Case Study: Crude oil (bunker C) spill in Sea of Japan
Original Date of Case Study:
Submitted By:
Product: BioZorb
Site Location: Mikuni, Japan
Contaminant: Heavy Crude oil
Site Description: In January, 1997, the Russian tanker Nakhodka broke apart and sank in the Sea of Japan.
The tanker was carrying 19,000 tons of heavy fuel oil. The bow half floated for about 5 days. During this period about of 5,000 tons of heavy oil spilled into the sea. The bow then ran aground on the shelf near the Fukui coast near the town of Mikuni. The stern section contained about 11,000 tons of oil, and fell 2,500 meters to the sea floor. Sub robot video pictures show the stern to be continually leaking.
Impact of the Oil: The immediate impact was that approximately 5,000 tons of released oil was carried by wave action carried to the coast of Japan. By the middle of February the oil had impacted the coast of 10 Japanese Prefectures from Shimane to Akita, a distance of approx. 1,200 linear km. If all the inlets, bays, and promontories are included, the spill had a potential coastal impact of 12,000 km.
Description of area: The shoreline is mountainous and rocky with an occasional small bay with coarse sand and cobble beach. The diurnal tides were approx. 1.6 meters. The area of the site is north of Osaka along the Japanese sea coast in Khyogo, the area of Kasumi, at a small village, Shibayama. The bay was protected by jetties. In front of the town, concrete ramps and piers housed the fishing boats. The shoreline was part coarse sand and rocks.
The linear area of the bay edge was approximately 3/4 km.
Description of oil after reaching shoreline: After the initial accident, a storm carried much of the beached oil high above the high tide line. A second impact was observed along the occasional sandy beach where the shifting sands (due to wave and tidal action) covered the oil previously deposited on the beach. This covered oil would most likely come to the surface during later sand movement.