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Oil spills off B.C. coast harming wildlife: researcher
Vancouver Sun, July 26, 2010
Numerous small oil spills along B.C.'s coast might not cause the same level of damage as BP's massive oil spill in the southern U.S., but a University of Victoria researcher on Vancouver Island says they still pose a threat to wildlife.
Graduate student Norma Serra-Sogas examined data from Transport Canada surveillance flights that spotted what they believed to be oil. In the 10 years of data, there were more than 500 spills along B.C.'s coast. |
(Credit:
Archive, PNG) |
"It doesn't take much oil to actually kill a seabird," said Serra-Sogas.
"It's not so much the volume of oil that's the issue -- it's where it's happening and when it's happening." Ship traffic increases in the summer, she said, which is when birds tend to migrate. Otters and whales can also be harmed by small oil spills.
Victoria, Nanaimo, Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Fraser River area, Johnstone Strait and Barkley Sound tended to have higher levels of oil spills, even when the amount of ship traffic and level of Transport Canada surveillance was taken into account.
"In population centres like Nanaimo, Vancouver and Victoria, we have a high concentration of marinas," said Serra-Sogas.
"That's where most of the marine operations take place, such as repairing or refuelling the tankers or motor boats with fuels, and sometimes there are spills."
Serra-Sogas would like to see more education for mariners about the harmful effects of oil spills, no matter how small. And though some of the spills are probably accidental, others are clearly intentional, said Serra-Sogas.
"Sometimes it's easier for them to dump the oil at sea than to actually go to a facility and have to pay for the disposal," she said.
Most of the oil spills are "mystery spills," where it's unclear what ship is responsible for the pollution. But Serra-Sogas's statistical analysis found that spills tend to be more common in areas frequented by tugboats and oil tankers.
Sightings of oil spills along B.C.'s coast have fallen since the mid-1990s, but Serra-Sogas said that recent improvements in Transport Canada's surveillance technology have been accompanied by a spike in oil-spill sightings.
For her next project, she plans to look at whether spills are actually increasing or whether the new technology is just more efficient at spotting them.
Read the original article here
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