Wrecks and the aftermath
These pages will discuss the environment impacts that groundings have on the immediate location as well as on systems and procedures for dealing with such incidents.
Most people associate oil as the primary pollution problem associated with a grounding or wreck of a vessel. Whilst this might be true in a large number of cases there are secondary pollution problems associated with the groundings such as plastics, litter, medical supplies as well as all the other debris created when a vessel breaks up.
Far more concerning are the large number of unattributable spills and discharges or containers of oil or chemicals which affect the coastline, occurring more frequently every year.
Either we are getting much better at spotting these or they are on the increase - a worrying trend.
Shetland has had its fair share of "incidents" such as
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As well as the above, numerous washings of unattributable oil onto the beaches and coastline have occurred