What is the impact of an oil spill?

Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/therebel68/

With the oil spill from the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico making the headlines, and uncertainty over what its long-term environmental impact will be, if you are covering the topic in class it might be helpful to look at what the effects of oil spills in the past have been.

The consequences of the Prestige oil tanker sinking off the Spanish coast in 2002, for example, were terrible. The ship’s cargo of 70,000 tonnes of oil had a massive impact on marine wildlife and the fishing industry in the region, as well as causing a political and diplomatic rift over who was to blame:

Title of clip	Oil spill from the Prestige
Curriculum location	Geography (secondary)  >  QCA  >  Key stage 3  >  Unit 14: Can the earth cope? Ecosystems population and resources  >  Section 5: What are the effects on the environment of this resource issue?  >  Learning Objective: to collect, record and present evidence
Description	A report on the environmental disaster caused by an oil spillage from the sinking Prestige oil tanker: 70,000 tonnes of oil spilled into the sea; local fisherman help navy cadets to clean the coastline of oil; 60 percent of the region is dependent on fishing for its livelihood and the area is rich in wildlife; the slick covers an area of 20 square miles and is still expanding; Greenpeace describe the clean-up operation as inadequate; mussel fishing boats have been ordered to stay in port, the owners are promised some compensation for the loss of earnings.
Duration	2 minutes 10 seconds

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