WHAT IS KNOWN

Amid the confusion generated by disparate scientific reports, overblown statements by conservationists, industrial propagandists, and the news media, and the intense emotionalism of the oil pollution issue, it remains necessary to summarize our knowledge of the ecological effects of oil spills and place them in perspective with other energy-environment problems. A good start is to summarize the detrimental effects we know spilled oil can have.

Oil can kill marine life directly through:

• Coating and asphyxiation (example: barnacles and other intertidal life);

• Poisoning through direct contact or ingestion (examples: ingestion of oil by preening birds, contact poisoning of vascular plants);

• Exposure to water-soluble toxic petroleum components (example: Subtidal fishes and invertebrates at Midway Island, the Tampico Maru spill, and West Falmouth);

• Destruction of more sensitive juvenile forms (example: fish eggs and larvae); and

• Disruption of body insulation of warm blooded animals (example: diving birds).

Oil may also have harmful indirect effects, including:

• Destruction of food sources;

• Synergistic effects that reduce resistance to other stresses;

• Incorporation of carcinogenic and potentially mutagenic chemicals;

• Reduction of reproductive success; and

• Disruption of chemical clues essential to survival, reproduction, or feeding.