Oil spills - Philippines, Indian Ocean and Lebanon

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A Filipino fisherman stands ankle deep in oil washed up on the beaches near his home.

[ Jump to: Effects, Clean up, Map, Philippines, Indian Ocean, Lebanon. ]

Italso has to be said that while these recent dramatic spills are makingthe headlines, oil spills actually occur every day.  Every yearmillions of gallons of oil enters the ocean from routine ship and carmaintenance, off shore oil drilling operations and ship spills.

Effects of an oil spill

Whilethe size of a spill is obviously important, the amount of damage donecan depend even more on other factors like the type of oil spilled andthe location of the spill - as well as temperature, wind and weather.

Oilcan have a smothering effect on marine life, fouling feathers and fur.It is a toxic poison that birds and mammals often ingest while tryingto clean themselves. Fish absorb it through direct contact and throughtheir gills.  The fumes and contact with oil can also cause nauseaand health problems for people in affected areas.

Even whenthe oil does not kill, it can have more subtle and long lastingnegative effects.  For example, it can damage fish eggs, larva andyoung - wiping out generations.  It also can bio-accumulate upthrough the food chain as predators (including humans) eat numbers offish (or other wildlife) that have sub-lethal amounts of oil stored intheir bodies. 

More on the effects of oils spills from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

Clean up (mitigation)

©Greenpeace/Oerlemans - Attempting to clean up the oil spill in Lebanon.

Arapid and well-resourced response to an oil spill is vitallyimportant.  However, it must be acknowledged that a real'clean-up' in the sense of recovering all the oil and getting thebeaches back to normal, is not possible.  

Normally toprevent oil from spreading over sea surface they use booms (to containthe oil in polluted areas), and then use skimmers to suck up the oiland pump into a receiving tank.  But the response to oil spills isan extremely difficult and sometimes despairing task.  

Boomsonly work when the waves are small. Even in ideal conditions, with allthe equipment and all the experts deployed immediately, recovery ofmore than 20 percent of the original oil spilled is neverpractical.  Most of it either gets to the shore, or isincorporated into sediments and the seabed, or evaporates.  

Oncethe oil hits the shore, various types of mechanical removal areneeded.  But some techniques cause damage themselves and, for somevery sensitive areas, vigorous clean up techniques can cause moredamage than the oil itself.  

Major oil spills since 1960

(map courtesy of Lastingnews.com)

Long term cleanup and support for affected communities is often complicated by a lackof accountability.  Often, financial responsibility is limited tothe ship owner, while the large multinational oil companies that ownthe cargo escape responsibility.  

However, at least in thecase of routine accidents, the oil companies have international regimesthat can be called upon to provide financial resources to help, butthis is not the case for spills caused by war where often access isdifficult due to political problems or the presence of munitions andany financial help is left to donations from governments and non-profitorganizations and whatever the UN and others can scrape together.

Recent spills:

Indian Ocean

Source:

 On 15 August, about 470 km (290 miles) from the coast of India, theJapanese operated Bright Artemis oil tanker collided with a smallercargo ship it was attempting to assist.

Amount and type:

  About 5.3 million litres (1.4 million gallons) of crude oil.

Area affected:

 The spill occurred hundreds of kilometres from land, so substantialimpacts on inshore and coastal environments are unlikely.

Theeffects of 'at sea' spills are less understood than the more obviouseffects seen when an oil spill washes up on shore, but could includeoiling of offshore seabirds, impacts on marine mammals and turtles andtoxicity to organisms occupying surface water layers, including theeggs and larvae of many fish species.

Situation summary:

  A serious incident, but largely overshadowed by the disastrous spills in the Philippines and Lebanon.

Philippines

©Greenpeace/GavinNewman. Mangrove Roots and new shoots coated with Oil from the sunkenPetron-chartered single hull vessel oil tanker in Nueva Valencia,Guimaras Island. Philippines.

Source:

Solar I, an oil tanker chartered by Petron Corp., the largest oil refiner in the Philippines, sank in rough seas.

Amountand type:  About 200,000 litres (53,000 gallons) of bunker oil inthe initial spill.  The tanker is sunk in deep water, makingrecovery unlikely and the ship an ecological time bomb with anadditional 1.8 million litres (475,000 gallons) of bunker fuel onboard.

Area affected:

 Roughly 320 km (200 miles) of coast line is covered in thicksludge.  Miles of coral reef have been destroyed and 1,000hectares (2,470 acres) of marine reserve badly damaged.

Situation summary:

 The Philippines' worst oil spill.  The government has asked forinternational assistance to clean up the spill.  However,long-term and possible irreversible damage to the environment andlivelihoods of people is likely.

As Joseph Gajo, a local marinereserve caretaker, is quoted as saying, "My fear is all the mangrovetrees will die. If the mangroves and coral die, this will affectfishermen."   According to Guimaras Governor Joaquin Nava,25,000 people are already affected or displaced.

Our ship, theEsperanza, is in the area.  We will assist the Philippines CoastGuard in a visual survey and impacts assessment, as well as transportclean-up containment equipment and relief goods donated by the ABS-CBNFoundation and friends of Greenpeace.

Lebanon

Source:

 On 13 and 15 July 2006, Jieh coastal power station, 28km south ofBeirut was bombed by the Israeli navy.  Possibly also oil leakedfrom an Israeli war frigate hit by a missile.

Amount and type:

 Between 11 million and 40 million litres (3 - 10.5 million gallons;10,000 - 15,000 tonnes) of heavy fuel oil has leaked into the sea.

Area affected:

 Due to winds blowing from the South West to North East and watercurrent movement, the oil spill was partly carried out to sea andpartly dispersed along the coast. The pollution is estimated to extendat least 150km (90 miles) off shore, and the oil has hit a 150kmstretch of coastline extending even into Syria.

What is and should be done:

 Oil needs to be recovered from impacted beaches and from the sea'ssurface.  There are reports and satellite images that show thereis some oil offshore, but because aerial surveillance is not currentlypossible, the amount and extent are not fully known.  

Inorder to get a complete assessment of the extent of the spill, as wellas getting equipment and experts to the scene the air, land and seablockade needs to be lifted.  Oil recovery with safe and securestorage facilities are needed which will help to mitigate theimpacts.  A full environmental damage assessment programme needsto be implemented.

Greenpeace environmental impact assessmentteams in both Israel and Lebanon are helping gather information neededto deal with the environmental cost of the war, including thisspill.   

Atoxic carpet of heavy fuel oil up to 10 cm thick is suffocating sea offthe Lebanese coast. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 tonnes of Fuel Oilpoured into the Mediterranean Sea following the bombing of the Jiehpower plant on July 13 and 15. This has contaminated up to 150 km ofthe Lebanese coast north of the plant; however the full extent of thespill has yet to be fully assessed as aerial surveillance is still notpossible due to an air and sea blockade.

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Situation summary:

 This is a significant spill and will have lasting impacts. Heavy fueloil is persistent in the environment and a significantly large amountof it has washed up onto shore.  Containment and clean up wasinitially impossible because of the war.  These factors make thisa particularly nightmarish spill.  

Initial coastal cleanup could take 6 to 12 months.   The tourism and fishingindustries are particularly hard hit, and one UN spokesperson has beenreported as saying the damage could last "up to a century".

How you can help

Efficiency and renewable energy can help us reduce our dependence on oil - the only real way to stop oil spills.  Click here for tips on reducing your own energy use.

Marinereserves strengthen ocean ecosystems - making them better able towithstand and recover from environmental disasters.  Sign up as an Ocean Defender to help create a network of protected areas covering 40 percent of the world's oceans.