• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2014.06a
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• pp.79-80
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• 2014

Most of marine pollution have been occurred by oil spill accidents resulted from ship accidents in South Korea. This year there were two large oil spill accidents: the Yeosu Oil Spill Accident (2014.01.31.(Fri.) 09:35 LT) and the Captain Vangelis L. Oil Spill Accident (2014.02.15.(Sat.) 14:00 LT). In general, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is used in monitoring and detection of oil dumping and spilled oils by accident at sea. Therefore it is expected that KOMPSAT-5, launched successfully last year, will take part in that mission during a normal operation mode. After the two accidents, high spatial resolution optical satellite data including KOMPSAT-3 were acquired February 2 and 14, 2014. In this presentation, we analyzed optical properties of spilled oils from optical satellite imagery to estimate the spilled area and the volume at each region. Finally, a satellite application planning for ocean surveillance in South Korea will be presented.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.39 no.spc1
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• pp.151-164
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• 2006

We monitored the current macrozoobenthic community structure after the Sea Prince oil spill around Keumo-do and Sori-do, Korea. Macrobenthic animals were collected seasonally around Sori-Keumo do using a van Veen grab ($0.1m^2$) from October 1999 to April 2000. In total, 196 species were identified at 46 sites around Keumho-do. The mean density was 1,460 individuals/$m^2$, and polychaetes comprised 80% of the total density of the macrozoobenthic. Dominant species were the polychaete Tharyx sp. (51%), the echinoderm Amphioplus megapomus (5%) and the polychaete Lumbrineris longifolia (3%). We identified 176 macrobenthic species at 36 sites around Sori-do. The mean density was 1,068 individuals/$m^2$, and polychaetes was the most abundant faunal group, comprising 41%, followed by mollusks (24%) and echinoderms (20%). Dominant species in Sori-do were the mollusk Potamocorbula amurensis (23%), the chinoderm Amphioplus megapomus (14%), and the polychaete Tharyx sp. (10%). The overall community structures in the study area showed few seasonal changes, although there was a gradual change in the species composition within each benthic community. Tharyx sp. was the most abundant species in the study area. Because this species has not been found in the other coastal areas except during recent investigations, it is considered to have increased during the course of community succession after the oil spill. The macrozoobenthic around Keumo-do showed little change in species richness, whereas around Sori-do, it showed a few increases in species richness after the summer of 1998. The overall density showed the same trend as species richness. Based on improved community indices, we suggest that the macrozoobenthic communities around Sori-Keumo Islands are gradually recovering from the oil-spill damagecaused by the oil spill.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.90-95
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• 2011

On April 20, 2010, a well control event allowed hydrocarbon (oil and gas) to escape from the Macondo well onto Deepwater Horizon (DWH), resulting in an exploration and fire on the rig. While 17 people were injured, 11 others lost their lives. The fire continued for 36 hours until the rig sank. Hydrocarbons continued to flow out from the reservoir through the well bore and blowout preventer (BOP) for 87 days, causing an unprecedented oil spill. Beyond Petroleum (BP) and the US federal government tried various methods to prevent the oil spill and to capture the spilled oil. The corresponding responses were very challenging due to the scale, intensity, and duration of the incident that occurred under extreme conditions in terms of pressure, temperature, and amount of flow. On July 15, a capping stack, which is another BOP on top of the existing BOP, was successfully installed, and the oil spill was stopped. After several tests and subsea responses, the well was permanently sealed by a relief well and a bottom kill on September 19. This paper analyzes the subsea responses and engineering efforts to capture the oil, stop the leaking, and kill the subsea well. During the investigation and analysis of subsea responses, information was collected and data bases were established for future accident prevention and the development of subsea engineering.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.56-65
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• 1998

An oil spill model, Green Sea Ranger(GSR) based on trajectory and fate modeling of spilt oil behavior is introduced. The various physical models on weathering processes are reviewed and those adopted by GSR are described. A database for currents, which is necessary for the real-time simulation of oil spill, is generated on the south sea of Korea. The real-time prediction of tidal currents in the South Sea of Korea is carried out. Four major constituents (M₂, S₂, K₁, O₁ tide) are employed in the prediction, and those angular speeds and phases are determined from the astronomical arguments. The harmonic constants of the constituents are computed by solving shallow-water tide equations. The GSR has user-freiendly GUI and flexible framework which makes it easy to expand the database for sea environments in Korean coastal waters. The GSR is validated by the simulation of O-Sung oil spill caused by a grounded oil tanker in coastal sea near Maemol-do. The simulated trajectory is compared with observed one and it is shown that the GSR gives reasonable estimation on spilt oil bahavior.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.705-714
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• 2010

