The Atlantic Empress Oil Spill of 1979

What is an Oil Spill?

The Spillage and Clean up

The term, Fluid Spill, is mostly applied to marine oil spills, where oil is released into coastal waters. However, these spills may also occur on land. A layer of oil floating on water or covering the shoreline of a body of water is usually petroleum hydrocarbon, which has leaked from an oil tanker. An Oil Spill, is a type of Fluid Spill which has a large impact on the environment and its surroundings. A major cause of oil spills are due to human activity. Oil spills, along with other fluid spills, are considered to be a form of pollution.

Not a lot of oil leaked from Aegean Captain, as only a little leaked as being moved while being towed to the dock. Oil did not spread greatly as most was burnt off. Dispersants were used to break up oil, by three planes and four tugboats. All oil was no longer visible within 20 days. Thankfully, only minimal oil reached shore, as well as there was not much damage to the ecosystem.

About This Spill

The collision of two oil-carrying tankers in the Caribbean created one of the largest oil spills ever known. The collision was between the Atlantic Empress, and the Aegean Captain, who were both carrying over 200 000 tons of oil. Over 88.3 million galloons of mobil oil were realesed on this day, at the coast of the Tobago Island. The estimated cost of the accident is $85 million. 27 people also tragically died on this date.

Works Cited

"Atlantic Empress and Aegean Captain" Web,

Outreach. Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, 2000-2013.

"Atlantic Empress and Aegean Captain Oil Spill:

A Breif History" Web, CounterSpill. Join the Intervention, 2011

Pictures

A Bit Deeper to what happened

The Crash

The Location

After the Spillage

The Crash

The two tankers collided due to a storm they were both trying to escape. The two ships were VLCC's (very large crude carriers), and upon imapct the Empress burst into flames. The Captain was also apart of the fire, but the crew members managed to put it out. All the remaining oil on the Captain was placed onto other boats, and the Empress was towed further out to sea, to prevent shore damage. Major firefighters put great effort to stop the flames of the Empress, but sadly they had failed. On August 3rd, the ship sank into burning oil slick, and was one of the biggest ship to ever sink.

The Clean-Up

Aftermath and Other Info

This collision is known as the 4th largest spill in history. Since what occurred was an accident and there was nobody to fault there was no legal action taken. Also due to the fact, the crash happened during a storm, there is not much that could have been done due to the limited radar technologies (the spill was not seen as anybody's fault). Besides the fact better position monitoring and communication between boats, there is nothing that could have been done to prevent this event.

• Many of the crew members died by jumping into the oil slick.
• The Atlantic Empress was a Greek ship carrying oil from the Persian Gulf and going Texas
• The second officer of the Aegean captain saw the other ship and tried to turn, but obviously failed
• Most of the oil was said to have dissipated into the sea
• The attempt lessened the impact on the Aegean Captain so only some tanks were damaged

The Atlantic Empress Oil Spill of 1979

Jugad Bariana