Author(s): Juha-Pekka Hirvi
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Abstract: In early 1987 the Soviet tanker MT Antonio Gramsci ran aground in the Gulf of Finland and about 570 metric tons of crude oil were spilled into the ice-covered sea. The spill situation was acute for several months and the oil spread over an estimated sea area of 2500 km2. Under the difficult ice conditions only about 100 tons of oil could be collected from sea. The fate of oil was controlled mainly by natural processes (evaporation). About 270 tons remained in sea. The oil spill involved many potential risk factors to produce severe damage on the marine environment. Fortunately, the time factor, physical conditions and natural processes were able to decrease the reactivity of the oil and pollution damage was limited to individual cases of oil-contaminated birds and fish traps. However, the oil did affect fish and sea-floor fauna. Recovery of these parts of the marine ecosystem is still continuing in the Gulf of Finland.
Year: 1990