BIOLOGY INVESTIGATORY PROJECT

2022-23

OCEAN SPILLS

Submitted by
Santhosh Kumar K
Class 12
Sri Chaitanya Techno School
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank everyone who supported me
during this project I would like to express my deepest
gratitude to my biology teachers for inspiring me and
giving me the opportunity to make this wonderful
project. This project allowed me to gain a lot of
knowledge.
I would like to thank my principal, vice principal for
giving me access to all the facilities that I need.
I would like to extend my gratitude to my parents
and friends who helped me a lot in completing this
project within the allotted time. That is the only reason
I was able to build my project and make it an enjoyable
experience.
 LIST OF CONTENTS

S. No Title Page. No.

1. INTRODUCTION

2. OILS AND EXTRACTION

3. WHY ARE FOSSIL FUELS ARE

HARD TO QUIT
4. OIL SPILLS

5. EFFECTS OF OIL SPILLS ON

MARINE ANIMALS
6. CLEANING METHODS

7. CASES

8. CONCLUSION

9. BIBILOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION: -
Oil is an important source of energy in the world. It is
transferred from one place to another by the ships in
the sea and through the pipes. Due to some kinds of
problems, the pipes leaked and the oil spread in the
oceans. This is called an oil spill. The release of
petroleum in the marine ecosystem is pollution. It
occurs in the oceans but also spreads to nearby lands.
This happens because of several reasons like
transferring oil to other containers, breaking pipelines
through which oil is transported from one place to
another and at the time of drilling in the earth's crust.
Oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons and it causes harm to
the surrounding environment. It can destroy animals
and plants.
OILS AND THEIR EXTRACTION
Oils (crude oil) are generally the fossil fuels, which are
made from decomposing plants and animals. These
fuels are found in earth’s crust and contain carbon and
hydrogen(hydrocarbons), which can be burned for
energy. When people think of energy sources, they most
commonly think of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels work
extremely well but have substantially more harmful
effects to the environment in comparison to other
energy. burning of fossil fuels directly is the biggest
contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and it turn has
caused the global problem referred to as global
warming, Also the methods used to obtain these fossil
fuels themselves can be damaging to the
environment as well.
FORMATION: -
Aquatic phytoplankton and zooplankton that died and
sedimented in large quantities under anoxic
conditions millions of years ago began forming
petroleum and natural gas as a result of anaerobic
decomposition.
Over geological time this organic matter, mixed
with mud, became buried under further heavy layers of
inorganic sediment. The resulting high temperature
and pressure caused the organic matter to
chemically alter, first into a waxy material known
as kerogen, which is found in oil shales, and then with
more heat into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons in a
process known as catagenesis.

EXTRACTION: -
1. Locating the oil field
2. Drilling
3. Extraction and recovery
a) Primary recovery
b) Secondary recovery
c) Enhanced recovery
Oil extraction and recovery: -
a) Primary recovery: -
1. Primary recovery is the first stage involved in
extracting oil and gas.
2. It relies on the natural difference in pressure
between the surface and the underground
reservoir, therefore requiring relatively limited
capital investment.
3. Subsequent stages in the extraction process, such
as secondary and tertiary recovery, are more
expensive and may be uneconomical, depending
on the price of oil and gas

b) Secondary recovery: -
1. reducing the ratio of the mobility of the injected
and displaced fluids
2. blocking of the washed highly permeable water-
saturated zones and the re-direction of the injected
fluid into the low-permeable oil-saturated zones of
the reservoir.
 3. reducing the interfacial surface tension between
the oil and the displacing fluid

C. Enhanced recovery: -
1. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is the practice of
extracting oil from a well that has already gone
through the primary and secondary stages of oil
recovery.
2. Depending on the price of oil, EOR techniques may
not be economically viable.
3. EOR techniques can affect the environment
negatively, though new innovations in the sector
may help reduce this impact in the future.
Enhanced oil recovery techniques are complex and
expensive and therefore are employed only.
WHY ARE FOSSIL FUELS SO HARD TO
QUIT: -
To this day, fossil fuels are the most used sources of
energy in the world. The reason fossil fuels are so readily
used is because they are readily available. Countries in
the middle east, as well as Russia, the United States and
a few South American countries have large oil
reserves that are currently used to supply the world’s
demand for energy.
Certain qualities of fossil fuels are difficult to replicate,
such as their energy density and their ability to provide
very high heat. Processes that rely on these qualities,
you need low-carbon fuels that mimic the qualities of
fossil fuels.

OIL SPILLS: -
Oil spills are more common than you might think, and
they happen in many ways. Thousands of oil spills occur
ocean waters each year. Most of these spills are small,
for example when oil spills while refuelling a ship. But
these spills can still cause damage, especially if they
happen in sensitive environments, like beaches, oceans.

