Torrey Canyon Oil Spill Uniliver 1967

Almost 20 years before the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, was the Torrey Canyon oil spill off the coast of England. The Torrey Canyon incident was the first oil spill to draw attention to the dangers of dispersants. Extremely large quantities of dispersants were used during the response, clearly for aesthetic and not ecological purposes. Contamination by oil without dispersants resulted in less adverse biological effect than where dispersants were used. On the morning of March 18, 1967, the Torrey Canyon, chartered by British Petroleum, ran aground on off Lands End in England. The entire cargo, approximately 860,000 barrels, was released into the sea or burned during the next twelve days. Ships of the Royal Navy carrying detergents were en route to the scene within four hours of the grounding. A detergent, primarily BP1002, made by British Petroleum, was sprayed on much of the floating oil to emulsify and disperse it. Over 10,000 tons of detergents, primarily BP1002, which contained 12 percen