THIS ARTICLE IS republished from The Dialog underneath a Inventive Commons license.
An oil tanker carrying jet gasoline was just lately hit by a cargo ship whereas at anchor 13 miles off the east coast of England. This set off a sequence of enormous explosions and an enormous plume of black smoke, whereas a nonetheless unknown amount of jet gasoline has spilled into the ocean.
We’re marine ecologists on the College of Hull, town nearest the incident. We all know this coast and these seas very properly. Whereas it’s too early to say precisely what the results will probably be, we do know that this spill places in danger certainly one of Britain’s most essential stretches of shoreline—each for conservation and for industrial fishing.
The collision occurred within the Holderness offshore marine protected space, a area of coarse sandy seabed that helps a number of totally different species. These embrace the ocean quahog, an edible clam recognized to stay for over 500 years. The world additionally acts as a nursery for fish like lemon sole, plaice, and European sprat.
This space overlaps with these designated to guard harbor porpoises and the close by Humber Estuary and its mud flats, sand dunes, and marshes the place 1000’s of birds spend the winters alongside different essential species, equivalent to lampreys and grey seals.
The UK’s largest mainland breeding seabird colony is discovered simply north of the collision web site, alongside the Flamborough and Filey coast. Greater than 250,000 birds nest there yearly, together with spectacular numbers of guillemots and razorbills. It additionally hosts species of conservation concern like gannets, kittiwakes, and puffins.
To the south are different protected coastlines and an essential breeding web site for gray seals. The Wash, the place 4 rivers empty into the identical massive square-shaped estuary, is discovered 70 kilometers to the south, within the basic route of drift from the tanker collision. The world has massive salt marshes and is one other essential web site for over-wintering birds.