PANJIM: The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in a study has identified three oil spill hot spot zones off the west coast, which could be responsible for polluting the beaches of western and southwestern India and has recommended the ‘manual clustering’ method to study the distribution of unknown oil spills.
The pristine beaches of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka turn and Gujarat are the busiest international shipping routes on the west coast turning murky with ecological hazardous tar balls due to oil spills.
A study conducted by the researchers at NIO Goa — VT Rao, V Suneel, Raajvanshi, MJ Alex and PT Antonyalong the Eastern Arabian Sea (EAS) – have identified the potential oil spill vulnerable zones, caused by oil exploration and operation of international tanker traffic even during the COVID-19 lockdown period.
“The four consecutive years of data acquired from 2017 to 2020 (March-May) reveal three oil spill hot spot zones. The ship-based oil spills were dominant over zones-1 (off Gujarat) and 3 (off Karnataka and Kerala), and the oil field based over zone-2 (off Maharashtra),” the study revealed.
The abundance of oil spills was significantly low in zone-1, only 14.30km2 (1.2 per cent) during lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Whereas, the year-to-year oil spills over zones 2 and 3 are not significantly varied (170.29 km2 and 195.01 km2), further suggesting the influence of oil exploration and international tanker traffic are in operation during the lockdown,” it added.
“The study further recommends that manual clustering is the best method to study the distribution of unknown oil spills,” the study claimed.
