Oil spill

The ecological sensitivity which characterizes our age began several years ago: it was the 18th of March of 1967, when an enormous black spot took shape on the coast of Cornwall, to move later on the English southern and Normandy coasts. The accidental oil spill of 121.000 tons of row, belonging to Torrey Canyon, began synonymous of environmental damage.
But, it was the sinking of Exxon Valdez in front of Prince William Sound Bay (Alaska), in 1989, which rised the awareness in the regards of the problem and that caused a significant activation of the oil companies to solve it, also in the form of allocation of several funds in the research activities.
The environmental damage caused by more and more frequently sinkings of tanker ships in different seas throughout the world, with its consequent waste of tons of rows, submits every time the terrible problem of the prevention and possible solutions of these accidents.
We must take into account that, in Mediterranean Sea, every year there is a dispersal of about 635.000 tons of crude oil, subdivided in accidents, tankers wash waters discharged in the sea and wrong loading and unloading rigging in the terminals. Another widespread opinion is that in this type of damage there is a reasonable component linked to human error even if, recently, seems to be more decisive the bad conditions of the vessels, that’s why they are reasonably called “sea old wreck”.
So, it’s no coincidence that IMO (International Maritime Organization) is trying worldwide to impose, as a standard requirement, the use of double hull for all tankers ships.
Which are the predictable evolution and the destiny of the oil spot when a tanker looses its load in the sea, leaving aside the causes of its oil spill?
The oil spot tend to spread rapidly when it gets in the sea; generally it’s possible to pick up only 15% while the rest is irretrievable and lay down on the bottom sea or arrive on the beaches. Besides, according to alteration processes or the interaction between raw, seawater and sediments, the row can take different shapes and consistency: so, it could fray because of wind and waves creating extended strips or join to became more thick and viscous; or, still worse, to run aground on the beaches to make very persistent tar spheres mixed with several detritus.
Which are more evident effects of all this? Generally a witness of this disaster never forget the oil flavor of shellfish or fishes, the beaches overflowed by the tar, the birds totally covered by the tar and, for this reason, losing their thermal capacity and ability to fly.