Estimating the economic damages from the Penglai 19-3 oil spill to the Yantai fisheries in the Bohai Sea of northeast China

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe Penglai 19-3 oil spill was one of the worst pollution incidents to occur along the Chinese coastline in terms of both the size of the spill and the area polluted with 840 square kilometers of previously clean coastal waters significantly degraded. The current study estimated economic damages from the spill in two economic sectors, the Yantai fishery and the Yantai mariculture business. Estimates revealed that the ecological damage to fisheries and mariculture affected local crustacean species, shellfish, algae, sea cucumbers and sea urchins much more seriously than the adult fish, partly because fish are very mobile and partly because of the submarine nature of the PL19-3 spill. Toxic oil floating on the sea surface created less of a threat to fish, when comparing them with benthos and algae. Therefore, the economic losses were mainly caused by a reduction in the productivity of crustaceans, shellfish, algae, sea cucumbers and sea urchins, totaling as much as 1 CNY1239.5 million for 63,044 t in weight. Together with the loss in the fishing sector (i.e., CNY16.85 million), the total economic losses were about CNY12.56 billion.

Antioxidant Response and Oxidative Stress in the Respiratory Tree of Sea Cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) Following Exposure to Crude Oil and Chemical Dispersant

“…For instance, the 2010 Xingang Port oil spill in Dalian (China) caused more than 1500 t crude oil spilled into the Yellow Sea, resulting in severe losses of marine aquaculture in Liaoning Province. The 2011 Bohai bay oil spill, one of the worst oil pollution incidents along the Chinese coastline, led to more than 840 km 2 of polluted area and direct economic losses up to CNY12.56 billion in Hebei, Shandong, and Liaoning Province [4]. Chemical dispersants can break up oil slicks into tiny droplets (≤70 µm) in the water column, and then enhance the natural processes of oil slicks, resulting in reducing the amount of oil slicks that might reach coastal habitats [5,6].…”

Are oil spills enhancing outbreaks of red tides in the Chinese coastal waters from 1973 to 2017?

“…To our knowledge, only very few documents reported the algae phenomena following the specific oil spill in the Chinese coastal waters. For example, the Penglai 19-3 oil spill happened in the Chinese Bohai sea on 4 June, 2011 with an estimated economic loss of CNY 12.56 billion for the local fishery (Pan et al, 2015). Within one month after the spill, blooming of algae was observed at the shortest distance of 3.7 km from the spill site (Tang et al, 2019).…”

Spatiotemporal distributions and environmental drivers of diversity and community structure of nosZ-type denitrifiers and anammox bacteria in sediments of the Bohai Sea and North Yellow Sea, China

“…have been reported to be capacity of degrading crude oil, hydrocarbon or complex organic matters in marine environments (Lai et al, 2011a, b;El Hanafy et al, 2016). Site B41 located nearby the drilling platform Penglai 19-3, where a large oil spill incident occurred in November 2011 (Pan et al, 2015), resulting in serious crude-oil pollution in the sea. Site B24 located in the center of the NYS, in which large amounts of old and recalcitrant organic matters with high C:N ratio (0.73%-0.76%) existed, owing to the hydrodynamic forces constrained by cyclonic circulations (Hu et al, 2016).…”