The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

The "Prestige" crisis: operational oceanography applied to oil recovery, by the Basque fishing fleet

The "Prestige" crisis: operational oceanography applied to oil recovery, by the Basque fishing fleet
The "Prestige" crisis: operational oceanography applied to oil recovery, by the Basque fishing fleet
On 19th November 2002, the oil tanker Prestige (containing 77,000 tonnes of heavy fuel no. 2 (M100)) sank in 3500 m of water, off the coast of northwestern Spain. Intermittent discharge of oil from the stricken tanker, combined with large-scale sea surface dispersion, created a tracking and recovery problem. Initially, conventional oil recovery approaches were adopted, close to the wreck. With time and distance from the source, the oil dispersed dramatically and became less viscous. Consequently, a unique monitoring, prediction and data dissemination system was established, based upon the principles of ‘operational oceanography’; this utilised in situ tracked buoys and numerical (spill trajectory) modelling outputs, in combination with remote sensing (satellite sensors and visual observation). Overall, wind effects on the surface waters were found to be the most important mechanism controlling the smaller oil slick movements. The recovery operation involved up to 180 fishing boats, 9–30 m in length. Such labour-intensive recovery of the oil (21,000 tonnes, representing an unprecedented ratio of 6.6 tonnes at sea, per tonne recovered on land) continued over a 10 month period. The overall recovery at sea, by the fishing vessels, represented 63% of the total oil recovered at sea; this compares to only 37% recovered by specialised ‘counter- pollution’ vessels.
0025-326X
369-374
Gonzalez, M.
d76bbd36-3155-4405-b539-b90254d4255f
Uriarte, A.
b5f9828f-a9f3-4772-b2de-c5d3f1a5f1ce
Pozo, R.
fefc05b2-db74-4540-87ab-96cfd78ed512
Collins, M.
3b70278b-0004-45e0-b3c9-0debdf0a9351
Gonzalez, M.
d76bbd36-3155-4405-b539-b90254d4255f
Uriarte, A.
b5f9828f-a9f3-4772-b2de-c5d3f1a5f1ce
Pozo, R.
fefc05b2-db74-4540-87ab-96cfd78ed512
Collins, M.
3b70278b-0004-45e0-b3c9-0debdf0a9351

Gonzalez, M., Uriarte, A., Pozo, R. and Collins, M. (2006) The "Prestige" crisis: operational oceanography applied to oil recovery, by the Basque fishing fleet. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 53 (5-7), 369-374. (doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2005.02.046).

Record type: Article

Abstract

On 19th November 2002, the oil tanker Prestige (containing 77,000 tonnes of heavy fuel no. 2 (M100)) sank in 3500 m of water, off the coast of northwestern Spain. Intermittent discharge of oil from the stricken tanker, combined with large-scale sea surface dispersion, created a tracking and recovery problem. Initially, conventional oil recovery approaches were adopted, close to the wreck. With time and distance from the source, the oil dispersed dramatically and became less viscous. Consequently, a unique monitoring, prediction and data dissemination system was established, based upon the principles of ‘operational oceanography’; this utilised in situ tracked buoys and numerical (spill trajectory) modelling outputs, in combination with remote sensing (satellite sensors and visual observation). Overall, wind effects on the surface waters were found to be the most important mechanism controlling the smaller oil slick movements. The recovery operation involved up to 180 fishing boats, 9–30 m in length. Such labour-intensive recovery of the oil (21,000 tonnes, representing an unprecedented ratio of 6.6 tonnes at sea, per tonne recovered on land) continued over a 10 month period. The overall recovery at sea, by the fishing vessels, represented 63% of the total oil recovered at sea; this compares to only 37% recovered by specialised ‘counter- pollution’ vessels.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 2006

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 44687
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/44687
ISSN: 0025-326X
PURE UUID: 375773fe-fd51-480a-ada9-e1c8718621d5

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 08 Mar 2007
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 09:06

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: M. Gonzalez
Author: A. Uriarte
Author: R. Pozo
Author: M. Collins

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×