Marine environment has been polluted and damaged by many sources such as industrial waste, natural seepage, oil spill and offshore production etc. Among them, oil spill from oil tankers is one of most harmful sources to marine lives as its input amount is huge at a limited area for short period. In Korea, the port of Yeosu is known to be very vulnerable to oil spill with large amount of petroleum transported across the harbour. In this regards, the author analyzed and reviewed marine environment and appropriate response to marine oil spill at this area. For these purposes, oceanographic and meteorologic features as well as regional characteristics of harbor facilities, shipping routes, marine traffic and fisheries were investigated, also traffic densities were analyzed in order to check marine accident probabilities making direct observations for 72 hours visual1y and by portable radar.
