Responding to Oil Spills in the U.S. Arctic Marine Environment

Abstract

A recently released National Research Council report evaluated the current state of science and engineering regarding oil spill response and environmental assessment of Arctic marine waters, with emphasis on potential impacts in U.S. waters in the Bering Strait and Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The volunteer committee reviewed research activities and recommended strategies to advance research and address information gaps, identified opportunities and constraints for advancing oil spill research, described promising new concepts and technologies, and assessed the types of baseline information needed to monitor the impacts of an oil spill and to develop plans for recovery and restoration.

Increased Transnational Sea Ice Transport Between Neighboring Arctic States in the 21st Century

“…Although some contaminants are lost in meltwater runoff, other pollutants are also added from atmospheric deposition of Arctic haze (Octaviani et al, 2015). Furthermore, potential oil spills or shipping accidents can also add contaminants on the ice surface (Fingas & Hollebone, 2003; Glickson et al, 2014; Izumiyama et al, 2004; Venkatesh et al, 1990; Wilkinson et al, 2017). As a result, the majority of ice‐rafted pollutants are released when the entire floe melts despite differences in their sources (Pfirman et al, 1995).…”

“…As industrialization of the Arctic continues to expand due to easier marine access, anthropogenic pollutants (e.g., mercury, lead, black carbon, oil, and microplastics) may also be transported by sea ice over long distances from where they first enter the ocean (AMAP, 2011(AMAP, , 2015Blanken et al, 2017;Obbard et al, 2014;Peeken et al, 2018;Pfirman et al, 1995Pfirman et al, , 1997Shevchenko et al, 2016;Varotsos & Krapivin, 2018;Venkatesh et al, 1990). This makes assessment of risk, attribution of responsibility for environmental and ecological consequences, and containment, recovery, and cleaning operations of contaminants very difficult if not impossible (Glickson et al, 2014;Newton et al, 2016;Peterson et al, 2003;Post et al, 2009;Sørstrøm et al, 2010;Wilkinson et al, 2017).…”