleagues note that researchers have known for years that large oil spills can increase levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in marine environments. Studies have linked these compounds to cancer in humans. While oil spills quickly kill large numbers of seabirds and other animals, scientists do not fully understand the non-lethal biological effects of these spills, the Spanish researchers say. The researchers measured PAH levels in the blood of Yellow-legged gulls living in the vicinity of the oil spill caused by the 2002 shipwreck of the Prestige, one of Europe's largest oil spills. Gulls exposed to the oil showed twice the levels of PAHs in their blood than unexposed birds, even though these levels were measured 17 months after the initial spill, the researchers say. The findings "give support to the nondestructive use of seabirds as biomonitors of oil pollution in marine environments," the article states. The study "Monitoring Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Pollution in Marine Environment after the Prestige Oil Spill by Means of Seabird Blood Analysis" is scheduled for the Feb. 1 issue of ACS' Environmental Science & Technology.

15. ESA Portal - Envisat’s ASAR Reveals Extent Of Massive Oil Spill Off Spanish Envisat will monitor the area regularly along the coast in the coming weeks to trace any oil spills appearing on the sea surface from the sunken tanker. http://www.esa.int/esaCP/ESAGFD7708D_index_0.html

ESA Life in Space Expanding Frontiers Improving Daily Life ... Benefits for Europe Multimedia ESA Multimedia gallery Earth images gallery Podcasting RSS feeds ... National galleries Media Centre Press Releases ESA Television Exhibitions Services Calendar Publications Frequently asked questions ESA-sponsored Conferences ... Subscribe Search All ESA Home Advanced Search ASAR wide-swath image acquired November 2002 Envisat’s ASAR reveals extent of massive oil spill off Spanish coast 20 November 2002 Oil from the wrecked tanker off the northwest coast of Spain had already reached the Spanish coast when ESA's Envisat satellite acquired this radar image of the oil slick, stretching more than 150 km, on Sunday, 17 November, at 10.45 UTC. The 26-year-old tanker, Prestige, can be seen as a bright white point located about 100 km off the coast. Support vessels are identifiable as smaller white points surrounding the ship. The huge oil slick is clearly visible as a dark plume emanating from the stricken ship and stretching to the northwest coast of Spain. The image was captured by the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) onboard the Envisat spacecraft, launched by ESA last March. The ASAR was operating in its wide-swath mode covering an area approximately 400 km by 400 km.

16. Event-Based Science: OilSpill! Oil Spill! Oil Spill! is an EventBased Science module about oceanography. Selecting a Harbor Oceanography and the Impact of oil spills This site http://www.ebsinstitute.com/ebs.OilSpill.html

Event-Based Science Table of Contents Welcome Consulting Services Newsletter Newsletter Archives ... Tutoring Services Oil Spill! Event-Based Science is a new way to teach middle school science. It is an award-winning, standards-based program in which newsworthy events establish the relevance of science topics; authentic tasks create the need-to-know more about those topics; and lively interviews, photographs, Web pages, and inquiry-based science activities create a desire to know more about those topics. Main EBS Page Oil Spill! is an Event-Based Science module about oceanography. It uses the 1989 spill of over 10 million gallons of oil from the tanker Exxon Valdez to establish the context for exploring concepts related to shoreline oceanography. The task in Oil Spill!

17. List Of Major Oilspills Compiled By George Draffan Major oil spills. compiled by George Draffan. Endgame. 2002 November. Spain. Prestige carrying 20 million gallons (70000 metric tons) of fuel oil broke up http://www.endgame.org/oilspills.htm

Industrial Disasters Major Oil Spills compiled by George Draffan Endgame 2002 November Spain Prestige carrying 20 million gallons (70,000 metric tons) of fuel oil broke up off the Spanish coast. 2001 January Ecuador Ecuadorean-registered ship Jessica, spilled 175,000 gallons of diesel and bunker oil into the sea off the Galapagos Islands. 2000 June South Africa Some 1,400 tonnes of heavy fuel oil leaked from the bulk carrier Treasure off Cape Town, affecting penguins on Dassen and Robben Islands. 2000 January Brazil A ruptured pipeline spewed about 340,000 gallons of heavy oil into Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro. 1999 December France The stern of the Maltese tanker Erika sank off the northwest of Brittany after splitting in two, spilling 25,000 tonnes of viscous fuel oil. 1997 December Sea of Japan Japan Russian tanker Nakhodka spilled 19,000 tonnes of oil after breaking in two in the Sea of Japan. 1996 February UK UK Liberian-registered Sea Empress hit rocks near Milford Haven, Wales, spilling 72,000 tonnes of oil. 1994 October Portugal Portugal Panamanian tanker, Cercal, spilled about 2,000 tonnes of crude into the sea after striking a rock near Leixoes harbour, in Oporto.

