The Amoco Cadiz Oil Spill: An Ecological Impact Study

On the night of March 16-17, 1978, the supertanker Amoco Cadiz ran aground, spilling into the sea almost 223 000 tons of oil with a volatile fraction of 30 to 40 percent. A program to assess the ecological impact of the spill was begun immediately, to run for three years. It includes: chemical monit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ambio 1980-01, Vol.9 (6), p.268-276
Main Author: Laubier, Lucien
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coasts
Decontamination
Hydrocarbons
Marine
Marine ecology
Oil pollution
Oil spills
Oysters
Sediment contamination
Sediments
Water pollution
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Summary:On the night of March 16-17, 1978, the supertanker Amoco Cadiz ran aground, spilling into the sea almost 223 000 tons of oil with a volatile fraction of 30 to 40 percent. A program to assess the ecological impact of the spill was begun immediately, to run for three years. It includes: chemical monitoring of the water, the sediments and the marine organisms; study of ecological effects on flora and fauna, including acute mortality and re-establishment of heavily damaged communities; studies of microbial degradation of the oil. Major results of these studies have been presented at a special symposium and are reviewed here. The recovery of areas exposed to waves, currents and wind energy is almost complete, but there is still oil in areas more protected from the physical energy of the sea. The ecological impact was extremely complex; in addition to the direct loss in biomass (acute mortality) and the corresponding loss in production, there are sublethal long-term effects especially on reproduction.
ISSN:0044-7447
1654-7209