Where's the oil? Model suggests much may be gone

For a spill now nearly half the size of Exxon Valdez, the oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster is pretty hard to pin down. Satellite images show most of an estimated 4.6 million gallons of oil has pooled in a floating, shape-shifting blob off the Louisiana coast. Some has reached shore as a thin sheen, and gooey bits have washed up as far away as Alabama. But the spill is 23 days old since the Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 and killed 11 workers, and the thickest stuff hasn't shown up on the coast.

So, where's the oil? Where's it going to end up? Government scientists and others tracking the spill say much of the oil is lurking just below the surface. But there seems to be no consensus on whether it will arrive in black waves, mostly dissipate into the massive Gulf or gradually settle to the ocean floor, where it could seep into the ecosystem for years. When it comes to deepwater spills, even top experts rely on some guesswork.

One of their tools, a program the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration uses to predict how oil spills on the surface of water may behave, suggests that more than a third of the oil may already be out of the water. About 35 percent of a spill the size of the one in the Gulf, consisting of the same light Louisiana crude, released in weather conditions and water temperatures similar to those found in the Gulf now would simply evaporate, according to data that The Associated Press entered into the program. The model also suggests that virtually all of the benzene - a highly toxic flammable organic chemical compound and one of the chief ingredients in oil - would be stripped off and quickly vaporize.

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RightinNYC said:

My Way News - Where's the oil? Model suggests much may be gone



I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the doomsday predictions about this spill will eventually turn out to have been overhyped.

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webrockk said:

Both of you seem to be minimizing the impact of this disaster to defend Obama. I live in NW Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico, and the economic effects on the local economy, local fishermen, charter boat captains, and tourism has many near panic .... Vancouver, and NY?

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Jetboogieman said:

That's not what I'm saying. I have no doubt that the spill has had a detrimental impact and I'm really sorry for that. However the only thing I'm saying is that you can't really compare an oil spill, to a giant hurricane that displaced millions of people and killed 2000.

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webrockk said:

Both of you seem to be minimizing the impact of this disaster to defend Obama. I live in NW Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico, and the economic effects on the local economy, local fishermen, charter boat captains, and tourism has many near panic .... Vancouver, and NY?

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RightinNYC said:

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the doomsday predictions about this spill will eventually turn out to have been overhyped.

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The model was not designed for deepwater spills like the one at the Macondo well in the Mississippi Canyon now threatening the Gulf Coast

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Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska marine conservationist who recently spent more than a week on the Gulf Coast, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] risks wildly underestimating the damage caused by the massive spill.

"If you don't look, you won't find, and they're not looking in the right places," Steiner told the Huffington Post.

Most major oil spills occur right at the surface, he explained. This one is entirely different.

With a spill this deep, the oil starts off extremely dense and under pressure. Some of it breaks up or dissolves into the water on the way up, and some of it makes it all the way to the surface. But some will "stabilize in the water column" maybe as low as 200 to 300 meters off the seabed, Steiner said. "Then it starts drifting with the current."

"I'm virtually certain that a lot of this oil hasn't even surfaced yet," he said. "What we don't know is the trajectory and direction of this subsurface toxic plume."

That's critically important information, both in order to assess what sorts of habitats the oil may be wiping out, and because "this stuff can pop up in surprising places, weeks if not months from now," he said.

Another aspect of this spill that's unusual is the widespread use of chemical dispersants, applied both at the source and on the surface. Oil sprayed with dispersants on the surface, for instance, breaks into small droplets -- which could then remain suspended in the water column, Steiner said.

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Doug Helton, an emergency response coordinator in Seattle who is NOAA's trajectory expert, told HuffPost on Thursday that measuring and tracking the oil beneath the surface is beyond NOAA's abilities at this point.

"We have some ideas of how it's working," he said.

"We think that for the most part the oil is surfacing," he added. And referring to a video that shows oil billowing out and up from the pipe, he noted that "you can see it's not staying there."

But tracking oil underwater "is a harder problem because you can't just fly out with a helicopter to look at it or see it from a satellite," he said. "It's not a simple answer."

"We have models of how oil behaves when it releases from the sea floor," he said. The models suggest that the oil from this spill is spreading out in a huge cone, a mile high and about two miles across, initially. Then, he said "we can look at currents." But the currents are not uniform at different depths.

"We have some testing that's trying to understand what the fate of that oil is, subsurface, but that's a problem," he said. "It's a lot easier problem to model the stuff that's on the surface."

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As it happens, science journalist Mark Schrope is reporting for Nature magazine from aboard the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology research vessel Pelican, which is spending the week taking water samples in the Gulf.

"As far as we know, this is the only research ship working in the region, Schrope wrote on Monday.

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And on Thursday, Schrope wrote about how the scientists were developing a hypothesis: That there's a layer of dispersed oil about two thirds of a mile down. "This could be coming straight from the... gushing well, where the response team is now adding dispersants directly, and prevented from surfacing by the ocean's complex interplay of currents, density differences, and other factors," Schrope wrote. He continued:

Eventually the team found that farther away from ground zero the layer was lower... This might show the oil, likely aggregated with plankton and other organic material, is settling out over time....

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RightinNYC said:

I'm not sure how this has anything to do with Obama, whether it's a complete non-event or the worst disaster in human history.

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ADK_Forever said:

That seems unlikely.

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Your link also states:

In other words, these guys don't have a clue what the oil is doing. They are using models not designed for this type of spill and haven't even looked at the spill.

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What is interesting is what Doug Helton does not say in your link but, did say to Huffington.

So, even NOAA's trajectory expert admits they don't know what they'r doing. Interesting that your article didn't report that.

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Even if some of the oil was evaporating, which now seems unlikely.
the longer this leak continues the more oil will not evaporate and wind up in the ocean and on our shores. It's basic math.

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webrockk said:

Then why the OP?

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RightinNYC said:

My Way News - Where's the oil? Model suggests much may be gone



I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the doomsday predictions about this spill will eventually turn out to have been overhyped.

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Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.

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RightinNYC said:

My Way News - Where's the oil? Model suggests much may be gone

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j-mac said:

How much oil is naturally seeped on any given day in the ocean?


j-mac

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Lord Tammerlain said:

jmac


How much rain falls on the earth on any given day?

Now imagine if 50% of all that rain falls on your city rather then the rest of the world, is your city going to have a problem.


The problem is not that oil is going into the ocean, the problem is that is concentrated in one geographic location

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RightinNYC said:

My Way News - Where's the oil? Model suggests much may be gone



I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the doomsday predictions about this spill will eventually turn out to have been overhyped.

