Word: oiled
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...conservationists and cleanup crews can pack their bags and go home? Hardly. Conservation groups such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund have been using the spill in the Shetlands as a bully pulpit to raise public awareness of the very real danger of the world's overreliance on oil. And, of course, a dramatic event in which animals are threatened makes fund raising easier. Greenpeace ads featuring oil-coated birds and soliciting donations appeared in British papers four days after the accident...
Though the spill was not so awful as had been feared, it did create a costly scare. Nearly 400 sq. mi. of fishing grounds, including 11 of the Shetlands' 61 salmon farms, have been closed until both the water and the fish can be tested for oil contamination. "We think things look good now," says Alistair Goodlad, co-owner of Bressay Salmon Co. "But we can't take a chance. We will voluntarily stay closed until we know things are safe." Experts are also testing sheep to discover the effect of their grazing on oil-tainted pastures...
While most concern focuses on birds and mammals, the oil may have harmed less visible -- and less photogenic -- creatures such as the sand eel, which has already suffered in recent years from overharvesting. The eels are an important food for arctic terns and other birds that breed on the Shetlands during the summer. "The birds had been weakened in previous seasons here," says Tim Thomas, a wildlife officer for Britain's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "If the sand eel does not reproduce well this year because of the oil, the birds could be devastated...
...Nature, the levels of petroleum hydrocarbons in sediments and some mollusks from Bahrain in June 1991 were lower than those recorded in prewar surveys. Scientists suspect that the reason for this startling finding is that during and after the war, tanker traffic in the gulf was cut back. "Normal" oil pollution, largely from tankers clearing their ballast, had been reduced...
Less than 10% of the oil dumped into the world's oceans each year is the result of large, well-publicized spills involving wrecked tankers or malicious Iraqi generals. Most of the fouling is caused by thousands of small, unrecorded spills from tankers and ships and by runoff from industrial plants. Oil's assault on the oceans is unceasing. Fortunately, as the Shetlands spill has shown, the seas have a greater ability to absorb punishment than humanity has any right to expect...