A crash off the Yorkshire coast involving an oil tanker which has released fuel into the sea has caused immediate worry for wildlife charities and environmental organisations
It is too early to understand fully what environmental damage has been caused after a cargo vessel crashed into the oil tanker off the coast of Yorkshire.
But the high speed of the collision and footage of the aftermath has immediately caused concern among wildlife charities and environmental organisations.
Oil spills are linked to a wide range of harm to marine wildlife from cancer to immune systems and reproductive capacity. Species impacted include the protected harbour porpoise to plankton – both ends of the marine food chain – as well as otters, seals and seabirds.
The area is home to significant and important colonies of rare British seabirds including puffins, razorbills, gannets and kittiwakes – species that have already been hit by the impact of the climate crisis reducing food supplies and the Avian flu outbreak. Many will be beginning to gather offshore ahead of the nesting season.
Seals will also be rearing their pups at this time of year, while porpoises and other cetaceans can be found in these waters. The spillage could also enter the Humber Estuary which would also be devastating for birds who are using this important mud flat to feed.
Oil spills at sea have been responsible for some of the worst environmental crises the UK has had to deal with. In 1967 after SS Torrey Canyon ran aground in Cornwall, which led to more than 100,000 tonnes of crude oil being split into the English Channel, thousands of seabirds died.
The magnitude of any impact depends on a number of factors, including the amount and type of oil carried by the tanker, the fuel carried by both ships, and how much of that has entered the water. Sea and weather conditions will also be important in determining how any spill behaves.
But wildlife forced to swim in such polluted waters will come into direct contact with oil through the skin, when feeding, or by inhaling toxic vapours. This contamination has been shown to have a wide range of impacts, from lung disease in dolphins to cancers in seabirds and deformation and breeding disruption in fish.
Otters are particularly vulnerable to spills as they spend a considerable amount of time at the surface of the water and shore – both places that can be contaminated. They then preen their fur and ingest oil. Eight years after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, bottlenose dolphins in the area still were suffering from moderate to severe lung disease.
Visible oil slicks are created by a thin layer of petroleum floating on the surface of the sea. But even small spills can impact a much larger area than the visible affected patch. A recent study found instant contamination down eight metres below the surface and up to 500 metres away from the visible slick.
While crashes like this are rare, an investigation carried out last month by Surfers Against Sewage found that there have been nearly 700 oil and chemical spills in the last 12 months – a total of nearly 102,000 kg of toxic pollution in UK seas. They warned that the figures could be way higher due to poor self-reporting by oil corporations.
It is another stark reminder of the polluting impact our addition to fossil fuels has on our environment. It is also another reason for the government to push towards fully renewable energy sources to make sure disasters like these are a thing of the past.