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j-mac said:

Hey LT, what's up?

Don't get me wrong, I think that the BP thing is a disaster, and it will take much effort, many man hours to clean up. And BP should foot the bill.

However, we now have forces out there looking to kill fossil fuels, with nothing in place to replace them based on one disaster, in the gulf. It is insane.


j-mac

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The Uncola said:

It takes a special sort of willful blindness to buy this nonsense.

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donsutherland1 said:

Models, in all fields, can be and have been horribly wrong at times. Given that this might be the first deep sea leak of its kind, I don't think one can have much confidence in the modeling, which almost certainly was built from cases that were different from the current one.

For example, an article in today's edition of The New York Times reported:

Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given...

The plumes are depleting the oxygen dissolved in the gulf, worrying scientists, who fear that the oxygen level could eventually fall so low as to kill off much of the sea life near the plumes.

Personally, I think it's too soon to know one way or the other just how bad the overall impact will be. The extent of the oil leak, winds, among other factors, will tell the story.

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Deuce said:

What? There's a giant blob of black goo lurking just under the surface and we don't know WHERE. Clearly the oil is planning its revenge.

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Lord Tammerlain said:

I would think it would be prudent to find out why this happened before allowing more drilling this deep. That way they can install more precautionary procedures and equipment on the rigs, to limit the chances of this occuring again. A blowout on land is not an issue as it is relatively easily fixed, or even at shallow depths where divers can get to the well head. This is very deep and as we have seen very hard to fix after the fact.

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The direct clean up costs are only one cost of this. The fishermen without work, the tourist business without tourists also amount to millions of dollars in lost revenue. Imagine if this occured on the Florida coast during Spring break, how much business Florida would lose in tourism

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1967

March 18 - UNITED KINGDOM - The Torrey Canyon ran aground off Cornwall spilling 80,000 tonnes (919,000 barrels) of crude.


1970

March 20 - SWEDEN - At least 438,000 barrels of oil spilled in a collision involving the Othello in Tralhavet Bay.


1972

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.


1976

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.


1977

February 25 - PACIFIC - The Liberian-registered Hawaiian Patriot caught fire in the Northern Pacific spilling 723,000 barrels.


1978

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.


1979

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.

July 19 - TRINIDAD & TOBAGO - About 2.2 million barrels of crude spilled after a collision off Tobago between the Atlantic Empress and the Aegean Captain.


1983

August 6 - SOUTH AFRICA - Fire broke out on the Spanish tanker Castillo de Bellver and 1.8 million barrels of light crude burnt off the coast at Cape Town.


1989

March 24 - USA - The Exxon Valdez hit rocks in Prince William Sound spilling some 240,000 barrels of crude oil onto Alaskan shores.

December 19 - MOROCCO - After explosions and a fire Iranian tanker Kharg-5 was abandoned spilling 70,000 tonnes of crude oil, endangering the coast and oyster beds at Oualidia.


1990

February 7 - USA - The tanker, American Trader, leaked 300,000 gallons of crude from a gash in the hull causing an oil slick 22 km long polluting Bosa Chica, one of southern California's
biggest nature reserves.


1991

January 26 - KUWAIT - An estimated 240 million gallons of oil were spilled from terminals, tankers and oil wells during the final phase of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

May 28 - ANGOLA/LIBERIA - A Liberian-registered supertanker, ABT Summer, leaked oil after an explosion off Angola causing an oil slick 17 nautical miles by three.


1992

March 2 - UZBEKISTAN - An estimated 88 million gallons of oil spilled from an oil well at Fergana Valley.

September 19 - INDONESIA - Liberian-registered tanker Nagasaki Spirit collided with container Ocean Blessing in the Malacca Straits spilling some 12,000 tonnes of crude.

December 3 - SPAIN - Greek tanker Aegean Sea ran aground and broke in two near La Coruna spilling most of its 80,000 tons cargo of oil.
1993

January 5 -- UNITED KINGDOM - Oil poured on to the coast of northern Scotland's Shetland Islands after the 89,000-ton Liberian-registered Braer hit rocks in heavy seas. The tanker carried 84,500 tons of crude oil. A huge oil slick stretched 25 miles (40 km) up the coast.

January 21 -- SINGAPORE / INDONESIA / MALAYSIA - The 255,312-ton Singapore-registered tanker Maersk Navigator collided with the empty tanker Sanko Honour in the Andaman Sea en route from Oman to Japan. It was carrying a cargo of nearly 2 million barrels of oil. Its ruptured port side leaked burning oil and spread a slick up to 35 miles (56 km) long off Sumatra drifting towards India's Nicobar Islands.

February 11 -- NETHERLANDS - Up to 30,000 seabirds were feared killed by a paraffin oil slick thought to have been discharged by a passing ship during the past two weeks. It was the worst oil spill off the Dutch coast in five years.

March 9 -- GERMANY/POLAND - The wreck of the Jan Heweliusz, a Polish ferry which sank in the Baltic off Germany on January 14, began leaking oil. The ship was estimated to have up to 80 tons of fuel on board.

June 3 -- BELGIUM / UNITED KINGDOM - Seven crewmen from a British tanker, the British Trent, burned to death in a blazing sea of petrol about 15 miles (24km) off Ostend after a collision with a Panamanian bulk carrier in thick fog. Two other crewmen were missing and presumed dead. Belgian environmental officials and the ship's owner, British Petroleum, played down pollution dangers. The tanker was loaded with 24,000 tons of petrol, which poured out of a hole in the port bow.

August 19 -- FRANCE - An oil slick off the French Riviera after a collision between a nuclear submarine and a supertanker was brought under control with no danger to beaches. The collision on August 17 caused two spills, one off Fos-sur-Mer and one farther out.

October 15 -- GREECE - Oil leaked from the Greek tanker Iliad killed wildlife and destroyed fish farms in the bay of Pylos. A three-mile-long (4.8 km) oil slick was caused when the tanker ran aground off the island of Spaktiria on October 9.

1994

January 7 -- PUERTO RICO - The Morris J. Furhman, a barge carrying about 1.5 million gallons of fuel oil, went aground off the northern side of the capital city harbor. 750,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil had been spilled and had spread to cover a six-mile (9.6 km) stretch of shore. Conado Beach, the Conado lagoon and San Juan Bay were all polluted.

March 6 -- THAILAND - About 105,670 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the sea some four miles (6.4 km) off the eastern Sriracha coast after a chartered oil tanker and an unidentified cargo ship collided. The tanker, the Visahakit 5, was carrying about 1.06 million gallons of diesel and liquefied petroleum gas.

