Chronic oiling in global oceans

Abstract

Ocean oil slicks can be attributed to natural seepages or to anthropogenic discharges. To date, the global picture of their distribution and relative natural and anthropogenic contributions remains unclear. Here, by analyzing 563,705 Sentinel-1 images from 2014–2019, we provide the first global map of oil slicks and a detailed inventory of static-and-persistent sources (natural seeps, platforms, and pipelines). About 90% of oil slicks were within 160 kilometers of shorelines, with 21 high-density slick belts coinciding well with shipping routes. Quantified by slick area, the proportion of anthropogenic discharges was an order of magnitude greater than natural seepages (94 versus 6%), in contrast to the previous estimate quantified by volume during 1990–1999 (54 versus 46%). Our findings reveal that the present-day anthropogenic contribution to marine oil pollution may have been substantially underestimated.

Oil slicks in the Gulf of Guinea – 10 years of Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar observations

“…Thus, we have detected an oil slick area of 574 km 2 per "fullcoverage observation" during the 2002-2012 period. This result is very similar to that obtained by Dong et al (2022), who detected an oil slick area of 568 km 2 per full-coverage observation during the 2014-2019 period using Sentinel-1 data.…”

“…Several spaceborne SAR systems have been widely used for marine pollution monitoring and mapping (Brekke and Solberg, 2008;Del Frate et al, 2000;Dong et al, 2022;Espedal, 1999;Fiscella et al, 2000;Gade et al, 1998;Garcia-Pineda et al, 2008;Kanaa et al, 2003;Li and Johnson, 2019;Liu et al, 1997;Marghany, 2015;Solberg et al, 1999;Suresh et al, 2015). In this study, we used SAR images acquired by the Envisat ASAR instrument between 2002 and 2012.…”

Numerical Study on the Influence of Model Uncertainties on the Transport of Underwater Spilled Oil

“…Oil pollution has an adverse influence on the marine environment, ecology, and regional sustainable development capacity [ 35 ]. The numerical model of the underwater oil spill is the most effective method to predict the transport and fate of the spilled oil, but the accuracy of the predicted results using the numerical model is significantly affected by the model uncertainty [ 15 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 22 ].…”

“…With the progress of observation technology and data processing methods, there are many more means to obtain information on the spilled oil. For example, Dong et al [ 35 ] developed the first global map of oil slicks by analyzing the Sentinel-1 images from 2014–2019, which provided the potential observations for calibrating the numerical model of oil spills and improving the accuracy of prediction. Based on the precious observation data of oil slicks at the sea surface or the underwater spilled oil, the start time and spill site of the underwater oil spill may be inversely identified, and the uncertainties of the model parameters reduced; this would be important to further improve the accuracy of numerically predicting the transport and fate of oil spill, and to provide information for the risk assessment and emergency response during the oil spill accidents, which will be investigated in our future work.…”

Robust and durable liquid-repellent surfaces

“…Undesired liquids mixing, such as continuous discharge of industrial wastewater and domestic sewage, and frequent occurrence of marine oil spillage, poses huge threats to the environment, resources, public health and the economy. 627 For example, according to the statistics by the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF), there were 181 oil spills of 7 tons and over in the 2000 s, resulting in 196 000 tons of oil lost. 628 The Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010 spurted >50 000 tons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, which contaminated approximately 5000 square kilometers of area, killed millions of seabirds and lost hundreds of billions of dollars.…”