Oil spill monitoring in the southeastern Baltic sea

Abstract

Increased shipping activities in the Baltic Sea, including oil transport and oil handled in harbors and new oil terminals, have a number of negative impacts on the marine environment, ecosystems and coastal zone. In June 2003 LUKOIL-Kaliningradmorneft initiated a pilot project, aimed to the complex monitoring of the southeastern Baltic Sea, in connection with the beginning of oil production at the continental shelf of Russia in March 2004. A monitoring was performed on the base of satellite remote sensing of oil spills, SST, sea level, chlorophyll concentration, mesoscale dynamics, wind and waves. A number of oil spills has been detected.