March 16 -- TURKEY - A cleanup effort was begun to scoop patches of crude from the Bosphorus waterway and remove oil washed onto shore after a fiery collision on March 13 between the tanker Nassia and the freighter Shipbroker, both Cypriot-flagged. The accident, the worst in the Bosphorus in 15 years, killed 29 crewmen.

March 31 -- UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - 15,900 tons of crude oil leaked into the Arabian Sea after the Panamanian-flagged supertanker Seki spilled the crude 10 miles (16 km) off the UAE port of Fujairah, just outside the Gulf, when it collided with the UAE tanker Baynunah, which was in ballast. Oil reached the UAE coast north of Khor Fakkan close to the Strait of Hormuz. The oil slick severely polluted several beaches and threatened more than 25 miles (40 km) of coastline.

May 8 -- VIETNAM - The 1,220-ton Vietnamese Chanoco I, carrying 1,012 tons of fuel oil, and a 10,000-ton Taiwanese ship Unihumanity collided in the Long Tau river near Ho Chi Minh City. About 200 tons spilled into the river from the Vietnamese ship causing a 200-ton oil slick, which killed fish and other wildlife.

June 14 -- INDIA - Indian authorities began siphoning off 700 tons of oil from the Sea Transporter, a 6,000-ton Greek cargo ship which had been anchored off Aguada after it ran aground following a cyclone on June 5.

June 23 -- SOUTH AFRICA - An oil slick washing ashore on Dassen Island threatened a colony of endangered Jackass penguins and polluted mainland beaches. It was confirmed on June 28 that the Apollo Sea, a Chinese bulk carrier that was believed to have sunk on June 20 shortly after leaving Saldanha Bay, was the source of Cape Town's worst oil pollution disaster.

August 11 -- UNITED STATES - The Columbus Iselin, a ship conducting oil spill research, ran aground in the Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary off the Florida Keys and was leaking fuel.

October 2 -- PORTUGAL - A Panamanian registered tanker, Cercal, spilled about 2,000 tons of crude into the sea after striking a rock on its way into Leixoes harbor, in the northern city of Oporto. The oil badly polluted one beach near the entrance to Leixoes port and smaller quantities of oil came ashore on other parts of the coast near Oporto.

October 17 -- CHINA - 1,000 meters of beaches and reefs at Dongshan, a resort area at Qinhuangdao in Hebei province were polluted by an oil spill blamed on the Huahai Number Two tanker, owned by the state-run Huahai Company of Beijing.

1995

June 5 -- SINGAPORE - About 100 tons of fuel oil leaked from a bunker fuel barge after it collided with the freighter Sun Pulse. The fuel oil had begun washing up on the island's east coast.

July 11 -- AUSTRALIA - An ore carrier, the Iron Baron, ran aground on a reef in southern Australian waters, spilling more than 500 tons of fuel oil and causing a major pollution scare for the island state of Tasmania. Thousands of fairy penguins were fouled with oil.

July 25 -- SOUTH KOREA - Oil leaking from the 275,782 deadweight ton Sea Prince, a burning tanker off South Korea, formed a slick 20 miles (32 km) in diameter. The ship was loaded with 83,000 tons of crude oil. It was drifting toward the country's best known sea resort. 700 tons of fuel oil estimated to have been leaked.

1996

February 15 -- UNITED KINGDOM - The coast guard called a full environmental alert when the 147,000 deadweight ton Liberian-registered Sea Empress with a crew of 28 Russians hit rocks near the port of Milford Haven, Wales. The tanker, operated by Acomarit, had been carrying 130,000 tons of light crude oil. On February 20 an estimated 40,000 tons of crude oil spilled -- a third of its cargo -- creating a four-mile (six km) oil slick.

March 19 -- UNITED STATES - A barge operated by Buffalo Marine Services Inc. and loaded with about 210,000 gallons of fuel oil ruptured as it sailed through the Houston Ship Channel. About 4,200 gallons of oil spilled into Galveston Bay, causing a five-mile-long (eight km) oil slick.

1997

January 7 -- JAPAN - Coastal fishing villages in northwestern Japan braced for economic and environmental catastrophe as oil slicks from sunken Russian tanker Nakhodka coated beaches and threatened prized shellfish beds. The spill from the ruptured tanker leaked 5,200 tons (36,400 barrels) of heavy fuel oil.

July 2 -- JAPAN - A supertanker struck a shallow reef in Tokyo Bay, a famed fishing ground, leaking an estimated 1500 tons of crude oil.

October 15 -- SINGAPORE - A tanker carrying 120.000 tonnes of fuel oil collides with an empty VLCC. More than 25.000 tonnes of oil leak out from the vessel, and despite huge amounts of dispersant chemicals being applied both from the air and from vessels, the beaches of several smaller islands off Singapore are covered with greasy sludge.

1998

January 12 -- NIGERIA - 40,000 barrels of oil spilled from a ruptured pipeline to one of Mobil's terminals. Even though most of the oil had either evaporated or dispersed within the 10 days that followed, some communities in the politically-volatile region complained that fish had been poisoned by the spilled oil and fishing nets destroyed. The spill is considered the largest ever in Nigeria.

1999

December 12 - FRANCE - The Maltese-registered tanker Erika breaks up in stormy seas, and an estimated 15,000 tonnes of oil are drifting towards France's Atlantic shore. The slick is expected to hit the tiny Nourmoutier and Ile d'Yeu islands on Christmas Day, with disastrous consequences for fishing and tourism. Strong winds and currents and the heavy texture of the oil, have hampered an international flotilla battling to mop up the fast-spreading slick. Gales have since smeared the black slime over hundreds of miles of coast, covering beaches and picturesque wild coastline in sticky oil and threatening fisheries and beds of oysters, mussels and other shellfish.

December 27 - TURKEY - A Maltese-registered tanker carrying 45,753 tons of oil ran aground at the mouth of the Bosporus strait across Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey, the Turkish Daily News reported. Murat Zafer Cetintas, head of the Organization of Eco-Warriors and the Environment, was quoted as saying that if necessary precautions are not taken, the city will face serious problems.

December 27 - ANGOLA - An offshore oil spill is approaching the Angolan coast, posing a threat to the fishing industry. Radio Ecclesia said the spill, which occurred in the Atlantic Ocean oil fields off Cabinda province, was advancing towards the coast.

