No more in the dark

each year, 350 'quiet' oil spills occur along the coast of Denmark. In order to meet timetables and save expenses, sailors often clean the storage tanks of their ships using facilities ashore and flush out their contents into the sea in the dark of the night. Next morning, one finds the wrong-doer at large, leaving behind a huge mess and a heavier bill for a costly clean-up operation. Of course, a large population of birds and marine animals also meet their end. But environmental authorities in Europe have found a way to catch up with the culprits. A us $3.6 million technique to identify different types of oil -- similar to fingerprinting and dna tests -- has been developed. "There are actually two methods involved in the process," says Per Wrang, a chemist with the National Environmental Research Institute in Denmark. "First is the Eurocrude method that identifies the major characteristics of the oil, enabling us to identify the country or the region from which it originates with 90 per cent accuracy. Then we have the Nordtest method which can identify the type of oil with an accuracy that can tell the difference from one oil-well or oil-producing platform to another. While the first method can be used to identify the suspects, the second helps us find the evidence to bring the suspect to trial." The characteristics of different oil-types have been registered in a database. The aim is to produce a worldwide database of oil fingerprints that could be exchanged on the Internet in future. During the summer of 1995, the method was actually tried and a Norway-registered ship that had discharged oil near the island of Funen, was caught polluting Danish waters. The Danish government got a list of the oil-tankers that were in the vicinity at the time of the discharge. Examining data on wind and current, the information suggested that the Norwegian ship White Star was the culprit. Meanwhile, Swedish authorities boarded the ship at the port of Stengsund in Sweden and took a sample of oil residues in the tanks. When the oil-type matched, the captain admitted to the crime. "However, the method presents some legal problems. When, for example, the ship is outside Denmark's 200-mile exclusive economic zone we do not have the right to take samples from it," says Wrang. "But such legal hassles could be overcome as and when international cooperation intensifies through the un convention oprc (Oil Protection Response and Co-operation)," he adds.

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