Marine Pollution Bulletin

Oiled Anglesey Beaches Details of a survey of oil pollution of beaches around Anglesey Island, North Wales, given in the Royal Dutch/ Shell Group companies Science and Technology newsletter No. 43, show that only three out of 20 sites examined were free of oil.

Interestingly, the survey itself was conducted in 1975- before Shell's single buoy mooring facility off Almwch became operational, and publication of the results now, might lead cynics to suspect that someone, somewhere knows the situation has worsened and we are being pre- pared for the inevitable news that there is now even more oil being washes ashore.

The 1975 survey uses a scale ranging from 0 to 3 - with a 3 rating indicating beaches with occasional tar balls and/or oil on rocks at high tide marks. Six sites are given a 3 rating and a further seven sites earned a 2 rating. Analysis of the oil found showed that compared with an earlier survey conducted in 1966-67 pollution from tank bottom residues had diminished while bunker fuel oil had increased.

Cretan Oil Spill A successful salvage operation averted a major oil spill disaster off the coast of Crete following the grounding of the fully loaded 152000 ton tanker Messiniaki Frontis early in March.

An estimated 5000-10000 tons of crude oil was spilled from at least five ruptured tanks after the Liberian registered, Greek owned tanker, hit the rocks 2 km off the Cretan coast.

Small vessels equipped with booms and dispersants were quickly brought in by the Greek Coast Guard and the Merchant Marine Ministry, and this speedy action aided by offshore winds prevented much of the oil reaching the shore.

Calm seas also assisted efforts to tackle several large slicks-including one 10 km long and 0.5 km wide -nea r Paximadhia Island. It was feared at one stage that the tanker, which had been carrying 97 400 metric tons of oil, could be driven further onto the rocks and completely break up, but the Dutch salvage firm called in to save the vessel managed to successfully refloat the tanker after redistributing cargo and ballast. It was then towed further offshore and the cargo of oil offloaded into two smaller tankers without further spillage.

Oil Bibliography Supplement 3 The oil pollution literature continues to grow, and in May the Marine Pollution Information Centre at Plymouth publishes the third supplement to the original oil biblio- graphy, which was published in 1971. Supplement 3 contains a further 900 references on marine and estuarine oil pollu- tion, collected since publication of the previous supplement in April 1978. It is arranged in a similar way to the previous documents, excluding seabirds, and legal, economic and social aspects.

Supplement 3 is available from the Marine Pollution Information Centre, Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, UK, price £6 or US$15.

High Chromium Content in Hong Kong Oyster Farming Waters Tests carried out by Hong Kong's Agriculture and Fisheries Department have revealed that sediment in streams feeding the Deep Bay oyster farming area contained 520 ppm of chromium. This alarmingly high level - the WHO upper safety level of chromium in drinking water is 0.05 ppm - is the result of effluent discharges from tanneries on the Yuen Long Plain.

Following the disclosure several months ago that oysters from the Laufaushan area of Deep Bay contained high levels of cadmium, the Department are now carrying out a series of tests to establish what other toxic substances emanating from industrial effluent are also present in sea food. Government Fisheries Research Officers Dr Geoff Thompson and Dr David Phillips view the alarming level of pollution in Deep Bay with grave concern.

It has not yet been established how high the chromium levels in oysters from Laufaushan actually are, and at present no restrictions have been placed on their sale and great quantities continue to be exported either in dried form or in the form of oyster sauce.

Further Developments over a West Coast Oil Port Action in the US Congress in late 1978 to expedite delivery of crude Alaskan oil to the northern tier states authorises the President to enter into negotiations with the Govern- ment of Canada. As a result the concept of a Canadian west coast oil port at Kitimat or Vancouver is being revived, as well as the two alternatives in the State of Washington. A new proposal is a line from Skagway, Alaska, across northern British Columbia and the southern Yukon Territory to Edmonton. All proposed ports other than that at Skagway threaten Canadian coastlines with spills and have been strongly protested by citizen action at public hearings and informally.

DEREK ELLIS

Oilspill in North Norway A substantial amount of oil began to come ashore on the west coast of Varanger Fjord between Vads¢ and Vard¢ about 25 March. Between 10-20000 birds are reported to have been killed initially, mainly Br0nnich's Guillemots or Thickbilled Murres Uria lomvia with a good many duck (the European population of Steller's Eider Polysticta stelleri winter in this area). The location of the incident on a coast facing the Norwegian-Russian border suggests that the oil must have come from the approaches to Murmansk. Mr R. Barratt of Troms¢ University is investigating the incident, which is the second causing large mortality in Scandinavian waters this year. Some 30 000 wildfowl had already been killed by 400 tons of fuel oil from the Swedish tanker Thuntank in the Kattegat in January.

W. R. P.. BOURNE

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