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January 4 - TURKEY - Fuel oil blackened kilometers of Istanbul's coast along the Bosporus after a Russian-registered tanker split apart in the strait that cuts through Istanbul. About 900 tons of fuel oil had spilled before it stopped pouring out of the Volganeft 248, and oil could be seen along five kilometers of the coast. Turkey is trying to reduce oil tanker traffic in the strait, through which about 440 million barrels of oil are transported each year. Some 200 accidents over the last decade in the strait have caused oil spills and fires that sometimes shut down the strait.

January 18 - BRASIL - At least 130,000 gallons of crude oil spewed out of a broken pipeline, polluting beaches and endangering plant and animal life in what authorities called the worst ecological disaster to hit Rio de Janeiro state in a decade. The oil covered at least three miles of coastline, affecting at least two beaches and a mangrove swamp rich in animal and plant species.

January 24 - UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - The Honduran-flagged cargo vessel Al Jazya 1 sank 4 miles east of Abu Dhabi's coast, laden with 980 tons of fuel oil. The tanker sank in bad weather, leaving an oil spill of around 2000 feet by 400 feet. The Federal Environmental Agency said it is still too early to assess the extent of damage caused by the slick on marine life and birds.

February 2 - BOLIVIA - A flash flood broke a crude oil pipeline, spilling hundreds of barrels of oil into the Desaguadero River that flows into Lake Poopo, the government reported. The pipeline is operated by Transredes, which sent several experts to help contain the oil and assess the damage it is causing to a river inhabited by pink flamingoes and other birds. The oil spill had reached Aymara Indian communities located dozens of miles downriver, and is expected to reach Lake Poopo shortly.

February 2 - PHILIPPINES - After running aground on January 24th on the coast of Sual town in Lingayen Gulf, the Singapore-owned vessel MV Nol Schedar was suspected to have left behind an oil slick after she was floated on February 2nd. The spill was later said to have destroyed 2,700 metres of coral reefs and other marine resources, and the case is pending in court.

February 7 - BRAZIL - Brazilian authorities scrambled to avert an environmental disaster in the Amazon jungle, after a barge holding nearly 500,000 gallons (1.8 million liters) of oil sunk to the bottom of the world's largest river network. "Environmental advisers are working alongside diving teams to prevent ecological damage," said Mauricio Andres Ribeiro at Brazil's environment ministry.

April 1 - INDONESIA - About 160.000 kilolitres of crude oil leaked out from the tanker "King Fisher", after it hit a reef while approaching the Pertamina port in Cilacapan, at the Southern coast of Central Java. One thousand people are involved in cleaning up more than 25 km of shoreline, including popular tourist areas.

April 7 - UNITED STATES - Some 111,000 gallons of oil spilled near Pepco's Chalk Point Generating Station, affecting shorelines of the Patuxent River in southern Maryland. Some 6 1/2 miles of oil containment booms were positioned in the river and at the entrance to several creeks, and an estimated 80,000 gallons of spilled oil were recovered in 24-hour-a-day operations since the leak occurred.

June 23 - SOUTH AFRICA - Environmentalists were scrambling to rescue thousands of jackass penguins from an oil spill off Cape Town, just six years after the population was devastated by a similar disaster. The oil spill began when the bulk carrier Treasure carrying some 1,400 tonnes of oil sank off the coast of Cape Town. The spill is washing straight into Robben Island, home to about 5,700 pairs of jackass penguins.

July 6th - UNITED STATES - 14.000 gallons of oil has spilled from a collision between a barge and a tug that was towing it, off Middletown, Rhode Island. A ban on fishing is in effect in one of the most fertile areas of Narragansett Bay, and it's only been four years since the worst oil spill in Rhode Island history, when 828-thousand gallons spilled, killing more than ten (m) million lobsters and prompting a ban on fishing for five months.

July 16th - BRAZIL - The country is suffering one of its worst oil spills ever, as more than 1 million gallons of crude has leaked from a refinery into a river near the southern city of Curitiba. State-run oil company Petrobras said a pipe broke, spewing oil for up to two hours into the Barigui River, a tributary of the Iguacu River, 390 miles upstream from Iguacu Falls, a major tourist attraction. Television images showed a completely blackened river winding through the countryside.

July 25th - BRAZIL - A large oil slick again spread over Rio's postcard-famous Guanabara Bay on Tuesday, the third oil spill there this year. The slick was broken up in patches across an area of more than 20 square miles, environmentalists said. It washed up on beaches within the bay, and stretched out into the open sea.

August 1 - CANADA - Residents of the town of Chetwynd were told to conserve water , as officials surveyed the damage from a massive oil spill into a pristine river in northern British Columbia. Chetwynd stopped pumping water from the Pine River as the first traces of the estimated 264,600 gallons (one million liters ) of crude oil spilled in a pipeline break on Tuesday reached the community of about 3,000 people. The heavy oil had also begun killing some of the river's fish, which are a key food supply for eagles and other wildlife in the region.

August 8 - UNITED STATES - U.S. Coast Guard investigators boarded ships in Miami and Port Everglades, trying to determine which crew dumped oil off the South Florida coast, creating the area's worst oil spill in at least a decade. The oil contaminated 15 miles of beach, and all beaches along the 15-mile stretch were closed when the oil was discovered. Some endangered and threatened sea turtles are about to hatch, and oily debris block their path to the ocean.

September 2 - MALAYSIA - A major cleanup is underway following an oil spill from a sunken Chinese cargo ship at Tanjung Po anchorage point at the Sarawak River mouth. The ill-fated 5,000 ton Kingston registered vessel Double Brave was loaded with about 116 tons of diesel oil when it sank after a collision with a barge being towed by a tugboat. About 60 workers from the Marine Department, Department of Environment, and the Kuching Port Authority had been helping in the clean-up operation.

September 4 - GREECE - Greek authorities raced against time to prevent an environmental disaster, following a fuel oil spill from a sunken cargo ship off a popular stretch of tourist beaches northeast of Athens. Miles of coastline was threatened by the spill, which came from the Cambodian-registered cement carrier Eurobulker X. The 35,264 dwt vessel broke in half a week earlier, while loading cement at Lefkandi port, central Greece. It was the second spill inside a week, following a smaller spill from a grounded freighter off the island of Kythira.

September 14 - UNITED STATES - Wind and high waves spread a 30,000-gallon oil spill across Sandy Hook Bay, thwarting efforts to contain and clean up the mess. An overnight storm upset booms that had been set out to contain the fuel, which spilled when a tugboat put a 4-foot gash in a Navy ship, the USS Detroit. Navy Cmdr. Chuck Caudill said the oil was so dispersed that Navy skimmers could not pick up measurable amounts. The spill is one of the largest ever in the bay, and the state has banned harvesting of shellfish in the area until further notice.