The residual oil concentrations in seawater and sediments were investigated along the Taean coast of Korea, following the Hebei Spirit oil spill, which occurred on 7 December 2007. The oil concentration in seawater ranged from 0.059 to $0.866\;{\mu}g/L$ for the tidal flat culture grounds and from 0.016 to $0.943\;{\mu}g/L$ in the fish cage areas in 2008. These were dominated by the seawater temperature relationship. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediments were also analyzed and the concentrations ranged from 3.4 to 509.7 ng/g dry weight. The average PAH level was higher in seawater from the Sinduri area than the Padori area, while the average PAH level in sediments was higher in Padori. The diagnostic ratio of PAHs was investigated to determine the origins of the PAHs. The PAHs in the Seongam area, which was not affected by the oil spill, are of pyrolytic origin, while the PAHs in Padori and Sinduri were of petrogenic origin. The residual oils in the areas affected by the oil spill tended to decrease over time, except in summer. The oils in pore water remained 6- to 16-fold higher, as compared to the seawater overlying the tidal flat, implying that residual oils will continue to influence the affected region for the foreseeable future.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.679-690
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• 1997

Oil spill over the sea and the river become a serious problem in these days. Two different approaches are used to clean up the spilled oil by means of chemical dispersion and mechanical devices. If it is possible, removing spilled oil using mechanical devices are highly desirable in order not to worry about the secondary contamination from chemical treatment. One of the major unsolved problems using mechanical devices has been the recovery of highly viscous oil spill. So, the systematic experimental data for treating very viscous oil are still wanting. In the present study a series of experiments were carried out to study the effect of the rotational direction of the belt skimmer on the rate of oil recovery using Bunker C oil. Three different situations, namely, upward, downward and up-and-downward pickup rate have been investigated for variable belt speed. The results showed that the rate of oil recovery for downward pickup was much higher than that for upward pickup. The major mechanism to recover the oil using a belt skimmer has been confirmed that oil sticks to the belt surface while moving to the water rather than moving upward. For the removal of spilled oil the optimal belt speed under the present experimental conditions was found to be about 200 ~ 270 mm/s just before the starvation started. The present experimental results would provide the basis for understanding the performance characteristics and physics of various types of skimmers.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.77-86
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• 2011

The unwanted artificial oil-spill has severely contaminated the coastal environment in the world. Level of contamination has so far been monitered by various indicator species including mussel, oysters, flounder, and cockle. In this study, we decided to use the oyster as a model organism to observe the morphological changes being exposed to the artificial oil-spill in the coastal areas in Taean, Korea. The oysters were collected from four local sites (Sindu-ri, Uiwang-ri, Jonghyeon-dong, Ansan and Uihang-ri) exposed to various levels of pollution after an oil spill in Taean. Microscopic analysis of the hepatopancreatic microstructure in the digestive gland from the collected oysters show that the swelling, whorl, and destruction phenomenon of the nuclear membrane, a well-known microstructure induced by heavy metal exposure, was observed. Nuclear body (Nb), another typical characteristic of contamination or infection were also observed in some samples. Necrosis was observed in tissue samples collected from the area with a high degree of oil pollution. In addition, parasite-like particles (virus, perkinsus) were observed in most samples. Taken together, these results suggest that oil contamination in the oyster habitats influences the cytopathological changes in Crassostrea gigas.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.105-121
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• 2001

After the Sea Prince oil spill accident in 1995, the korean government has taken a measure to establish an emergency response system and equip clean-up capacity against large spill, major contents of which are as follows: First, Korea Marine Pollution Response Corporation has been established as a non-government organization for recovery of spilled oil in order to improve private response capabilities. Second, clean-up equipments, such as large clean-up vessels and oil fences for the open sea operation has been expanded. Third, a national contingency plan on the large spill accidents has been established compliance with the provisions of Article 6 of the OPRC 1990. However, there exist some problems in the national response system, such as clearly roles definition between government and private agencies; propel amendment of the Marine Pollution Prevention Act to incorporate major contents of the OPRC 1990; and training and exercises of clean-up personnel. With the above problems in mind, this paper reviews the current issues on the national oil pollution response system and recommends policy-making to tackle to those problems.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 2017

The detection of oil spills using radar image has been studied extensively. However, most of the proposed techniques have been focused on improving detection accuracy through the advancement of algorithms. In this study, research has been conducted to improve the accuracy of oil spill detection by improving the quality of radar images, which are used as input data to detect oil spills. Thresholding algorithms were used to measure the image improvement both before and after processing. The overall accuracy increased by approximately 16%, the producer accuracy increased by 40%, and the user accuracy increased by 1.5%. The kappa coefficient also increased significantly, from 0.48 to 0.92.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.337-348
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• 2012

This study investigates the effects of tide, wind and oceanic currents on oil spill dispersions through a series of numerical floats tracking experiments on the Sea Prince oil spill incident occurred in 1995 using a 3-dimensional high resolution ocean circulation model. For that, a total of four experimental cases (experiment with tide, wind and oceanic currents, experiment with tide and oceanic currents, experiment with wind and oceanic currents, and experiment with tide and wind) were compared. It could be seen that results from experiment involving all external forces showed better agreement with the observed pattern of oil slick movement than other cases. The oceanic currents acted to drive floats to move to the western channel of the Korea straits and wind accelerated the eastward movement of floats in the early stage of the incident. Tidal currents played significant role in the horizontal dispersion of floats.