Torrey Canyon 50 year anniversary talk: Prof Steve Hawkings

Marking the 50 year anniversary of the Torry Canyon oil spill a special talk was held at the MBA. Prof Steve Hawkings, who has recently been working on deciphering the ecological aftermath of the incident, gave a really interesting presentation.

Luckily, the are long term dataset dating back before the spill which allows baseline data to be established, also due to the nature of the spill some of the coastline wasn't effected, this meant control sites could be used. This allows Steve and his team multiple tools to assess the ecological damage.

He presented photo's of coast that had been impacted by the oil and dispersants used. Interesting the dispersant causes more harm then the oil- however being the first major oil spill ever much of this was unknown at the time. Many cove and beaches around the SW of England received a pulse disturbance meaning a strong impact was presented but it wasn't prolonged. Sites where no dispersant was used recovered it 3-5 years however in sites which were sprayed heavily with dispersants recovery took over 15 years.

Dispersant being sprayed to remove the oil. 

At the time the main interest was the clean

 the beach for humans on hoilday.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/18/torrey-canyon-disaster-uk-worst-ever-oil-spill-50tha-anniversary