• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.121-124
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• 2008

Tarballs formed by HEBEI SPIRIT oil spill observed in the south-western sea of Korea from December 27 2007. The tarballs were removed by the response party, which Korea Coast Guard became a center of organization. The amounts of removing tarballs form the sea and the coast were 0.345 tons and 1,739 tons, respectively. The number of persons, in order to remove the tar balls from the south-western sea of Korea, counted about 97,000 persons, including 25,000 volunteers. In this paper, we introduced the response methods of tarballs entering into the south-western sea of Korea such as a landing net, meshes and so on.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.365-375
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• 2017

Approximately 250 marine pollution accidents involving oil and HNS spills are reported every year in the Republic of Korea. It is necessary that a strengthen of specialization of marine pollution response personnel on marine pollution response due to a diminution of damage when a major oil and HNS spill incident occurred, as in the case of the M/V Heibei Spirit and the M/V Maritime Maisie. In regard to this, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has planned to revise the OPRC Model Training Course to strengthen expertise for oil spill incident responses. Through a comparison of curriculum with the Korea Coast Guard Academy (KCGA) program, a revised IMO Model Course and the OSRL training institute, this study recommends the following improvements for the education program of the KCGA in response to oil spills. This study suggests several options in line with this approach to revise the oil spill response education curriculum, exercise, discussions and making materials. Accreditation of the KCGA as an institute that provides an IMO Model training course developed according to the revised IMO Model Course material is proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.61-65
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• 2012

Once oil has spilled, oil spill responders use a variety of countermeasures to reduce the adverse effects of spilled oil on the environment. Mechanical methods of containment and recovery are preferred as the first response when the use of other methods fail or are ineffective. In these cases, the application of oil dispersants shall be use only as a last resort. While effectiveness of dispersants in removing oil form the sea surface is proven, the use of dispersants is controlled in almost all countries due to the toxicity of their active agents and the dispersed oil on the marine environment. However, according to reports, after dispersant application, no significant toxicity to fish or shrimp was observed in the field-collected samples. Moreover, the results also indicate that dispersant-oil mixtures are generally no more toxic to the aquatic test species than oil alone. During the Deepwater Horizon Incident, dispersants were applied to floating oil and injected into the oil plume at depth. These decisions were carefully considered by state and federal agencies, as well as BP, to prevent as much oil as possible from reaching sensitive shoreline habitats. Net Environmental Benefit Analysis for dispersant use assumed that dispersants appear to prevent long-term contamination resulting absence of oil in the substrate and will benefit marine wildlife by decreasing the risk of significant contamination to feathers or fur. Further study to use dispersants with scientific baseline is needed for our maritime environment which consistently threaten huge oil spill incidents occurrence.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.322-331
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• 2016

Oil budget calculator identifies the removal pathways of spilled oil by both natural and response methods, and estimates the remaining oil required response activities. A oil budget calculator was newly developed as a response tool for Deepwater Horizon oil spill incident in Gulf of Mexico in 2010 to inform clean up decisions for Incident Comment System, which was also successfully utilized to media and general public promotion of oil spill response activities. This study analyzed the theoretical background of the oil budget calculator and explored its future application to Korea. The oil budge calculation of four catastrophic marine pollution incidents indicates that 3~8% of spilled oil was removed mechanically by skimmers, 1~5% by in-situ burning, 4.8~16% by chemical dispersion due to dispersant operation, and 37~56% by weathering processes such as evaporation, dissolution, and natural dispersion. The results show that in-situ burning and chemical dispersion effectively remove spilled oil more than the mechanical removal by skimming, and natural weathering processes are also very effective to remove spilled oil. To apply the oil budget calculator in Korea, its parameters need to be optimized in response to the seasonal characteristics of marine environment, the characteristics of spilled oil and response technologies. A new algorithm also needs to be developed to estimate the oil budget due to shoreline cleanup activities. An oil budget calculator optimized in Korea can play a critical role in informing decisions for oil spill response activities and communicating spill prevention and response activities with the media and general public.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2004.05b
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• pp.65-72
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• 2004

