Amoco Cadiz

On March 16, 1978, the supertanker A/woco Cadiz was three miles off the coast of Brittany when its steering mechanism failed. The ship ran aground on the Portsall Rocks. 

For two weeks, severe weather restricted cleanup efforts. The wreck broke up completely before any of the remaining oil could be pumped out, so the entire cargo - more than 1.6 million barrels of Arabian and Iranian crude oil -spilled into the sea. 

At the time, the Amoco Cadiz incident caused more loss of marine life than any other oil spill. Cleanup activities on rocky shores, such as pressurewashing, also caused harm. Two weeks after the accident, millions of dead 

Years later, echinoderms and small crustaceans had disappeared from many areas, but other species had recovered. Even today, evidence of oiled beach sediments can be seen in sheltered areas, and layers of sub-surface oil remain under many impacted beaches. 

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Tank vessel Amoco Cadiz 03-16-78 Brittany, France 1,619,000... 

Page et al. [21] used capillary gas chromatography and capillary gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to determine aliphatic hydrocarbons in interstitial sediments collected on the French coastline following the Amoco Cadiz disaster. 

Tanker Amoco Cadiz Atlantic Ocean, Brittany, France 1978 March 16 223,000... 

Atlas R. M., Boehm P. D., and Calder J. A. (1981) Chemical and biological weathering of oil from the Amoco Cadiz spillage within the littoral zone. Estuar. Coast. Shelf Sci. 12, 589-608. 

In 1978, he Amoco Cadiz was wrecked in the same general area as the Torrey Canyon. Considerable ecological damage was also caused by this accident. However, the damage was less intense than that caused by the Torrey Canyon because less-toxic detergents and dispersants were used during the cleanup, in much smaller quantities, and only in high-value places such as harbors. 

Worldwide, the introduction of a wide variety of anthropogenic chemicals into waters and soils has caused a growing concern about the consequences of such practices. Public awareness concerning the vulnerability of the environment to pollution has only been heightened by major incidents such as the Union Carbide (DOW) Bhopal and the Seveso disasters, the Three Mile Island and the Chernobyl accidents, and the Amoco Cadiz and the Exxon Valdez oil spills. 

This spill off the coast of Alaska generated the most media attention in the United States of any spill anywhere in the world. It also led to the most comprehensive scientific investigation of such incidents although much less oil was spilled than in many other tanker accidents. For example, the Exxon Valdez spilled only one-sixth as much oil as the Amoco Cadiz and about one-half as much as the Prestige. It is estimated that the Amoco Cadiz spilled 220 000 tons of oil, probably the largest amount spilled by a tanker in history. 

Amoco Cadiz oil spill off the coast of Brittany, http //www.mairiebrest.fr/amocosymposium/... 

Oil spills and detergent use from many famous shipping accidents such as the Torrey Canyon in 1967, the Amoco Cadiz in 1978 and the Sea Empress in 1996 (Bellamy et ah, 1967 White and Baker, 1998 Edwards and White, 1999). 

Photo 1 The Amoco Cadiz sinking off the coast of France in 1978. (International Maritime Organization)... 

Interest in the impact of spills has been given additional impetus by the Argo Merchant disaster in December 1976 and by the more recent (March 1977) grounding of the Amoco Cadiz off the coast of France, which resulted in the largest oil spill ever recorded (over 200,000 tons of light crude oil). 

The production and transportation of petroleum products also poses environmental problems. Oil spills that occur during any phase of petroleum production and use may kill aquatic life and pollute an area for years. The worst oil spill in North America, for example, occurred during the wreck of the oil tanker Exxon Valdez in 1989, when 40,000 tons of crude oil were dumped into Alaska s Prince William Sound. The worst oil spill in the world occurred in 1978 as a result of the wreck of the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz off the coast of Brittany, France. More than 220,000 tons of oil were released during that accident. 

Most of the seabed areas leased for offshore operations have been confined to sectors of the GOM and regions adjacent to the southern coastline of Alaska. Much of the remainder of the vast U.S. OCS has been closed to leasing and drilling activities by moratoria enacted by Congress and supported by presidential directives. Generally, public opinion has supported the moratoria because of the environmental harms caused by the 1969 blowout and oil spill at the Amoco Cadiz drilling platform off the California coast and the 1988 Exxon Valdez tanker accident and spill in Alaska s Prince William Sound. 

Bend JR, James MO, Little PJ, Foureman GL (1981) In vitro and In vivo metabolism of benzo(a)pyrene by selected marine crustacean species. In Dawe CJ, Harshbarger JC, Kondo S, Sugimura T, Takayama S (eds) Phyletic approaches to cancer. Jpn Sci Soc, Tokyo, pp 179-194 Berthou F, Balouet G, Bodennec G, Marchand M (1987) The occurrence of hydrocarbons and histopathological abnormalities in oysters for seven years following the wreck of iht Amoco Cadiz in Brittany (France). Mar Env Res 23 103-133... 

France 1978 Nearshore Amoco Cadiz 220,000 tons heavy crude oil various (2500 tons) ineffecQve no reports 16)... 

Since the Torrey Canyon spiU, the spate of accidents that have occurred shows that the threat from accidental marine pollution remains (Amoco Cadiz, 1978, off Brittany, France Kark V, 1989, off the Atlantic coast of Morocco Exxon Valdez, 1989, Prince William Sound, Alaska, U.S.A. Haven, 1991, Genoa, Italy Braer, 1993, Shetland Islands, U.K. Sea Empress, 1996, Milford Haven, Wales, U.K. and Erika, 1999, off Brittany, France). 

Crude oil and refined fuel spills from tanker ship accidents have damaged natural ecosystems in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, the Galapagos Islands, France and many other places. The quantity of oil spilled during accidents has ranged from a few hundred tons to several hundred thousand tons (Deep water Horizon Oil Spill, Atlantic Empress, Amoco Cadiz) but... 

In 1978, as a result of the wreck of the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz, 200,000 tonnes of crude oil was discharged into the English Channel. The French Government presented claims amounting to 2 bilUon. 

Amoco Cadiz Oil Spill Cleanup A Case Study 441... 

Prepare, then test your preparation. In 1978, the world simply was not prepared for oil spills as large as the Amoco Cadiz. The main lesson learned there was that quick response is critical. By the time help finally arrived, the Cadiz was destroyed and its entire cargo was in the sea. 

Proceedings of the symposium Twenty Years after the Amoco Cadiz, Brest, France October 15-17, 1998. 

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