October 2 - SWEDEN - Swedish environmentalists are warning that an oil spill could harm seals in the Baltic Sea's Gotska Sandoen national park, as park rangers discovered an oil belt about 12 miles long. Big lumps of oil had covered about 90 percent of the beaches of Gotska Sandoen, an island about 60 miles off the southeastern coast of Sweden. The Swedish coast guard was investigating the source of the spill, and it was not known how many gallons of oil spilled.

October 4 - INDONESIA - An estimated 7.000 tons of oil has been spilled in Indonesian waters off the Batu Berhanti Beacon, after a Panama registered tanker, Natuna Sea, ran aground damaging 4 of its cargo tanks. An oil boom of 300 m length has been deployed around the tanker, but this could not prevent the oil from escaping in a South-westerly direction. Some patches of the oil have since reached Singapore, and clean-up actions have, amongst others, commenced on the beaches of Sentosa, Singapore's famous tourist resort.

November 4th - BRAZIL - Brazil's state oil giant Petrobras, criticized for a string of spills this year, suffered another leak when a tanker dumped 13,200 gallons of crude near a popular beach resort area, local media said. The accident caused a slick measuring some 492 feet, and posed a risk for the region's bustling beach resorts nearby.

November 14th - HONG KONG - Some 230 cubic metres of heavy oil leaked into the sea north of Hongkong's Lantau Island, after a small Chinese oil freighter collided with a Norwegian vessel
and sank. The oil slick covering an area of 10,000 square metres, and some had reached the 12-sq-km Sha Chau marine park, a dolphin sanctuary.

November 28th - UNITED STATES - A tanker spilled half a million gallons of crude oil into the Mississippi River, closing a busy shipping route for 26 miles and threatening wildlife. No injuries were reported, but some pelicans and other animals were found covered with oil. The area is home to pelicans, shorebirds, seabirds, crabs, shrimp and sport fish, as well as more than 100,000 wintering waterfowl. The 567,000-gallon spill is the largest in U.S. waters since the Exxon Valdez in March 1989.

December 15th - NORWAY - A Norwegian freighter runs aground off the city of Haugesund, spilling some 100 tonnes of fuel oil which immediately hit the nearby coastlines. Heavy weather tempers the initial response actions, but reports say some 70 tonnes have since been recovered by means of using oil skimmers. The authorities are contemplating to have the remaining 300 tonnes of oil removed from the ship, to prevent the risk of further pollution. Meanwhile, several thousand metres of oil booms have been deployed for containment and protection.

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January 14 - TAIWAN - Taiwan is racing against time to avert an ecological disaster and a major setback to its tourism industry, following the island's worst oil spill. Some 1,150 tonnes of fuel oil gushed out of a Greece-registered ship carrying 60,000 tonnes of iron ore, after it ran aground off the Kenting National Park. Marine mammals in the area, such as dolphins, are highly endangered by the spill. The crisis also threatens the operation of a nearby nuclear power plant, and risks cross-strait disputes if the spillage spreads to the Chinese coast.

January 15 - NORWAY - One of the largest oil spills ever from a land based oil storage facility in Norway, was detected when at least 750 tons of sludge had leaked from Norcem's facilities at Brevik. By the afternoon, some 100 tons had been recovered within the containment area around the tank, whilst another 190 tons had been recovered from the sea. The recovery operations are continuing, under close scrutiny from the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority.

January 16 - ECUADOR - A boat carrying fuel to Ecuador's Galapagos Islands is leaking oil into the ecologically sensitive waters near the famous islands. The boat, named "Jessica", was carrying 160,000 gallons of diesel and about 80,000 gallons of IFO 120.The spill has already affected animals including sea lions and pelicans, and volunteers are on standby to clean up and rescue them.

February 16 - INDONESIA - The Coast Guard authorities are working to re-float an oil tanker that ran aground in rough seas off Indonesia's Java island. The Honduras-registered Steadfast partially sank in shallow waters, when it was battered by massive waves and winds off Tegal, some 250 km east of Jakarta. Roughly 40 per cent of an estimated 800 tonnes of sump oil had leaked from the ship and reached the shore, and a joint clean-up operation involving local vessels, Coast Guard and police authorities is underway.

March 20 - BRAZIL - Up to 316,000 gallons of diesel has leaked after the world's largest offshore platform sank five days after a failed rescue effort. A huge diesel slick appeared on the surface when the platform sank to bottom of the ocean floor, almost a mile down. This was just another in a series of oil spills that have plagued the state owned Petrobras in recent months.

March 25 - DENMARK - More than 764,000 gallons of oil spilled after a double-hulled tanker carrying 9.7 million gallons of oil, and a freighter crashed in international waters between eastern Denmark and northwest Germany. A slick about 9.3 miles long and 161/2-feet wide slipped into the narrow Groensund strait between the Danish islands of Moen, Bogoe and Falster, while the bulk of the oil remained in the Baltic Sea off southern Denmark. As ships from three countries worked to contain the oil spill, an international conservation group said that a sanctuary home to thousands of ducks, swans and other water fowl was under threat by the oil slick, the largest ever in Denmark.

April 6 - UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Workers have started to clean a 12-kilometer-radius oil spill reaching the reserved island of Sir Bou Neair, about 70 nautical miles off the coast of the Emirate of Sharjah. The spill was caused by the Iraqi fuel tanker Zainab, suspected of smuggling around 1,300 tonnes of fuel oil from Iraq, as it ran into trouble on its way to a holding area in international waters. The emirate of Sharjah said it had temporarily shut down a desalination plant as a precautionary measure, after the spill neared pumping stations. The spill is said to be the emirate's worst environmental disaster in years.

May 24 - BRAZIL - Petrobras, infamous for a series of spills over the past two years, shut 12 oil rigs, responsible for nearly 9 percent of Brazil's oil output, Thursday night after detecting an oil slick on the ocean surface. There were two oil slicks some 90 km off the coast, one of approximately 110,000 liters and another of some 10,000 liters of crude. The source of the spill has yet to be determined, but officials are ruling out any relation to the huge oil rig that sank in March.

May 25 - CHILE - An oil tanker that ran aground in a remote southern Chilean fjord has spilled some 350,528 litres of crude, leaving an oil slick 70 miles (112 km) long and damaging wildlife and a salmon farm, the Chilean Navy has admitted. Maritime authorities initially dismissed the incident, saying the leak had been negligible and had caused no damage to the environment. But the Navy later admitted the spill was worse than initially announced.

