Possible Incident Scenarios and Response Needs Based on the Sea Empress Experience

Abstract

We have seen in the previous chapter that without very substantial levels of natural dispersion, the rather limited effectiveness of the at-sea response would not have been able to prevent more pollutant coming ashore in the actual incident. Even so, the relatively small amounts which did come ashore caused more than enough difficulty for the shoreline cleaning operation. We also saw in that chapter that had the wind been on shore for a greater part of that time, the shoreline cleaning resources could have been overwhelmed. In this chapter, we consider what the outcome would have been had the 58,000 tonnes of crude oil and 2,040 tonnes of heavy fuel oil not been removed fron the ship. The intention now is to assess response requirements against a truly difficul scenario, but yet one that is credible, being based on rather simple and realistic modifi cations of a real one, concerning which we already know a good deal. This is done in order to emphasise the importance of cargo and bunker transfer.