With data of historical spill from vessels occurred in korean coastal waters, the author analyze the causes of spill and evaluate response technique adopted during spill. It is found that the majority of spill caused by operational failure, bad weather, violation of navigation rule and hull defect. As a result of evaluation of response measures, it is suggested that responsible agency establishes criteria for various response options and standards of tier response time and capability according to the size of spill.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.389-397
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• 2010

The in vitro toxicities of three crude oils of the Hebei Spirit were examined on laboratory grown plankton, with a focus on the effects of a dispersant. The specific growth rate of phytoplankton and the mortalities of two zooplankton were measured in response to exposure to various concentrations of water accommodated oil, dispersant or both. The effects of the oils varied among the plankton, but were generally low within the range of the oil concentrations used, with little difference in toxicity among the three oils. Such low toxicity appeared to be associated with weathering of the crude oils. Exposure to the dispersant, however, dramatically increased the mortality of zooplankton, with complete inhibition of phytoplankton growth. No synergistic toxic effect was observed with the crude oil and dispersant combination. A better decision making process could be crafted for future application of dispersant in the event of an oil spill in Korean waters to better protect the marine plankton community from the excessive use of dispersant.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.549-554
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• 2002

A country is acutely needed to establish a marine salvage & oil spills response system in order to prepare for a disaster. When a severe marine accidents occur, our country depends on foreign technique because of the insufficiency of facilities and technique. The damage of accidents expands due to not taking proper actions in early stage. Accordingly, in case of marine accidents, this paper aims to suggest a various scheme of infrastructure, investment of facilities, technical development, improvement of ability and etc. in salvage & oil spills response system in order to quick and effective response to the marine casualties.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.64-73
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• 2024

Oil spills pose significant threats to marine ecosystems, human health, socioeconomic aspects, and coastal communities. Accurate real-time predictions of oil slick transport along coastlines are paramount for quick preparedness and response efforts. This study used an open-source OpenOil numerical model to simulate the fate and trajectories of oil slicks released during the 2007 Hebei Spirit accident along the Korean coasts. Six combinations of input parameters, derived from a five-day met-ocean dataset incorporating various hydrodynamic, meteorological, and wave models, were investigated to determine the input variables that lead to the most reasonable results. The predictive performance of each combination was evaluated quantitatively by comparing the dimensions and matching rates between the simulated and observed oil slicks extracted from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data on the ocean surface. The results show that the combination incorporating the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) for hydrodynamic parameters exhibited more substantial agreement with the observed spill areas than Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS), yielding up to 88% and 53% similarity, respectively, during a more than four-day oil transportation near Taean coasts. This study underscores the importance of integrating high-resolution met-ocean models into oil spill modeling efforts to enhance the predictive accuracy regarding oil spill dynamics and weathering processes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.3-12
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• 2003

Due to the high demand on energy resources accompanied by continuing industrialization and urbanization, the world marine transportation of crude and product oils is being gradually increased. In Korea, we are exposed to the large-scale marine oil spill accidents because a very large oil tanker of 300,000 tonnage must enter Korean Ports every day to meet the domestic demand on oils. Although we are exerting our strength to reduce the probability of marine oil pollution accidents, a unrestorable oil spill is to occur owing to human errors, severe weather conditions, or combined causes. Thus, area contingency plan equipped with appropriate management system for response and restoration for the worst case discharge scenario must be entirely prepared to protect mine environments and coastal resources. In particular, we are focusing on the Environmental Sensitivity Index Map(ESI Map) to reduce the environmental consequences of both spills and clean-up efforts by specifying protection Priorities in advance and identifying in-situ response strategies. In this paper, Korean ESI Map is introduced with brief definition of sensitivity to oiling and main features of the software developed hitherto.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2017.11a
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• pp.132-132
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• 2017