- Email: [email protected]
Sweden
Volume 12/Number 10/October 1981 Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage has been ratified by 23 IMCO members.
Important British Wetland Threatened Salt marshes at Stert Flats in Bridgewater Bay, Somerset one of 13 important coastal nature reserves listed by Britain for protection under the international Ramsar Convention on wetlands - is under threat. Somerset County Council want to create a 50 hectare waste tip there to handle 2500 tonnes of refuse weekly and claim a giant net suspended over the working area of the tip will prevent any poison risk to scavenging birds. The plan is opposed by the Nature Conservancy Council. Conservationists fear that the varied wildfowl in the reserve could be poisoned by 'leachate lagoons' of concentrated sewage and fear the leachate could spread to the salt marshes.
Triumphal Progress of Walrus While most marine mammals receive a rough reception in the modern world, there is one which is greeted with extraordinary deference, exceeding that accorded to royalty, whenever it deigns to appear in populated areas. In July the RSPB Warden in Shetland, Bobby Tulloch, was setting out on a voyage when he noticed a change in the landscape which proved on inspection to be due, not to a small new hill, but to a young walrus. After waiting for him to take its picture it seems to have put out to sea again, since on the afternoon of 30 August what appears from photographs to be the same animal was found to be having another nap on the pier of the small fishing village of Crovie, where it also soon attracted an admiring audience. This is apparently the first to visit the area since 1954, when one made quite an extensive tour around northwest Europe. We understand from the present individual that this is a small preliminary survey while it decides whether to swim up the Thames for Christmas.
Round-the-World News Activities of the Marine Board The Marine Board of the Assembly of Engineering in the National Research Council of the US has issued its report for 1980. It reports on work in progress in a number of fields, viz. The safety of oil and gas operations on the outer continental shelf, in which environmental safety, human safety and the safety of offshore installations are under scrutiny. Environmental safety includes identification of sources of pollution from offshore operations and their effects, intentional and accidental discharges, spill containment and clean up. Arctic Seafloor Engineering is scheduled as a subject for investigation by the Board. Interest in this topic arises from the fact that oil and gas deposits are indicated by the geophysical properties of land under arctic waters. Research work has already identified physical characteristics that must be monitored or predicted to reduce hazard to personnel and the environment, but more needs to be known about seafloor and subsea characteristics that are unique to arctic operations. The capacity of the oceans to receive, transport and assimilate wastes is a subject that will be the concern of a group of experts convened to discuss the areas for investigation in this field so that information is made available when decisions on waste disposal have to be taken. Problems that require further study and the effort required to carry out such study will be identified by the committee responsible for convening the meeting of experts.
West Germany The grounding of the Liberian tanker Afran Zenith in the River Elbe near Hamburg resulted in hull damage which caused an estimated spill of 300 tons of oil. The oil spread along several kilometres of the river's northern shore contaminating a beach and a small marsh.
Saudi Arabia The Jedda Oil Refinery Co. in Saudi Arabia has awarded a $860 000 contract to install an oil spill protection system in Jedda harbour to Seaward International, Inc. of Falls Church, Virginia. The company will install permanent oil booms in the harbour and will provide skimmer systems for large spills, fast deployment harbour boom, small portable skimmers and sorbent pads, while training refinery staff to use the equipment. Work should be completed by 1982.
Sweden A large oil spill resulted in shore impact damage on the west coast of Sweden at Glommen and the resort of Skvea Strand, south of Falkenburg. The Swedish coastguard reported that 5000 gallons of uncontaminated oil and 650000 gallons of contaminated oil had been collected. A further 1500 gallons had impacted rocky inaccessible areas and 2000 gallons of oil was estimated to be unrecovered in the sea and drifting northward.
325
Important British Wetland Threatened Salt marshes at Stert Flats in Bridgewater Bay, Somerset one of 13 important coastal nature reserves listed by Britain for protection under the international Ramsar Convention on wetlands - is under threat. Somerset County Council want to create a 50 hectare waste tip there to handle 2500 tonnes of refuse weekly and claim a giant net suspended over the working area of the tip will prevent any poison risk to scavenging birds. The plan is opposed by the Nature Conservancy Council. Conservationists fear that the varied wildfowl in the reserve could be poisoned by 'leachate lagoons' of concentrated sewage and fear the leachate could spread to the salt marshes.
Triumphal Progress of Walrus While most marine mammals receive a rough reception in the modern world, there is one which is greeted with extraordinary deference, exceeding that accorded to royalty, whenever it deigns to appear in populated areas. In July the RSPB Warden in Shetland, Bobby Tulloch, was setting out on a voyage when he noticed a change in the landscape which proved on inspection to be due, not to a small new hill, but to a young walrus. After waiting for him to take its picture it seems to have put out to sea again, since on the afternoon of 30 August what appears from photographs to be the same animal was found to be having another nap on the pier of the small fishing village of Crovie, where it also soon attracted an admiring audience. This is apparently the first to visit the area since 1954, when one made quite an extensive tour around northwest Europe. We understand from the present individual that this is a small preliminary survey while it decides whether to swim up the Thames for Christmas.
Round-the-World News Activities of the Marine Board The Marine Board of the Assembly of Engineering in the National Research Council of the US has issued its report for 1980. It reports on work in progress in a number of fields, viz. The safety of oil and gas operations on the outer continental shelf, in which environmental safety, human safety and the safety of offshore installations are under scrutiny. Environmental safety includes identification of sources of pollution from offshore operations and their effects, intentional and accidental discharges, spill containment and clean up. Arctic Seafloor Engineering is scheduled as a subject for investigation by the Board. Interest in this topic arises from the fact that oil and gas deposits are indicated by the geophysical properties of land under arctic waters. Research work has already identified physical characteristics that must be monitored or predicted to reduce hazard to personnel and the environment, but more needs to be known about seafloor and subsea characteristics that are unique to arctic operations. The capacity of the oceans to receive, transport and assimilate wastes is a subject that will be the concern of a group of experts convened to discuss the areas for investigation in this field so that information is made available when decisions on waste disposal have to be taken. Problems that require further study and the effort required to carry out such study will be identified by the committee responsible for convening the meeting of experts.
West Germany The grounding of the Liberian tanker Afran Zenith in the River Elbe near Hamburg resulted in hull damage which caused an estimated spill of 300 tons of oil. The oil spread along several kilometres of the river's northern shore contaminating a beach and a small marsh.
Saudi Arabia The Jedda Oil Refinery Co. in Saudi Arabia has awarded a $860 000 contract to install an oil spill protection system in Jedda harbour to Seaward International, Inc. of Falls Church, Virginia. The company will install permanent oil booms in the harbour and will provide skimmer systems for large spills, fast deployment harbour boom, small portable skimmers and sorbent pads, while training refinery staff to use the equipment. Work should be completed by 1982.
Sweden A large oil spill resulted in shore impact damage on the west coast of Sweden at Glommen and the resort of Skvea Strand, south of Falkenburg. The Swedish coastguard reported that 5000 gallons of uncontaminated oil and 650000 gallons of contaminated oil had been collected. A further 1500 gallons had impacted rocky inaccessible areas and 2000 gallons of oil was estimated to be unrecovered in the sea and drifting northward.
325