SPILL MODELING AS PART OF THE RESPONSE AND MONITORING STRATEGY AT THE SEA EMPRESS INCIDENT

Abstract

ABSTRACT On February 15, 1996, the Sea Empress went aground at Milford Haven off the Pembrokeshire coast of South Wales, Great Britain. Between February 15 and 21 some 72,000 tons of Forties blend crude oil were released into the marine environment. The model OSIS (oil spill information system) was developed jointly by AEA Technology and BMT Marine Information Systems. OSIS was successfully used by AEA Technology for the U.K. Coastguard Agency's Marine Pollution Control Unit (MPCU) as a response tool to predict the fate, trajectory, and likely beaching of oil, thus aiding in the decisions and optimizing response strategy. The MPCU has subsequently contracted AEA Technology to develop OSIS to predict the long-term fate of the dispersed oil and to identify areas of deposition following oil-sediment interaction.