Oil+Spill+Cleanup

Oil Spill Cleanup
by Ryan and Brittany

Oil spills happen when people make mistakes or are careless and cause an oil tanker to leak oil into the ocean. If the tanker gets stuck on shallow land and they try to move the tanker again it can cause a hole to form and spill oil while moving across the water.

Sometimes when people are at war they will dump oil into the other countrys ocean.

Many animals are hurt by oil spills, birds get oil in their feathers and poison themselves when they try to clean the oil off. An animal can become blind because of the oil.

Oil-covered fur or feathers can't insulate marine mammals and diving birds from cold water, and when an animal cleans itself, it also swallows oil.

Links for information about oil spills: [] [] [] []

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Large spills--even though a relatively minor source of ocean oil pollution--can be devastating. The same amount of oil can do more damage in some areas than others. Coral reefs and mangroves are more sensitive to oil than sandy beaches or sea-grass beds; intertidal zones are the most sensitive. Crude oil is most likely to cause problems

How to clean up an oil spill?

There are many different ways to clean an oil spill, here are a few examples:

1. Some people skim the surface of the water to help remove some of the oil by hand. 2. Sorbents are also used, these are big sponges that absorb the oil from the water 3. In situ burning can be used by burning the oil on the surface of the water. 4. Oil booms, used to isolate the oil from other animals and plants.

An oil crew using sorbents to clean the oil.


 * What Year? || Where did it occur? || What tanker was it? || How much oil did it spill (in tons)? ||
 * 1983 || The Persian Gulf || Nowruz Oil Field || 600,000 ||
 * 1983 || South Africa || Castillo De Belluer || 250,000 ||
 * 1988 || The Monongahela River || Storage Tank || 3,800,000 ||
 * 1993 || Off The Shetland Islands || Braer || 26,000,000 ||
 * 1996 || Off SW Wales || Sea Empress || 18,000,000 ||
 * 2001 || Galapagos Islands || Jessica || 240,000 ||

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