Oil Spills: A Guided Tour

1 - Spills Happen

A lot can go wrong on the open sea. Heavy seas can drive a ship into dangerous waters. An engine can falter, leaving a heavily-loaded tanker to drift towards a rocky shore or reef. A miscalculation can cause ships to collide or begin a chain of events leading to an explosion or fire.

In the photo at right, fireboats respond to an explosion onboard the T/V Mega Borg, a tanker that spilled crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico near Galveston, Texas, in 1990. NOAA Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) scientists helped out during the response to this spill.