Large oil spills are major, dangerous disasters. These

tend to happen when pipelines break, big oil tanker
ships sink, or drilling operations go wrong.
Consequences to ecosystems and economies can be felt
for decades following a large oil spill. Accidental spills
from oil platforms nowadays account for approximately
3% of oil spills in the oceans Accidental oil tank vessel
spills account for approximately 8-13% of all oil spilled
into the oceans. Prominent offshore oil platform spills
typically occurred as a result of a blowout. They can go
on for months until relief wells have been drilled,
resulting in enormous amounts of oil leaked. Notable
examples of such oil spills are Deepwater Horizon.
While technologies for drilling in deep water have
significantly improved in the past 30–40 years, oil
companies move to drilling sites in more and more
difficult places. This ambiguous development results in
no clear trend regarding the frequency of offshore oil
platform spills.

EFFECTS OF OIL SPILLS ON MARINE

ANIMALS: -
Oil spills penetrate the structure of the plumage of birds
and the fur of mammals, reducing its insulating ability,
and making them more vulnerable to temperature
fluctuations and much less buoyant in the water. Clean-
up and recovery from an oil spill is difficult and depends
upon many factors, including the type of oil spilled, the
temperature of the water (affecting evaporation
and biodegradation), and the types of shorelines
and beaches involved. Spills may take weeks, months or
even years to clean up
Juvenile sea turtles can also become trapped in oil and
mistake it for food. Dolphins and whales can inhale oil,
which can affect lungs, immune function and
reproduction. Many birds and animals also ingest oil
when they try to clean themselves, which can poison
them.
Fish, shellfish, and corals may not be exposed
immediately, but can encounter oil if it is mixed into the
water column — shellfish can also be exposed in the
intertidal zone. When exposed to oil, adult fish may
experience reduced growth, enlarged livers, changes in
heart and respiration rates, fin erosion, and
reproduction impairment. Fish eggs and larvae can be
especially sensitive to lethal and sublethal impacts.

CLEANING METHODS: -
1. USING OIL BOOMS
2. USING SKIMMERS
3. USING SORBENTS
4. USING DEPERSANTS
5. HOT WATER AND HIGH- PRESSURE WASHING
1. USING OIL BOOMS: -

The use of oil booms is a straightforward and

popular method of controlling oil spills.
Equipment called containment booms acts like a
fence to prevent the oil from further spreading or
floating away. Booms float on the water surface
and have three parts –
→ This method is effective only when the oil is in
one spot.
→ It works when the spill is accessible within a
few hours of taking place; otherwise, the area of
the spill becomes too large to manage
→ It cannot be successfully employed under
rough sea waves, high wind velocities or
fluctuating tides.
 2. USING SKIMMERS: -
Once the oil has been confined by using oil booms,
skimmers or oil scoops can be deployed onto boats to
remove the contaminants from the water surface.
Skimmers are machines specially

designed to suck up the oil from the water

surface like a vacuum cleaner. They are used to
physically separate the oil from the water to be
collected and processed for re-use
 Skimmers can be used to recover most of the spilt
oil effectively, so it is economically viable.
 The presence of debris poses a major roadblock to
this technique, as skimmers can get clogged easily.

3. USING SORBENTS: -
 Sorbents are materials that soak up liquids by
either absorption (pulling in through pores) or
adsorption (forming a layer on the surface). Both
these properties make the process of clean-up
much easier. Materials commonly used as oil
sorbents are hay, peat moss, straw, vermiculite.

 The oil can be recovered, and this prevents wastage

and further pollution.
 After the absorption, the sorbent materials must be
effectively retrieved. This is a difficult task and may
prove to be worse if ignored.
 Sorbents, after absorption, become heavier (3 to 15
times their weight), and as a result, they may sink,
making them difficult to retrieve and pose a risk to
aquatic life in the sea bottom.
 They are most effective in small spills or to manage
the leftover traces of a larger spill.
 The toxic fumes released from the burning can
cause significant damage to the environment and
marine life.
4. USING DISPERSANTS: -
When the spilt oil cannot be contained by using
booms, the only option left is to accelerate the
disintegration of oil.
Dispersal agents, such as Corexit 9500, are
chemicals that are sprayed upon the spill with the
help of aircraft and boats, which aid the natural
breakdown of oil components.
They allow the oil to chemically bond with water
by increasing the surface area of each molecule.
This ensures that the slick does not travel over
the water’s surface and is easier to degrade by
microbes.

 It can effectively be used for spills over large areas.

 The use of dispersants can create tar balls. As the
oil combines with water, it also gets mixed with
sand and debris present in the water. This results in
 the formation of large tar balls floating on the
water’s surface, which often finds their way to the
shores.
 The toxicity of dispersants can affect marine
organisms, especially the non-mobile ones such as
corals and seagrass.

5. HOT WATER AND HIGH-

PRESSURE WASHING: -
This procedure is mainly used in situations where
the oil is inaccessible to mechanical removal
methods such as using booms and skimmers. It is
used to dislodge the trapped and weathered oil
from locations that are generally inaccessible to
machinery.

