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Arctic oil spill planned
Marine Pollution Bulletin
Arctic Oil Spill Planned Pont Inlet, a small community near the northern tip of Baffln Island, was a scene of unusual activity last winter as several C-130 Hercules loads of equipment and oil (to be spilled experimentally) were assembled by BIOS (Baffin Island Oil Spill) personnel into a tracked vehicle convoy to travel over the ice to base camp at Cape Hatt. Final go-ahead for two summers' work at Cape Hatt has now been given by John Roberts, Canadian Minister of the Environment; the spills are part of a four year study to assess the impact of oil spills on Arctic coasts and to test clean-up measures. This is the first time that oil has been experimentally spilled close to shore in ice-free Arctic waters. A 30-man camp has been set up at Cape Hatt near Pond Inlet, Baffin Island, and work will start immediately. During the summer of 1980 until freeze-up in October, scientists will gather baseline data and also spill a small amount of oil on and near the shore in order to begin studying the long-term fate of oil on Arctic beaches. The major part of the study will take place in the summer of 1981. Up to 275 barrels of oil will be discharged offshore in several small bays. About 100 barrels of crude oil will be spilled into one bay, and a similar volume of crude oil with a dispersant which breaks up oil and mixes it into the water will be discharged into another bay. A third bay will remain uncontaminated as a control. In an intensive sampling and analysis program that will continue through 1983, scientists will then study the fate and effects of oil in the water, sediments, and bottom-dwelling plants and organisms such as seaweed and clams. One aim will be to determine whether ecosystems recover more quickly from contamination by an oil-dispersant mixture than from untreated oil. Also in 1981, in a series of smaller spills, up to about 75 barrels of oil will be discharged and then cleaned up. A variety of clean-up techniques will be employed, some of which are already in use in Southern Canada but are untested under Arctic conditions, and others that have never before been used extensively, such as burning the oil in place. Fish or mammals will not be purposely exposed to the oil spills. Bird-scaring devices will keep birds away, and project personnel will attempt to ensure that no land animals wander into the shoreline test areas. The Baffin Island Oil Spill (BIOS) project, initiated by the federal government's Arctic Marine Oil Spill Program, is the culmination of several years of planning. The $4 million project is managed by an international committee composed of representatives from the Department of Environment, the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Canadian oil industry, Norway, and the US. Northern residents have been consulted throughout the planning of BIOS and support the aims of the project; in fact, the test site selected was suggested by the Pond Inlet Council. " T h e BIOS project will significantly improve Canada's ability to clean up oil spills in Arctic waters," said Mr. Roberts. "These controlled spills give us the opportunity to find out just what the most effective countermeasures techniques are." 212
Offshore Oil and Fisheries ICES, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, has now published a review of the interaction between the fishing industry and the offshore gas/oil industries (ICES Cooperative Research Report, No. 94, 1980). Most of the information relates to the North Sea experience, but there is also a contribution from North America. Surprisingly (since ICES is dominated by the national fisheries research laboratories), most of the report is more concerned with how commercial fishing activities interfere with the oil industry than the reverse. Much attention is paid to the hazard of bottom trawls striking exposed submarine pipelines. Beam trawls fouling pipelines can inflict severe damage on the concrete casing of smaller pipes, but they pass over large diameter (36 in.) pipelines. Otter boards hook into exposed pipelines in some circumstances, but this presents more hazard to the crew of the fishing vessel than to the pipeline. Tests have been made on design modifications to beam trawls and otter boards to reduce the risk of fouling. A Dutch investigation into fishermen's claims of loss or damage to fishing gear by fouling undersea pipelines suggests that this happens only when the pipe-laying is taking place or shortly afterwards when the pipeline is only partly buried or the bottom around the trench still unstable. Ships' anchors present another hazard to submarine pipelines. A large anchor may penetrate 1 m into the seabed and the Dutch government have stipulated that pipelines in heavily fished areas should be covered to a depth of 2 m. Despite great efforts by the pipe-laying companies they have never been able to achieve this on either the Dutch or the British sectors. Offshore platforms are often held to attract a large fish population, comparable to the known aggregations around sunken wrecks which have led to the development of a commercial 'wreck-fisheries'. The Norwegian Institute of Fishery Technology Research has made some investigations in the Ekofisk field, but so far without very conclusive results. United States experience of the relationship between offshore oil operations and fisheries goes back 50 yr and a paper summarizing this experience is reassuring. Offshore platforms off the Californian coast and in the Gulf of Mexico provide artificial reefs which attract a large number of fish (sometimes 20-50 times as many as in the surrounding muddy areas) and this is well known to sport anglers. Loss of fishing gear appears to be a minor problem. Oil pollution and chronic low-level discharges cause tainting of shellfish from time to time, but the overall assessment is that, as in the North Sea, the effects of offshore production are small relative to other purturbations.
