Supplement 2.10: Choices of Oil Spill Response

Actions at the source:

• Stop or reduce the spill
• Make the vessel lighter (transfer contents into another vessel)
• Contain or recover the pollutant
• Disperse the pollutant
• Burn the pollutant if this will not introduce new risks for humans and the environment

Spreading dispersants by airplane
Photo: Cedre 2007

Response by the shoreline:

• Act on slicks at sea close to the shoreline
• Protect sensitive areas of the shore using booms
• Direct drifting slicks towards areas of low sensitivity
• Retain slicks in affected zones to avoid the extension of polluted areas
• Contain and recover pollutant by the shoreline (same techniques as in the open sea)
• Disperse carefully, by limited spreading of dispersants, under ecological control

Oil covers a beach on the Tuzla Spit in the Kerch Strait which connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov. Soldiers pitch in to clean up the spill.
Photo: Russian Doors / Marine Photobank

Oil slick on fire
Photo: Cedre 2007

Response at sea:

• Disperse in the water mass by spreading dispersants
• Contain with booms and recover using pumps and skimmers
• Trawl using skimming booms or vessels fitted with skimming arms
• Spread sorbents on the slick and recover using surface trawlers

Containment of an oil spill with a boom near the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco as response to the collision of the vessel Cosco Busan in Nov 2007.
Photo: Megan Jankowski / Marine Photobank

Response onshore:

• Set up clean-up worksites, with a good waste treatment chain
• Limit response on very sensitive sites, such as marshes, to what is strictly necessary
• Ban seafood sales and shoreline access where necessary
• Evacuate and treat the recovered waste
• When operations are complete, restore waste storage sites, altered access routes and soiled vegetation

Text: Cedre 2007