Oil Spill

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Bilge Dumping at Sea: Why should I care?

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Scientific research on the impact of oil pollution on marine life and coastal communities, combined with evidence of frequent bilge dumping, suggests oily bilge could be harming marine ecosystems and coastal economies.

Last year SkyTruth reported 163 accounts of likely bilge dumping across the world, from Brazil, to the Mediterranean, to Southeast Asia and elsewhere. As we described in our recent post,  bilge dumping is the illegal release of untreated oily wastewater from a vessel’s lower hull. This wastewater, or bilge, appears as an oil slick in the ocean, which eventually disperses and can migrate to vulnerable coastlines. 

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A Systematic Search for Bilge Dumping at Sea: 2019 in Review

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What can a year’s worth of bilge dumping data tell us?

This is the first entry in a multi-part series revealing the significance of bilge dumping globally. SkyTruth has observed bilge dumping incidents around the globe many times since 2007. But in 2019, we started seeking out these incidents more systematically. In total, we found 163 slicks around the globe.

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SkyTruth 2020: What to Expect in the New Year

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Oil pollution at sea, mountaintop mining, Conservation Vision and more on SkyTruth’s agenda.

SkyTruth followers know that we generated a lot of momentum in 2019, laying the groundwork for major impact in 2020. Here’s a quick list of some of our most important projects underway for the new year: stopping oil pollution at sea, protecting wildlife, identifying poorly reclaimed mine sites, characterizing harmful algal blooms from space, and revealing fossil fuel drilling on public lands.

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SkyTruth Spotlight

Johnna Armstrong “Slid Sideways into Tech”

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A would-be diplomat discovered she could help others with technology.

Johnna Armstrong had, what she calls, a sheltered upbringing in a rural community in Upstate New York. The oldest of six children, she often had to care for her younger siblings. So when it came time for college she was anxious to find out “who I was separate from my family,” as she puts it. She had no idea that ultimately she would end up in the computer field. Now, she serves as SkyTruth’s systems administrator, keeping our systems humming, the website running, and managing the SkyTruth Alerts system.

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Unusual Behavior by Tankers Near Brazil Oil Spill

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The source of the massive oil spill affecting Brazil remains unclear, but unusual tanker activity raises questions.

For months now, oil has been washing up on the beaches of northeast Brazil. Government officials, scientists and non-governmental organizations around the world — including SkyTruth — have been trying to identify the source of the pollution; so far, unsuccessfully. SkyTruth analyst Bjorn Bergman recently decided to take a look at AIS ship-tracking data in the region and found some unusual behavior from oil tankers passing through the area.

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