State of the Environment Report Varying standards of progress have been reported by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) in its I~nth Annual Report on the state of the US environment. The Water Quality chapter of the report is divided into six main areas where pollution is a problem. Surface water quality has not shown vast improvements since the 1970s but the data, based on a US Geological
Arctic Oil Spill Planned Pont Inlet, a small community near the northern tip of Baffln Island, was a scene of unusual activity last winter as several C-130 Hercules loads of equipment and oil (to be spilled experimentally) were assembled by BIOS (Baffin Island Oil Spill) personnel into a tracked vehicle convoy to travel over the ice to base camp at Cape Hatt. Final go-ahead for two summers' work at Cape Hatt has now been given by John Roberts, Canadian Minister of the Environment; the spills are part of a four year study to assess the impact of oil spills on Arctic coasts and to test clean-up measures. This is the first time that oil has been experimentally spilled close to shore in ice-free Arctic waters. A 30-man camp has been set up at Cape Hatt near Pond Inlet, Baffin Island, and work will start immediately. During the summer of 1980 until freeze-up in October, scientists will gather baseline data and also spill a small amount of oil on and near the shore in order to begin studying the long-term fate of oil on Arctic beaches. The major part of the study will take place in the summer of 1981. Up to 275 barrels of oil will be discharged offshore in several small bays. About 100 barrels of crude oil will be spilled into one bay, and a similar volume of crude oil with a dispersant which breaks up oil and mixes it into the water will be discharged into another bay. A third bay will remain uncontaminated as a control. In an intensive sampling and analysis program that will continue through 1983, scientists will then study the fate and effects of oil in the water, sediments, and bottom-dwelling plants and organisms such as seaweed and clams. One aim will be to determine whether ecosystems recover more quickly from contamination by an oil-dispersant mixture than from untreated oil. Also in 1981, in a series of smaller spills, up to about 75 barrels of oil will be discharged and then cleaned up. A variety of clean-up techniques will be employed, some of which are already in use in Southern Canada but are untested under Arctic conditions, and others that have never before been used extensively, such as burning the oil in place. Fish or mammals will not be purposely exposed to the oil spills. Bird-scaring devices will keep birds away, and project personnel will attempt to ensure that no land animals wander into the shoreline test areas. The Baffin Island Oil Spill (BIOS) project, initiated by the federal government's Arctic Marine Oil Spill Program, is the culmination of several years of planning. The $4 million project is managed by an international committee composed of representatives from the Department of Environment, the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Canadian oil industry, Norway, and the US. Northern residents have been consulted throughout the planning of BIOS and support the aims of the project; in fact, the test site selected was suggested by the Pond Inlet Council. " T h e BIOS project will significantly improve Canada's ability to clean up oil spills in Arctic waters," said Mr. Roberts. "These controlled spills give us the opportunity to find out just what the most effective countermeasures techniques are." 212
Offshore Oil and Fisheries ICES, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, has now published a review of the interaction between the fishing industry and the offshore gas/oil industries (ICES Cooperative Research Report, No. 94, 1980). Most of the information relates to the North Sea experience, but there is also a contribution from North America. Surprisingly (since ICES is dominated by the national fisheries research laboratories), most of the report is more concerned with how commercial fishing activities interfere with the oil industry than the reverse. Much attention is paid to the hazard of bottom trawls striking exposed submarine pipelines. Beam trawls fouling pipelines can inflict severe damage on the concrete casing of smaller pipes, but they pass over large diameter (36 in.) pipelines. Otter boards hook into exposed pipelines in some circumstances, but this presents more hazard to the crew of the fishing vessel than to the pipeline. Tests have been made on design modifications to beam trawls and otter boards to reduce the risk of fouling. A Dutch investigation into fishermen's claims of loss or damage to fishing gear by fouling undersea pipelines suggests that this happens only when the pipe-laying is taking place or shortly afterwards when the pipeline is only partly buried or the bottom around the trench still unstable. Ships' anchors present another hazard to submarine pipelines. A large anchor may penetrate 1 m into the seabed and the Dutch government have stipulated that pipelines in heavily fished areas should be covered to a depth of 2 m. Despite great efforts by the pipe-laying companies they have never been able to achieve this on either the Dutch or the British sectors. Offshore platforms are often held to attract a large fish population, comparable to the known aggregations around sunken wrecks which have led to the development of a commercial 'wreck-fisheries'. The Norwegian Institute of Fishery Technology Research has made some investigations in the Ekofisk field, but so far without very conclusive results. United States experience of the relationship between offshore oil operations and fisheries goes back 50 yr and a paper summarizing this experience is reassuring. Offshore platforms off the Californian coast and in the Gulf of Mexico provide artificial reefs which attract a large number of fish (sometimes 20-50 times as many as in the surrounding muddy areas) and this is well known to sport anglers. Loss of fishing gear appears to be a minor problem. Oil pollution and chronic low-level discharges cause tainting of shellfish from time to time, but the overall assessment is that, as in the North Sea, the effects of offshore production are small relative to other purturbations.
State of the Environment Report Varying standards of progress have been reported by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) in its I~nth Annual Report on the state of the US environment. The Water Quality chapter of the report is divided into six main areas where pollution is a problem. Surface water quality has not shown vast improvements since the 1970s but the data, based on a US Geological