Environmental Protection: Marine

Reducing the risk from oil and chemical spills; dispersants

Serious oil spills damage birds and other wildlife. Spraying of dispersants can protect wildlife by removing oil from the surface but care needs to be taken that this does not in turn cause damage by contaminating fish or smothering life on the seabed. Their use in shallow waters is approved only after thorough consideration of each case.

Defra ensures that oil dispersants are tested for safety and effectiveness. A list of UK approved dispersants and other treatment products is available in Adobe Acrobat .PDF format (30 KB) - this document is regularly updated.

In 2002, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency produced a publication entitled Contingency Planning for Marine Pollution Preparedness and Response - Guidelines for Ports which is available on their website at www.mcga.gov.uk/publications/oil/oprcdoc.pdf. Defra contributed substantially to this document by providing material on the use of oil dispersants and the protection of fisheries.

Dispersants are not appropriate to treat every type of oil. Defra has therefore produced advice for the Offshore Oil & Gas Industry on the use of dispersants in response to spills of diesel and similar refined oils. This is available in Adobe Acrobat .PDF format (15kb).

In addition to advice on dispersants and their use, Defra advises the Counter Pollution Branch of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency on the risks to marine life when hazardous cargoes are lost at sea.

Further information is available on our Help page about downloading or reading Adobe Acrobat documents.