Investigations in Bantry Bay following the Betelgeuse oil tanker disaster

About 30,000 tons of Arabian light crude oil plus some bunker oil was lost from the tanker Betelgeuse in Bantry Bay following an explosion and fire in January 1971. Most of the oil was burnt, and in the intense heat was polymerised into an asphalt-like material which coated the shoreline or sank, disrupting fishing activity. Oil leaked intermittently from the wreck for over a year during the salvage operation, and some of this was treated very effectively by spraying concentrated dispersant from an aircraft. Evidence of residual circulation suggested that the northern side of the inner Bay would have been most threatened by the dispersed oil. Several species of fish spawned in the Bay in the months following the disaster and larvae and post-larvae were not seriously affected. Fishing activity was disrupted but, apart from periwinkles Littorina littorea (L.), no commercial stocks were observed to suffer mortality as a result of the spillage. There was some very minor contamination of escallops Pecten maximus (L.) but this did not prevent escallop spatfalls in 1979 or 1980.

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10793/157

Citation

Grainger, R. J. R., Duggan, C., Minchin, D. & O'Sullivan, D., "Investigations in Bantry Bay following the Betelgeuse oil tanker disaster", Irish Fisheries Investigations Series B, Department of Fisheries and Forestry 1984