18. Good News: SF's Oil Spill's Effects All But "Out Of Sight" : TreeHugger If you ll recall, oil spills accounted for a number of our posts last year, especially in the latter half. We re happy to report some good news in the case http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/good_news_sf_oil_spill.php

Good News: SF's Oil Spill's Effects All but "Out of Sight" "Lively and intelligent!!!" -James Kunstler Advertise About Tips TV ... treehugger featured: Edmund Hillary, Hero featured: Plants Save Us featured: UK Deploys Robot Armada Indoor Air Pollution Organic Food Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs ... Bicycle said: "Ban them all. This is a waste of gov't time...." [ read said: "That's lawyers for you. He must have a payroll for all the drivers it takes to empty the tanks of his cars every month...." [ read D said: "I feel sorry for anyone who feels he needs to consume that much to be happy...." [ read steve Morris said: "To the entry of don't buy a pellet stove because of power outages, they now have battery back ups that last as long as 12 hours and you can buy ad..." [ read Scott said: "In fairness Klean Kanteen is in my humble opinion better than Sigg (who seems to be getting quite a bit of free advertising here). ..." [ read Green Stats Happy Trails TreeHugger Picks ... UnTreeHugger Latest TH Radio The TH Interview: David Orr (Part Three) Where Hope and O... The TH Interview: David Orr (Part Two) The Carbon Connect... The TH Interview: The Preacher's Son, David Orr (Part One... Latest THTV Convenient Truths - Servin' Save CO2...

19. Oceanlink | Marine Sciences Education And Fun However, oil spills are not the major cause of oceanic oil pollution. However, large oil spills are the most visible forms of oil pollution in the world http://oceanlink.island.net/oceanmatters/oil pollution.html

World Oil Pollution: Causes, Prevention and Clean-Up Oil in the oceans is one of the ugliest forms of marine pollution. Just thinking about oil pollution in the oceans conjures up images of massive tanker spills, oiled seabirds and shorelines covered with gooey black oil. However, oil spills are not the major cause of oceanic oil pollution. Instead the majority of marine oil pollution comes from other sources. This page will examine the causes of marine oil pollution and methods for pollution prevention and spill cleanup. Types of Marine Oil Pollution Oil spills are actually just a small percent of the total world oil pollution problem. According to Ocean Planet there are 706 million gallons of oil pollution in a given year. That is a massive amount of oil! The following chart will indicate the different methods of oil pollution and their respective percentage of total pollution. Types of Oil Pollution Offshore Drilling Large Oil Spills Natural Seeps Up in Smoke

20. NIE Online Lesson - Oil Spill! What kind of damage do oil spills cause? You ll find the answers to those questions in this week s lesson, with an introduction to oil spill pollution and http://www.learnersonline.com/weekly/lessons02/week44/index.htm

Weekly Online Lesson Online Lesson Archive Grade Level: 7-12 Subject: Science/Technology Oil Spill! Last week, on Tuesday, November 20, 2002, the oil tanker Prestige broke in half off the shore of Spain, spilling an estimated 2.9 million gallons of crude oil into the North Atlantic Ocean. Although emergency response teams are doing what they can to capture the plume spreading out in the sea, much of the oil has already blackened over some 250 miles of Spain's northwestern coastline - inducing about 600 people to help clean up the shores and aid the affected wildlife. Meanwhile, officials believe the split tanker lies on the ocean floor still holding nearly 17 million gallons of its crude cargo, and local residents are already worrying about the long-term effects of the disaster. Such a coastline clean-up project typically takes up to six months, but the environmental impact of the spill will be monitored for five or more years. The volume of oil on board the Prestige is twice that of the Exxon Valdez, infamous for the 1989 spill in Alaska after it ran aground. Fortunately, the conditions in the case of the Prestige may make it more favorable for containing the spill, plus scientists and marine officials have learned a lot from the Alaska spill and others since. However, such single-hulled tankers, which are more prone to these accidents than the modern double-hulled ships, won't be legally banned worldwide until the year 2015. So how exactly do these environmental disasters get cleaned up? What kind of damage do oil spills cause? You'll find the answers to those questions in this week's lesson, with an introduction to oil spill pollution and cleanup, a focus on the Exxon Valdez incident, and a tour of some research studies evaluating the long-term effects on wildlife.

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