May 28 - MALAYSIA - An oil tanker with some 67 tonnes of fuel, including diesel and 1,500 tonnes of bitumen, sunk after it was crashed from behind by a super tanker about 7.5 nautical miles off Pulau Undan, near Malacca. Officials said the crash caused MT Singapura Timur to take in water, and remained half-submerged in the sea floating southwards. Diesel and bitumen have started to spill into the sea, and is spreading to about one nautical mile from the collision spot.

May 30 - BRAZIL- Oil giant Petrobras said a break in its Paulinia pipeline dumped 220,000 liters of fuel oil in a residential neighborhood. The spill, which occurred 30 kilometers from the city of Sao Paulo, follows two unexplained and unclaimed oil spills in the Campos Basin off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state.

May 30 - CHINA - Chinese environmental experts are struggling to contain damage from toxic styrene which leaked from a ship, and fishermen along the eastern coast fear their livelihoods could be threatened for years to come. About 700 tonnes of the chemical, which is poisonous to humans, seeped into the waters near Shanghai after a South Korean vessel collided with a Hong Kong. State media said the South Korean freighter Dayong was carrying nearly 2,300 tonnes of styrene when it collided with the Hong Kong vessel in dense fog at the mouth of the Yangtze River, near Jigujiao.

June 10 - PHILIPPINES - An oil spill in Cavite is threatening to contaminate Laguna de Bay, caused by a bursting oil pipeline of an industrial and electronics firm at the People’s Technological Complex in Barangay Maduya, Carmona town. The oil spill has already affected a six-kilometer stretch of Carmona-Biñan River, just a few kilometers away from the Laguna Bay. Aside from the affected river, the spilling bunker oil and industrial fuel oil also affected land base areas surrounding the firm.

June 13 - MALAYSIA - An Indonesian tanker laden with a toxic chemical has capsized off Malaysia's southern Johor state, just across from Singapore. The 533 ton MV Endah Lestari was on its way to East Kalimantan in Indonesia with some 600 tonnes of the poisonous industrial chemical phenol, and 18 tonnes of diesel. Newspaper reports said the toxic spill had killed thousands of fish and cockles reared in 85 offshore cages, and Singapore authorities have also warned its citizens to stay away from nearby waters. Officials said it would be tough to mop up the phenol, as it is soluble in water.

August 4 - USA - A fishing vessel that has sunk and is leaking diesel fuel has caused the biggest spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound since the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, posing a threat to the area's wildlife. The Seattle-based Windy Bay was loaded with about 35,000 gallons (133,000 liters) of diesel fuel when it struck a rock and sank in the northern part of the sound about 40 miles (65 km) southwest of the port of Valdez. Just how much leaked was unknown, but diesel fuel leaking from the ship has created a sheen covering 4 square miles (10 sq km), and cleanup crews has recovered about 9,700 gallons (36,800 liters).

August 10 - MICRONESIA - A sunken World War II ship has been gushing 300 to 500 gallons of oil per hour into the Ulithi Atoll lagoon. The cause of the spill is the USS Mississinewa, a 553-foot Navy oiler sunk in 1944 by a one-man Japanese suicide submarine. Yap State officials said the state's governor has declared a state of emergency for Ulithi and advised the 700 people who live on the atoll not to swim or fish in the lagoon. Questions have been raised who should bear the responsibility for taking relevant action, with focus on getting international assistance to clean-up and minimize the environmental and ecological impacts.

September 7 - VIETNAM - Local residents in small boats used buckets to try to collect thousands of tons of oil from a damaged oil tanker and save the nearby beach resort of Vung Tau, after The Vietnamese Petrolimex 01 tanker, carrying 19,000 tons of diesel oil, was hit by a Liberian-registered oil tanker. But wind and waves drove much of the spilled oil to the beach, which normally attracts thousands of vacationers a day.

September 22 - USA - An oil spill caused by a collision between a ship and a barge closed the ship channel servicing the nation's second largest port. The fuel oil spill occurred at Barbour's Cut in La Porte, Texas, and some 860 barrels of fuel oil leaked into the channel. About 18,000 feet of boom were set up to contain the oil, and skimmers were removing it. Containment and cleanup operations involved more than 70 people.

October 4 - USA - Crews were slowed by explosive vapors as they tried to plug a leak in the trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline that spewed nearly 300,000 gallons of oil into the wilderness. A man who had been drinking caused the leak when he shot the pipeline with a big-game rifle. The pipeline carries about 1 million barrels of oil a day, prompting a halt to almost a fifth of U.S. domestic production.

October 18 - BRAZIL - Brazilian and foreign teams prepared to begin salvaging a tanker that hit underwater rocks, spewing a highly flammable oil product into the sea and forcing closure of the country's primary port for grain shipments. State oil giant Petrobras, which owns the tanker, said about 103,000 gallons (392,000 litres) of naphtha, an oil product lighter than gasoline, spilled into the Paranagua port area, some 380 miles (600 km) southwest of Rio.

November 21 - GERMANY - Almost 2,000 tonnes of nitric acid has spilled into the Rhine river, when motor tank barge Stolt Rotterdam sank during a disastrous discharging operation. The 1988-built chemical tanker was discharging the acid at Erdoelchemie Uerdingen when crew noticed fumes coming from the bottom of the barge. An emergency response was initiated, but a store room caught fire, forcing the crew and everyone in the surrounding area to evacuate as the vessel sank, emptying 1,895 tonnes of nitric acid into the river.

December 11 - FINLAND - Oil from a spill off the country's west coast has washed ashore on some 1.24 miles of Ruissalo island's coastline, and the spill is now three kilometers long and a kilometer wide. 10 vessels are involved in operations to contain and sweep up the oil, but the source of the spill is still unknown.

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2002

January 22 - THAILAND - A huge oil slick has hit beaches in Thailand's Rayong Bay, a popular holiday spot south-east of the capital Bangkok, and is also said to be threatening the nearby resort island of Samet. Some 100,000 litres of oil had spilled from the Panama-registered tanker Eastern Fortitude when it hit a rock in Rayong Bay a week earlier. Authorities have struggled to clean up the slick, now estimated to be at least 400 m wide and about 3 km long, but complained they were not alerted to the accident until too late.

