Fentje Maake joined the Marine Governance Group at HIFMB for two weeks as part of a school internship to understand the work of university researchers in the social sciences, and in the study of oceanic management for biodiversity.
As an honorary member of the Marine Governance Group, she was tasked to research two major maritime shipping disasters (the oil spillages of the Torrey Canyon and the Exxon Valdez) and how they changed the marine environment and its governance for future protection. Here is what Fentje discovered:
“The Torrey Canyon and the Exxon Valdez disasters were two of the most awful oil tanker spills in history with their effects still lingering to this day. Oil tanker spills have a major negative impact on the environment and the economy, but how do they affect society as well as peoples lives and views?
SS Torrey Canyon
The SS Torrey Canyon was an oil tanker with a capacity of 120,000 tons on her way to Wales, UK, when she struck Pollard Rock on Seven Stones Reef between Cornwall and the Scilly Isles on the 18th March 1967. The Torrey Canyon lost all of her cargo of oil making it the worst oil spill in UK history.
But worse for the environment than the actual oil spill, were the attempts to disperse the spilt oil. As the first large scale oil spill and there was little knowledge on what to do. The UK government attempted to clean the oil by using detergents, which proved to be extremely toxic to marine life especially microorganisms that could have – in fact – broken down the oil. Following the use of detergents, on the 26 March 1967 the Torrey Canyon’s back broke and it was decided to bomb the ship and set the oil on fire. Setting the oil on fire was ineffectual due to the high tides putting the fire out, and the bombing by the Royal Air Force (RAF) took three days and around a quarter of the bombs did not hit the target.
The impact on the environment was disastrous. Around 20,000 sea birds were contaminated, many marine organisms died and miles of coast were covered in oil slick. This led to significantly less tourism in those areas, which greatly affected the people living there, this made people realise the impact our environment has on our lives starting a big rush of wildlife volunteering. This made the environment rise on the political agenda, inevitably leading to the formation of the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF), and The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) and several preventive measures and regulations for oil tankers.
Exxon Valdez
The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred on March 24th 1989 in Prince William Sound, Alaska, after the ship ran aground on Bligh Reef due to a human error. It was, at the time, the largest spill in US history until the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout in 2010.
Photo: Public Domain | U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
In this case, the clean up reponse came too late, showing the inadequate plans of the industry for a large spill. The oil could not be contained in a containment boom because the oil had already spread too far due too bad weather. Yet again detergents were used without success, and this time high-pressure hot water was sprayed on the contaminated coastlines too. However, only around 10% of the 11 million gallons of oil were recovered and much of the oil is still just below the surface of many shores.
Due to the fragile wildlife of Prince William Sound the aftermath was devastating. An estimated 250,000 sea birds, 2,800 otters, 300 harbour seals, 250 bald eagles and 22 killer whales died and it greatly affected the salmon and herring stock. Many microorganisms were also killed by the high-pressure hoses. This also ruined the tourism economy and local fishing industry, which led to separated families and societal issues such as increased alcoholism because of financial troubles. A lot of legal battles took place in the time after the spill since the damages had to be settled and penalty had to be paid. This resulted in a long battle for a settlement of $5 billion as penalty, which was later lowered to $500 million by the Supreme Court. But the disaster also resulted in several regulations to protect marine life and prevent oil spills like the Oil Pollution Act 1990 and better navigation equipment as well as a ban for single hull tanks in US waters.
Both tragedies considerably affected environment and society’s views on the subject of environmental protection and while they were devastating for biodiversity, wildlife and people living in the areas, they contributed to regulations that lowered the amount of oil tanker spills and impacted the relevance of marine life and the environment remarkably”.
Fentje’s work demonstrates a core question developed by the Marine Governance Group: how can exploring the past help us understand the present and how current regimes of governing and managing the environment come to be? It is hoped that Fentje will return to HIFMB in future!