MODELLING THE IMPACT OF THE OIL SPILL POLLUTION IN ILDIR BAY, TURKEY

Abstract

On the 18 of December 2016 a Panama-flagged ship, M/V Lady Tuna, was stranded off the coast of Ildır Bay, Turkey. According to the authorities 75.38 m3 (approximately 73 tons) heavy fuel-oil was released to the sea. It is the worst environmental disaster in the region mainly affecting the coastal areas of the Ildır Bay. To better understand the effects of the oil spill, a series of models were set-up in the region. The fate of the oil spill was predicted by MEDSLIK-II oil spill model forced by currents and temperature from an Aegean Sea circulation model based on NEMO (Nucleus for European Models of the Ocean) and winds from an atmospheric Re-Analysis model (ECMWF, ERA-INT). A couple of sensitivity experiments were conducted by changing the discharge duration and amount, the sensitivity results were compared with observations. The model results are in good agreement with the available observations. The model successfully predicts the path of the oil spill in the sea surface and its final destinations along the coast. The oil makes first land contact after 36 hours of accident. Due to the dominated and consisted southward currents and weak wind speed at the time of the accident, the effects of the oil were luckily limited without any high dispersion at the coast.

Keywords

• Oil spill
• Hydrodynamic Modelling
• Aegean Sea

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