February 8 - UNITED STATES - A ship that sank nearly 50 years ago is to blame for a mystery oil spill that has killed more than 1,300 birds since November. The Coast Guard matched oil samples taken from the SS Jacob Luckenbach, located about 17 miles southwest of the Golden Gate Bridge, to those taken from oiled birds and the oil sheen that has colored the water. Just a drop or two of oil on a bird's feathers can break the animal's insulating layer and lead to hypothermia.

February 9 - NEW ZEALAND - A major clean-up operation is under way after a cargo ship carrying more than 700 tonnes of fuel ran aground a few hundred metres from the north island port of Gisborne. Already, several tonnes of thick black oil has drifted 400 metres to shore, polluting nearby rivers, beaches and coastline and sending noxious fumes over dozens of houses. Whilst conservation staff have already rescued a number of birds affected by oil in a local creek, wildlife casualties are expected to be inevitable.

April 4 - JAPAN - A flotilla of ships has raced to contain an oil slick off Japan's western coast before it washes ashore. The 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) long spill has been slowly moving towards the coast since it bubbled to the surface from a Belize-registered cargo ship that sank four days earlier, after colliding with a fishing boat. Officials earlier said the spill would likely hit the coast, but did not know when or where.

April 6 - USA - Strong wind hampered cleanup efforts as workers tried to contain a 90,000-gallon crude oil spill off the southeast Louisiana coast. Four-foot waves made it difficult for skimmers to collect the oil, but the Coast Guard said about 6,720 gallons had been recovered. No damage to wildlife had been reported, but officials expected there to be some shoreline impact.

June 12 - SINGAPORE - A collision between Thailand-registered freighter MV Hermion and Singapore-registered bunker tanker Neptank VII has caused about 450 tonnes of marine fuel oil to spill into the south-eastern waters of Singapore. Clean-up operations by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) have largely contained the oil spill, but broken patches of oil remained visible in the Singapore Straits, and oil booms were placed off the waters of Marina Bay and Sentosa.

July 31 - ROMANIA - Tons of oil gushed into a river in southern Romania after torrential rains damaged a pipeline. The spill occurred in the Prahova River near the village of Manesti, some 50 kilometers north of the capital, Bucharest. The water damaged the pipeline near a refinery owned by a state oil company, Conpet. Authorities placed dams along the Prahova to prevent oil from spilling into the Danube River, and police guarded the area overnight to prevent people from throwing flammable objects into the river.

September 12 - SOUTH AFRICA - Salvage teams and ecologists are battling to contain a spill of oil and chemicals from a blazing cargo vessel, and to prevent tides from pushing the spill into the pristine Saint Lucia wetlands, a wildlife sanctuary nearby. Wildlife officials have warned that a serious oil spill could pollute the Umfolozi River and a nearby estuary, and damage mangroves, crocodiles, hippos and a turtle nesting area in the park. Reefs off the area are also popular among scuba divers for their wide variety of fish.

November 13 - SPAIN - Four tugs have failed in their attempts to rescue a leaking oil tanker with 77.000 tonnes of fuel aboard, which later broke in two and sank off the northwestern coast of Spain. The Prestige, Greek-owned and registered in the Bahamas, has leaked most of its cargo, and the oil is washing up on the Galician shores and approaching the coastlines of Portugal and France. All fishing activities have been banned in the area, and the incident is fast becoming one of the worst ecological disasters ever to happen.

November 23 - CHINA - A Chinese ship has collided with a Maltese-registered oil tanker, spreading an oil slick 2.5 miles by 1.4 miles across the Bohai sea. The Tianjin Maritime Bureau sent seven vessels to clean up the spill at the accident site. Preliminary inquiries indicate the Tasman Sea tanker, which was bound for Tianjin carrying 80.000 tons of oil, was anchored off the coast when the accident took place.

December 5 - SINGAPORE - A potentially disastrous crude oil spill in Singapore waters was contained to just 350 tonnes when a small general cargo vessel collided with a heavily-laden single-hulled tanker in the middle of the Singapore Straits. Two oil slicks measuring 2.5kmx300m and 2.5kmx500m were spotted in Indonesian waters off the island of Bintan.

2003

February 14 - USA - Clean up operations are underway at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge after an underground corroded pipeline fitting released as many as 100,000 gallons of fuel in the fuel farm area last week. The atoll provides nesting and resting habitat for almost two million seabirds, as well as important habitat for migratory shorebirds, threatened green sea turtles, and endangered Hawaiian monk seals. Since almost all of the spill is underground, however, impact to wildlife has so far been minimal, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.

March 18 - AUSTRALIA - A large oil spill is threatening to pollute the Brisbane River, where up to 1.5 million litres of crude oil has leaked from a ruptured pipeline at the Santos terminal. Emergency crews have contained the oil to creeks and wetlands in an area of about eight hectares in the Lytton industrial estate. Booms further up the water course had not stopped the oil and the outgoing tide was threatening to drag the slick into the river and Moreton Bay.

March 20 - VIETNAM - Thousands of acres of clam and shrimp farms were in danger after a ship carrying 600 tonnes of fuel oil sank in the river in Ho Chi Minh City, environment officials said. The oil slick spread about seven kilometers towards Can Gio district, home of several aqua-cultural farms. It also spread three kilometers towards Vung Tau province, but has yet to hit the beaches there.

May 31 - SWEDEN - The Swedish government accused Denmark of reacting too slowly to the sinking of a Chinese vessel in Danish waters near Sweden's coast, saying the effects of the ensuing oil spill could have been reduced. The Fu Shan Hai bulk carrier went down in Danish waters between the Swedish coast and Denmark's Bornholm island, following a collision with a Polish freighter. At least 100 tonnes of oil have already leaked out into the water, and a large oil slick gushing from the vessel has hit Sweden's popular southeastern coast.

June 12 - SINGAPORE - The MV APL Emerald, a 40.077 ton container ship, spilled about 150 tonnes of fuel oil when it ran aground near Horsburgh Lighthouse, in the eastern approaches of the Singapore Straits. Six anti-pollution craft were involved in the clean-up, and oil booms have been laid around the vessel to contain the spill, which has since been contained. The authorities said there was no chance of any fuel reaching Singapore's shores, about 46km away.

July 12 - RUSSIA - Russian divers are exploring a sunken Japanese tanker that has begun releasing large quantities of oil and threatens to spark an ecological disaster off the west coast of the Pacific island of Sakhalin. More than two tonnes of fuel have leaked in the past few days from the Takeo Maru, which sank in 1979 off the sea port of Shakhtersk. The leaked oil is floating in the Tatar strait and heading for the coast. With up to 300 tonnes of fuel oil remaining inside the sunken tanker, the Takeo Maru could be an ecological bomb that jeopardizes Russia's Pacific coastline.

