The iconic Torrey Canyon oil spill of 1967 - Marking its legacy Peter G.Wells International Ocean Institute, Dalhousie University, 6414 Coburg Road, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Received 29 November 2016 Accepted 5 December 2016 March 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the SS Torrey Canyon oil spill and cleanup, off the Cornwall coast in the English Channel. It was the world's first major supertanker disaster. It was a signature event in the marine pollution field, especially related to oil spill response and the initiation of scientific studies of monitoring and researching the fate and effects of oil in the sea. This paper recalls this event, notes our growing understanding of marine pollution and global efforts for cleaner seas, and encourages further work on both oil and the many emerging environmental issues affecting the marine environment. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Next year (March 2017)marks the 50th anniversary of the SS Torrey Canyon supertanker oil spill and cleanup, off the Cornwall coast in the English Channel. It was the world's first major supertanker disaster (Hall, 2007; Barkham, 2010). Itwas a signature event in themarine pollution field, especially related to oil spill response and scientific studies ofmonitoring and researching the fate and effects of oil in the sea. Its anniversary is an opportunity to recall this event, to note our growing understanding of marine pollution and global efforts for cleaner seas, and to encourage further work on both oil and themany emerging environmental issues affecting the sea. The Torrey Canyon was a very visible and well-documented spill, given its location and size (119,000 tonnes of Kuwait crude). It killed N25,000 seabirds and numerous other marine organisms, engaging public attention for months. The spill coated beaches in southern England (approx. 200 km of Cornish coast), the Channel Islands, and northwestern France. It stimulated several UK studies reported upon soon after the event (Corner et al., 1968; Nelson-Smith, 1968, 1972; Simpson, 1968; Spooner, 1968, 1969; Southward and Southward, 1978; Zuckerman, 1967), two books (Cowan, 1968; Smith, 1968), and scientific concern about coastal pollution from oil and many other toxic chemicals, in numerous countries. At the time, relatively little was known about the fate and effects of petroleum derived hydrocarbons in the sea. The event was also followed shortly afterwards in North America by the barge Florida spill in Buzzards Bay,Massachusetts (1968), the Santa Barbara oil platform blowout off California (1969), and the tanker Arrow bunker C spill in Chedabucto Bay, NS, Canada (1970). All of these events helped initiate several decades of marine oil spill impact and recovery studies. The Torrey Canyon spill was burned, bombed, sprayed with chemicals and physically removed from shorelines. It was the first, major offshore and shoreline use of chemicals on a large spill. Unfortunately, theywere first-generation dispersants (solvent-emulsifiers) and detergents (solvent based cleaning agents, ITOPF, 2014). They proved to be of limited effectiveness for the job of dispersing the oil at sea and for cleaning the beaches, and where used on shorelines, they caused considerable further ecological damage. The spill gave dispersants a bad name that has lasted for decades. The spill also occurred at a time when environmentalism was becoming a prominent force in western society. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (Carson, 1962) had just been published to great acclaim. Toxic waste dumps were prolific in the USA (these eventually led to super fund site cleanups), there was the wide-scale use of Agent Orange in Vietnam, and countries were recognizing the implications of the burgeoning global human population. Public and political concern, from local to international, was mounting. It was shortly after the Torrey Canyon spill that the predecessor of the Marine Pollution Bulletin began, initiated by Dr. Robert (Bob) Clark, University, Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It was a mimeographed Newsletter with a limited distribution to aquatic and marine pollution specialists. Clark then became the first and long standing Editor when the newsletter transitioned with Pergamon Press to the current journal in 1970. The influence in the marine pollution field left by the Torrey Canyon disaster, and followed by the other accidents (some mentioned above), has beenmulti-faceted. Over the past 50 years, there has been a huge investment in oil pollution research, and research on a vast array of other chemicals and physical threats to the sea. For oil, the result has been thousands of papers and reports, and several major syntheses, such as the US National Academy of Sciences and National Research Council reviews of oil in the sea (NAS, 1975, 1985; NRC, 1989, 2003, 2005). The Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2016) xxx–xxx E-mail address: Oceans2@ns.sympatico.ca. MPB-08232; No of Pages 2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.12.013 0025-326X/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul Please cite this article as: Wells, P.G., The iconic Torrey Canyon oil spill of 1967 - Marking its legacy, Marine Pollution Bulletin (2016), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.12.013 Source; Document.....pdf-185 kb |
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