INTRODUCTION The immediate@ and especially the visual@ impacts of oil spills have been known as long as oil has been an article of commerce. The less visible and longer term processes by which an environment recovers from the effects of spilled oil are still matters for active scientific investigation. The bulk of our knowledge of these processes has been accumulated from oil spill studies dating back to about 1967. This information has led to both simple and highly sophisticated impact analyses; it has been generated as much by accidents as by scientific curiosity. The Santa Barbara blowout (in 1969) and the groundings of the tankers Torrey Canyon (1967)@ Florida (1969)@ Arrow (1970)@ Zoe Colocotroni (1973)@ Metula (1974)@ Argo Merchant (1976) and Tsesis (1977) generated the concern necessary to provide funding for serious scientific research into oil spill effects and the recovery of ecosystems therefrom. As a result@ when the tanker Amoco Cadiz stranded off Brittany in 1978 and whenIXTOC-I blew out in the Gulf of Mexico in 1979@ the scientific community was better prepared to implement and to refine its measurement tools.
API DR199-1988 history
1988API DR199-1988 Oil Spill Studies: Measurement of Environmental Effects and Recovery