Water heaters are used to heat water to around

170°C, then sprayed by hand with high-pressure
 wands or nozzles. The oil is thus flushed to the
water surface, which can be collected with
skimmers or sorbents.
 The released oil must be immediately and
adequately recovered to prevent any further
contamination.
 Organisms falling in the direct spray zone have a
high chance of adversely affecting the hot water.

CASE STUDY
 DEEPWATER HORIZON

What caused the Deepwater Horizon oil spill?

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred after a surge

of natural gas blasted through a concrete core recently
installed to seal an oil well for later use.

How did the Deepwater Horizon oil spill affect birds?

Birds were particularly vulnerable to the effects of the

Deepwater Horizon oil spill. A study showed that up to
800,000 birds were thought to have died.

The explosion

The Deepwater Horizon rig, owned and operated by

offshore-oil-drilling company Transocean and leased by
oil company BP, was situated in the Macondo oil
prospect in the Mississippi Canyon, a valley in the
continental shelf. On the night of April 20, a surge of
natural gas blasted through a concrete core recently
installed by contractor Halliburton in order to seal the
well for later use. Both cores were likely too weak to
withstand the pressure because they were composed
of a concrete mixture that used nitrogen gas to
accelerate curing. The rig capsized and sank on the
morning of April 22, rupturing the riser, through which
drilling mud had been injected in order to counteract
the upward pressure of oil and natural gas.

Without any opposing force, oil began to discharge into

the gulf.

Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010: path of the oil

When an attempt to employ a “top kill,” whereby

drilling mud was pumped into the well to stanch the
flow of oil, also failed, BP in early June turned to an
apparatus called the Lower Marine Riser Package
cap. Though the leak had slowed, it was estimated by a
government-commissioned panel of scientists that
4,900,000 barrels of oil had already leaked into the
gulf. The defective BOP and the capping stack were
removed in early September and replaced by a
functioning BOP. On September 17 the bottom kill
manoeuvres was successfully executed through the
first relief well.

Two days later, following a series of pressure tests, it

was announced that the well was completely
sealed. However, it was verified in June that the
plumes were in fact from the Deepwater spill. The
effect of the microscopic oil droplets on the ecosystem
was unknown, though their presence, along with that
of a layer of oil several inches thick discovered on
portions of the seafloor in September, cast doubt on
earlier predictions about the speed with which the
discharged oil would dissipate

LEGAL ACTIONS:
A formal civil and criminal investigation into the spill
was initiated in June 2010 by the U.S. Department of
Justice (DOJ). In August 2010 Louisiana district
court judge Carl Barbier was appointed to oversee
the consolidated proceedings relating to the spill,
which had prompted numerous lawsuits and
precipitated a morass of complex legal entanglements,
private and public. The DOJ sued BP, Transocean, and
Anadarko, a minority owner of the well, in New
Orleans civil court in December 2010 for violating
the Clean Water Act and Oil Pollution Act.

ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS:
Thousands of birds, mammals, and sea turtles were
plastered with leaked oil. There was speculation that a
spike in cetacean strandings and deaths that was
recorded by NOAA beginning in February 2010 was
further exacerbated by the spill. Typical causes of such
widespread fatalities, including morbillivirus
and toxins from red tides, were ruled out, and there was
an unusual incidence of Brucella infection in
stranded dolphins, leading researchers to suspect that
contaminants from the spill had made cetaceans
more vulnerable to other environmental dangers. A
December 2013 study of living dolphins in Barataria
Bay, Louisiana, found that roughly half were extremely
sick; many suffered from lung and adrenal disorders
known to be linked to oil exposure. Some
1,400 whales and dolphins had been found stranded by
the end of 2015, a figure representing only a tiny
percentage of the animals affected. Though the number
of dead animals had begun to taper off, substantial
decreases in dolphin fertility persisted. It was thought
that the strandings represented the
largest mortality event to occur in the Gulf of Mexico.

CONCLUSION
Thus, we can conclude that oil spills are the leakages of
oil or other petroleum products that happen on water
through ships or wells or oil containers. This spill leads
to another form of pollution i.e., oil spill pollution which
can become an oil disaster as well. It causes a lot of
problems not only for the marine species but for the
birds or mammals and coastlines as well. If it occurs, a
lot of methods can be adapted to control the spill
whereas the foremost thing is to prevent the occurrence
of oil spills so that no such disaster occurs and response
teams should be there to control and act on these
disasters. This article will be helpful for you whenever
you study ocean pollution or water pollution or oil spills
in the oceans in Environment studies, Geography or
Disaster Management.

BIBILOGRAPHY
1. https://www.noaa.gov/education/
resource-collections/ocean-coasts/oil-
spills
2. https://www.britannica.com/scien
ce/oil-spill
3. https://www.sciencedirect.com/to
pics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/oil-
spill
4. https://www.vedantu.com/geogra
phy/oil-spill
5. https://www.britannica.com/even
t/Deepwater-Horizon-oil-spill
THANK
YOU