San Juan Harbour, Puerto Rico; at least
. “one million gallons of oil were released
~ to wash ashore.

e 1968 — World Glory broke in half
-in heavy seas 90 miles off the Durban
coast, South Africa, releasing 46 thou-
«sand tons of oil.

| e 1969 — Yukon struck submerged
'~ “object and crude oil began leaking into
Cook Inlet, Alaska.

e 1969 — following damage to the
‘tanker Hamilton Trader in a collision off
the River Mersey in England oil floated
talong the North Wales coast.

e 1969 — collision of the French
‘tanker Gironde with the Israel cargo ship
Harbashan in August released about one
thousand tons of oil that reached the
Brittany coast at the height of the tourist

season.

* —@ 1969 — in December the Treis
lerarchai grounded and sank on the west
‘coast of Vancouver Island. At last re-
port the hulk still contained 700 tons of
“bunker fuel which will eventually be re-
_leased into the sea.

bi

It should be kept in mind that each
thousand tons of crude oil washed onto
:a beach 30 feet wide could form a layer
half-an-inch thick for 20 miles.

Compounding the problems of oil
spillages is our lack of technology to
~ handle them when they occur. The use
of chemical dispersants on the oil from
the Torrey Canyon resulted in catastro-
phic destruction of marine life on the
southwest coast of England. Attempts to
keep retaining booms around the oil
which leaked from the blowout well in
Santa Barbara channel were unsuccess-
ful, and the use of straw to absorb the
oil as it reached the beaches was: only
partially successful. Attempts to burn
oil slicks and leaking oil at sea were of
little use. The record of the various
methods used to try and clean up after
an oil spill points out that the technology
of dealing with accidents is far behind
the technology which produces the ac-
cidents.

, the biological results of oil spills,
both immediate and long term, are little
understood and investigations to date
sometimes give conflicting results. Sci-
entific data are insufficient, particularly
about the long term effects of major oil
spills and chronic pollution.

A

}

BIOLOGICAL THREATS

__ The pollution poses biological threats
on the high seas that differ in certain
fespects from those near shore or in
Ports. At sea the potential effects on
fish, waterfowl and mammals have re-
ceived the most publicity but the most
S€rious long-term hazard may be to tiny
Organisms such as phytoplankton, which

form the basis for the food chain in the
Ocean,

~.. [nN the tidal zone and on shore addi-
tional species of animals and plants are

oad

threatened. The problem in ports is com-
pounded by the confined environment
aus the persistent levels of chronic pol-
ution.

ee Renee i tite a nd
The toxicity of crude oil to the en-
vironment changes with the time the
oil is in the water. The more volatile
constituents, which are also the most
toxic, evaporate in a few days. The oil
remaining forms various oil-in-water and
water-in-oil emulsions which result in a
floating, viscous, asphaltic mass. This is
gradually (over a period of several
months) degraded by. spontaneous oxi-
dation and oxidation by micro-organ-
isms. The asphaltic residue which is left
accounts most often for the tar lumps
that await bathers on many beaches or
that foul the nets of fishing vessels.

The higher toxicity of the lighter frac-
tions of oil has been unfortunately dem-
onstrated in several inshore spillages of
diesel oil. The 1968 breakup of the tanker
Witwater released diesel oil and Bunker
C oil in the coral reefs and mangrove
swamps at Galeta Island on the Carib-
bean coast of the Canal Zone. The
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
organized intensive study of the biolog-
ical effects of the pollution. Initial re-
ports from dives at Galeta Island
showed: 90% decrease in the numbers
of certain starfish, 50% decrease in the
number of sponges, 50% decrease in the
number of tubeworms.

EFFEGT ON WATERFOWE

|

In mid-February, 1969, a large amount
of fuel oil was flushed from a tanker or
dry cargo ship off the Dutch coast; the
oil spread to the North Sea beaches and
across the channel to England. The ef-
fect on waterfowl alone has been esti-
mated by the Dutch Society for Animal
Protection at 100,000 birds.

Besides the extensive destruction of
marine life there are many cases of low
level pollution tainting which has made
shellfish such as clams and oysters in-
edible.

The potential biological and environ-
mental damage which could result from
oil spillage is much greater in Canada’s
Arctic. The climate will prolong the deg-
radation of spilled oil so that oxidation
and dispersion which may take several
months in temperate climates will take
years in the Arctic. The voyage of the
Manhattan faces us with the very real
possibility of regular supertanker voy-
ages through the Northwest Passage.
The Manhattan was about the same size
as the Torrey Canyon, and it is probably
that some of the new, much larger, tank-
ers will be used in this area. These tech-
nological behemoths — which in the
course of their normal operations spew
oil slick bilge and exhaust wastes in their
wake — will cut a path of major disrup-
tion through more than a thousand miles
of the Arctic.

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David Hickok, associate director of
the Federal Field Commission for De-
velopment Planning in Alaska, notes that,
with such massive ocean-going ventures
already underway, there still exists an
almost complete “lack of research and
investigation in Arctic waters on oil pol-
lution, coastal processes, phytoplankton,
marine fisheries and mammal popula-
tions, and on programs for the develop-
ment of new technologies for port facili-
ties in the Arctic.”

SPEC RECOMMENDATIONS

© Tankers approaching the coast of
Canada must have a pilot qualified to
navigate the Canadian coast.

© Tankers entering Canadian waters
should be limited in size to 20,000 tons
deadweight.

e “Dangerous Cargo” regulations
should be developed for tankers, with
specified times to enter ports, so as to
minimize the chances of collisions.

e Tankers should not be allowed to
approach the Canadian coast during
rough weather.

e Regulations covering the discharge
of oil ballast or other oil-contaminated
wastes should be strengthened, ade-
quate staff provided for policing, and
extremely high penalties imposed for
violations.

© The Government of Canada should
declare immediately their jurisdiction
and sovereignty over the waterways of
the Arctic archipelago, including the
Northwest Passage, and declare regula-
tions to control shipping in this area. _

e The Canadian Government should
support more extensive research into the
effects of oil pollution on our environ-
ment, particularly in the Arctic.

e The Canadian Government should
support research into various technolo-
gies of handling oil spills when they
occur.

e@ Legislation should be enacted to
make shipowners, ship charterers and
cargo owners jointly and individually li-
able for all damage resulting from oil
spills that occur within or beyond the 12-
mile limit and subsequently drift inside,
and that affects any harbours, coastlines,
or any portion of any Canadian water-
way. All costs of restoring and control-
ling oil slicks, and of cleaning up and
attempting to alleviate environmental
damage-must be borne by those respon-
sible for the spill.

y

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