Oops, we spilled again!
Singapore oil spill paints beaches and the future of its ecosystems in gross, black goo
Ten years ago, Dawn washed an “oil-covered” duckling with the brand’s dish soap in one of the world’s cutest televised bubble baths. The duckling, covered in dark goo, opens its tiny beak to quack. Hands in russet-colored gloves gently scrub its feathers. In the video’s caption — posted to YouTube nearly 11 years ago — Dawn said that wildlife rescue experts were using the product to clean a duck that was a victim of an oil spill. Still, in the commercial itself, Dawn said it was a “simulated demonstration” and that no oil had been used.
What do you picture first when you hear about an oil spill? Is it this duckling? Is it black beaches? Is it choking marine life? I nearly made myself ill looking at a picture of an oil-covered pelican following the Deepwater Horizon spill off the coast of Louisiana 14 years ago. Is it shiny fish carcasses, littering the sand like bodies strewn across a battlefield? Is it the almost mesmerizing slick rainbow sheen of the oil as it spreads across the ocean’s surface?
It’s easier to see these images and not think about what an oil spill actually does to our oceans and beaches — or how spills continue to transpire. Thousands of spills take place off U.S. coasts each year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Smaller spills can happen while ships refuel, while larger spills often burst out of broken pipelines, sunken oil tankers, or are the result of drilling operations that malfunction.
So, what’s coming out of those pipes? You may not think of crude oil this way, as it is a fossil fuel, but it is made up of the remains of ancient animals and plants. Corporations drill for oil thousands of feet below the ocean floor, before transporting it to be converted, or “refined,” into petroleum products. The oil is made into gasoline, asphalt, plastics, paints and soaps. Its fuels work to generate electricity, heat, and pave roads, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Here at home, Americans use around 20 million barrels of oil each day, scientists say. There are 42 gallons of oil in a barrel. The Department of Energy said in 2020 that oil, natural gas, and coal provide 80% of the country’s energy. We rely on this production, and it’s a key part of our trade.
But, does that warrant the cost? While some spills are small, others are absolutely catastrophic. Oil spills can damage ecosystems and local economies for decades. The oil can leave shorebirds unable to fly. Want to see sea otters on your trip to the Pacific Northwest? It can strip away the insulating properties of their fur, leaving the marine mammals at risk of hypothermia. When oil harms plants or animals, it’s known as “fouling” or “oiling.”
Alternatively, toxic compounds from oil can also hurt humans. These compounds can cause heart damage, negative immune system effects, stunted growth, and sometimes death.
There are also more immediately apparent risks. There were 11 oil industry workers killed in the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was the largest U.S. marine oil spill in history, releasing 134 million gallons of oil (4 million barrels of oil) across 1,300 miles of shoreline. The well, located off the Gulf of Mexico, wasn’t capped for months.
A decade later, the National Wildlife Federation told The Associated Press and others at a news conference that populations of dolphins, sea turtles, pelicans, and gulls were still affected by that spill.
Trying to determine the number of animals killed by oil spills is also difficult. Some impacted areas are hard to survey, dead animal carcasses may be too decomposed to tell if oil was the cause of death, many of those killed may never be found, and some experience indirect effects that don’t immediately take their lives. As a result, our tallies of animal deaths are lower than is actually true.
We know this because some of the biggest spills befell the U.S. years ago. The three major spills happened in 1969 off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, in 1989 in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, and in 2010 at the Macondo Prospect: the site of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. Many of the largest oil spills affecting U.S. waters have been along the Gulf Coast. In November, NOAA reported that a crude oil leak was reported 19 miles offshore of the Mississippi River Delta, leaving a miles-wide slick.
Globally, the total annual release of petroleum is estimated by the United Nations Environment Programme to add up to 1.3 million tons. There are 264 gallons in a metric ton.
From 2010 to 2014, the agency said there had been 35 spills of 7 or more tons around the world. Last year, a tanker that capsized off the Philippines spilled more than 200,000 gallons (400 tons) of oil onto its beaches and typhoon-fighting mangroves. The Asian Disaster Reduction Center says the country sees 20 typhoons every year.
Emissions from spills are also a major problem, with burned-off oil from Deepwater Horizon pumping more than a million pounds of black carbon pollution into our atmosphere. Black carbon contributes to global warming.
And, spills are increasing in frequency as oil extraction gets harder to manage and climate change creates more frequent and intense storms, according to ABC News.
Last month, across the South China Sea, the southern coast of Singapore was affected by an oil spill after a Netherlands dredging boat slammed into a cargo tanker at the Pasir Panjang Terminal. Sentosa island’s Tanjong beach was lined with a black ring of oil and The Associated Press reported local media outlets had published photos of a dead fish and a kingfisher covered in oil. The oil has spread up the coast, also impacting a nature reserve and a public beach.
Since the spill occurred, authorities and volunteers have been working tirelessly to remove the oil. While it’s not the size of Deepwater Horizon and the Straits Times reported that the process was nearly complete in late June, Greenpeace International pointed out in a post on X that it’s “impossible to fully clean up an oil spill and ecosystems never completely recover.” The Straits Times said that the next phase of the cleanup would take months and require special equipment to reach remnants trapped in areas that are not easily accessible. Officials said on June 17 that they had placed booms across sensitive areas “to support the containment of accumulated oil to facilitate the cleanup operation off the beaches and shorelines.”
While Dr. Karenne Tun, from the National Parks Board, had told the newspaper that there was “no significant impact to marine biodiversity” observed, Minister for National Development Desmond Lee warned that “some of the impacts on [the area’s] marine and coastal ecosystems may only show up weeks, or even months later, such as during spawning periods,” according to Channel News Asia.
To respond to spills like the spill in Singapore, oil industry corporations and government agencies all must have preparedness plans in place.
The economic toll of these tragic events could be billions of dollars, taking factors like potential health threats and local tourism and business into account. It is far less expensive to prevent a spill and the United Nations stresses the importance of regular spill response training exercises.
Since 1969, there have been at least 44 oil spills of more than 420,000 gallons in U.S. waters. NOAA said it responds to more than 150 oil and chemical spills each year and helps to guide national emergency response. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) handles oil spills in inland waters and the U.S. Coast Guard manages spills in coastal waters and deepwater ports.
To mitigate the effects of spills, federal agencies are working on new technologies. For example, NASA collaborated with NOAA in 2021 on the Marine Oil Spill Thickness project: using remote sensing data to detect the thickest parts of oil spills. In September of last year, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin developed a method (a dual-layer mesh roller coupled with an induction heating technique) to retrieve up to about 10 times as much viscous oil per square meter per hour. More recently, a Louisiana State University professor and his former graduate student were issued a patent for their technology, using lignin polymer nanoparticles. And in June, the United Kingdom’s Plymouth Marine Laboratory said it was using state-of-the-art satellite technology to better detect spills.
So, all hope is not lost.
But, the fact remains: we harm ourselves and the places we rely on to sustain us every time we continue to spill. This is true, whether it’s a little or a lot.