August 13 - PAKISTAN - An oil tanker has broken up off Pakistan's Arabian Sea port, Karachi, after spilling nearly 10,000 tonnes of oil, sparking fears of lasting damage to local marine life. The Greek-registered MV Tasman Spirit, still carrying 35,000 tonnes of crude oil, split in two around 100 metres from the Karachi port, after running aground on July 27. Officials said that most of the oil had pooled along Clifton beach, the favourite beach resort among Karachi's 14 million people. A thick oil slick could be seen snaking from the ship to the shores alongside the port, blackening waves and seeping onto sands. Environmentalists predicted the entire 40 kilometre (25 mile) Karachi coastline could be affected, endangering fish, crabs and rare turtles.

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2004

January 19 - PHILIPPINES - An oil spill coming from a diving boat that ran aground at the Apo Manor Reef in December, a protected marine park off Mindoro Island, is threatening to destroy one of the world’s best dive sites. Residents of Barangay Siblayan in Occidental Mindoro, a nearby coastal town, said that the M/V Island Explorer has started to leak bunker fuel, endangering the reef which serves as a fish nursery and the major source of livelihood of the surrounding communities. The surrounding waters are abundant with marine fauna and luxuriant coral growth with more than 500 coral species. Marine life includes sharks, stingrays and manta rays.

January 20 - NORWAY - A large oil spill has started spreading from the capsized cargo vessel "Rocknes", that spilled several thousand litres of oil and bunker fuel along the coastline near the city of Bergen. Close to a thousand seabirds have already been found dead or dying, and clean-up crews are working day and night to clean up affected coastlines and prevent the slick from spreading further. However, due to the immediate search and rescue work that prevented the oil spill response activities from commencing, thick patches of oil have already drifted beyond the reach of the highly sophisticated and efficient Norwegian oil spill response vessels and their equipment.

March 4 - CHINA - Nearly one million people in south-western Sichuan province were without water for drinking and bathing, after chemicals spilled from a factory into an important Yangtze river tributary, state media said. The authorities shut down water supplies after a mixture of synthetic ammonia and nitrogen from the Sichuan General Chemical Factory leaked into the Tuo river in the densely populated province, the Shanghai Morning Post reported. Water supplies for four residential areas - Jianyang, Zizhong, Neijiang and Luzhou - were severely polluted, and could remain cut for several days, the report said.

October 2 - INDONESIA - An oil spill has swamped a chain of tourist islands off the coast of the Indonesian capital, polluting a marine park and hitting businesses in the area, officials and media reports said. Oil began leaking in the region known as the Thousand Islands, and government officials said the spill may have been caused by leaking oil pipes operated nearby by China National Offshore Oil Corp, or by a mishap loading oil onto tankers. The islands have been hit by at least five oil spills in the past year, driving occupancy rates at some resorts to just about 30 per cent, according to Jakarta Tourism Agency. The oil slick has also hurt fishermen and seaweed farmers in the area, officials said.

October 14 - USA - Emergency crews scrambled to control a massive south Sound oil spill that soiled portions of Tacoma's Commencement Bay and stretched for miles in a bluish-black sheen, threatening pristine beaches and wildlife on Maury and Vashon islands. "We have a major oil spill on our hands," said the spokesman for the state Department of Ecology. "This is a very large, very complex spill." Officials didn't know where it came from, who was responsible or exactly how much oil had been spilled.

November 18 - BRAZIL - Workers are rushing to avert an environmental disaster as an oil slick spread from a cargo ship that exploded and broke in half at a port in southern Brazil. Workers found dead fish and dolphins in the toxic slick of fuel oil, diesel fuel and methanol that leaked from the ship. The slick, which blackened rocks and beaches, stretched for more than 20 kilometres from the port of Paranagua, 625 kilometres south-west of Rio de Janeiro. Environmental officials indefinitely banned many maritime activities and grounded the area's 3000 fishermen.

November 21 - CANADA - Scientists warn the 44,000 gallon oil spill at an oil platform off Canada's Newfoundland province could kill up to 100,000 seabirds. The spill, coming at a bad time for the birds, occurred at the Terra Nova offshore oil platform as a result of a malfunction. A few days laster, the slick covered at least 14 square miles. The birds at risk include turrs, dovekeys and black-legged kittiwakes, as well as migrating birds such as shearwaters.

November 26 - USA - A tanker has spilled what was initially estimated as appr. 30,000 gallons of crude oil into the Delaware River between Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, immediately creating a 20-mile slick that threatened fish and birds. But authorities later estimated that it could be as much as 475,000 gallons, leaving a gooey mess that has stained 70 miles of shoreline across three states. More than 1,000 cleanup and emergency responders were called in to skim oil from the surface of the water, and place thousands of feet of barriers to contain the floating slick.

December 7 - CHINA - A collision between two container ships near the mouth of South China's Pearl River has caused the region's biggest oil spill in five years. Nearly 450 tonnes are said to have been spilled. Oil was mainly leaking from the fuel tanks of the MSC Ilona, that caused a slick about 17 kilometers long and up to several hundred meters wide. Eight decontamination ships from Guangdong Province are on the spot to deal with the leaking oil, while divers have been dispatched to plug the leak.

December 10 - USA - Thousands of gallons of fuel oil spilling out of a Malaysian freighter that snapped in two off the US state of Alaska have put the Aleutian islands' fragile ecosystem in jeopardy, fueling fears of an environmental crisis 15 years after the Exxon Valdez disaster. The Selendang Ayu's 480,000-gallon (1.8 million-litre) stock of thick fuel was leaking into the water off Unalaska Island, killing cormorants and marine life and leaving a thick and dark coating on beaches. Wildlife in the area includes endangered or threatened species such as Steller sea lions and Steller's eiders as well as western Alaska sea otters, the population of which is dwindling.

December 20 - EGYPT - An oil slick in the Suez Canal is threatening to reach the Mediterranean, port sources said. The spill was caused by a leak in a Kuwaiti tanker carrying 160,000 tonnes of crude, after it collided with a dredger further south on December 14. The slick has tripled in size over a week and now measures around 34 miles (55 kilometres) in length, the source said, adding that about 10,000 cubic metres (2.2 million gallons) had been lost from the tanker. Several aquatic species are threatened by the contamination, and foreign officials charge that the Egyptian authorities have no adequate strategy to face such environmental threats and lack means to combat them.

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j-mac said:

And BP should foot the bill.

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