Shoreline bioremediation after the 1991 Gulf War oil spill

Abstract

In June 1991, after the Gulf War oil spill of February/March 1991, a long-term study was initiated to observe the shoreline remediation. This chapter summarizes the development of 22 locations within the Jubail Marine Wildlife Sanctuary (Saudi Arabia) until 2007. At that time only six stations displayed complete remediation. At two stations the condition was as desperate as in 1991, the other ones had reached an intermediate state of a remediation. Some stations run for a limited time through a cyanobacteria-dominated intermediate state, and in one case a return from a cyanobacteria-to a crab-dominated one started only between 2001 and 2007. Regarding the whole study area, even after fifteen years the remediation was by no means complete. © 2008 Birkhäuser Verlag AG.