The little penguin is a species of penguin from New Zealand. They are commonly known as little blue penguins or blue penguins owing to their slate-blue plumage and are also known by their Māori name kororā, and their Boonwurrung name Djinan Yawa-dji Goyeep.
Table Bay is a natural bay on the Atlantic Ocean overlooked by Cape Town and is at the northern end of the Cape Peninsula, which stretches south to the Cape of Good Hope. It was named because it is dominated by the flat-topped Table Mountain.
An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters, but spills may also occur on land. Oil spills may be due to releases of crude oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, as well as spills of refined petroleum products and their by-products, heavier fuels used by large ships such as bunker fuel, or the spill of any oily refuse or waste oil.
The African penguin, also known as Cape penguin or South African penguin, is a species of penguin confined to southern African waters. Like all extant penguins, it is flightless, with a streamlined body and wings stiffened and flattened into flippers for a marine habitat. Adults weigh an average of 2.2–3.5 kg (4.9–7.7 lb) and are 60–70 cm (24–28 in) tall. The species has distinctive pink patches of skin above the eyes and a black facial mask. The body's upper parts are black and sharply delineated from the white underparts, which are spotted and marked with a black band.
The Magellanic penguin is a South American penguin, breeding in coastal Patagonia, including Argentina, Chile, and the Falkland Islands, with some migrating to Brazil and Uruguay, where they are occasionally seen as far north as Espirito Santo. Vagrants have been found in El Salvador, the Avian Island in Antarctica, Australia, and New Zealand. It is the most numerous of the Spheniscus banded penguins. Its nearest relatives are the African penguin, the Humboldt penguin, and the Galápagos penguins. The Magellanic penguin was named after Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who spotted the birds in 1520. The species is listed as being of Least Concern by the IUCN.
The Bay of Campeche, or Campeche Sound, is a bight in the southern area of the Gulf of Mexico, forming the north side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. It is surrounded on three sides by the Mexican states of Campeche, Tabasco and Veracruz. The area of the bay is 6,000 square miles (16,000 km2) and maximum depth of the bay is approximately 180 feet (55 m). It was named by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba and Antón de Alaminos during their expedition in 1517.
Berkeley Sound is an inlet, or fjord in the north east of East Falkland in the Falkland Islands. The inlet was the site of the first attempts at colonisation of the islands, at Port Louis, by the French.
Ennore, also spelt Eṇṇūr, is a neighbourhood in Chennai, India. Ennore is situated on a peninsula and is bounded by the Korttalaiyar River, Ennore Creek and the Bay of Bengal. The creek separates south Ennore from the north Ennore which covers major portions of North Chennai Thermal Power Station and Ennore Port. The neighbourhood is served by Ennore railway station. Over the years Ennore has become the hub of a range of industrial projects, mainly thermal power stations, fertilizer factories, industrial ports and coal yards.
MV Iron Baron was a 37,557 dwt bulk carrier built in 1985. It was chartered by BHP Shipping in 1990.
The 2009 Lüderitz oil spill began in April 2009 off the coast of Lüderitz, Namibia. The oil spill directly affected 171 African penguins, with many more possibly threatened. The oil spill is in the area where the fishing trawler Meob Bay sank in June 2002, killing 19 seamen. The boat sank after a rope got caught in the propeller, which then detached causing water to flood into the engine room. However, an inspection of the site where the vessel had sunk showed that the wreck was not the source of the oil; the source of the spill could not be found but is thought to be bunker oil that was released by a large vessel passing through Namibian waters. In terms of wildlife affected, it was the largest spill in Namibian history according to local residents of Lüderitz.
The Cosco Busan oil spill occurred at 08:30 UTC-8 on 7 November 2007 between San Francisco and Oakland, California, in which 53,569 US gal (202,780 L) of IFO-380 heavy fuel oil, sometimes referred to as "bunker fuel", spilled into San Francisco Bay after the container ship Cosco Busan, operated by Fleet Management Limited struck Delta Tower of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in thick fog.
The 1971 San Francisco Bay oil spill occurred when two Standard Oil Company of California tankers, the Arizona Standard and the Oregon Standard, collided on January 18, 1971, in the San Francisco Bay. The resulting 800,000 gallon spill, the largest in Bay Area history, threatened sensitive natural habitats both inside and outside the bay, including the Bolinas Lagoon, and contributed to the growth of activism against pollution, after thousands of bay area residents volunteered to clean up beaches and rescue oil soaked birds. A number of environmental organizations had their origins in the spill cleanup. Standard Oil spent more than $1 million in the clean-up.
The Guanabara Bay oil spill, one of three major spills in the bay, occurred in January 2000 in Brazil when a leaking pipeline released 1,300,000 litres (340,000 US gal) of oil into Guanabara Bay. It leaked from the oil refinery at Duque de Caxias (REDUC) operated by Petrobras. Petrobas the company at the center of the oil spill immediately moved into gear and hired a cleanup crew to assess the damages and start the process to cleaning up the affected areas. This catastrophic accident had a damaging effect on marine life in the ocean, fishes, as well as, other existing areas surrounding the bay area. Many fishes were washing up on the shore dead or covered in oil. The fishing industry took a nose dive and the fishermen's livelihood was gravely affected. As a matter of fact, the fishing industry was brought to a halt giving rise to economic downfall. There was astronomical cost to be incurred with the clean-up process and the stakeholders were in a state of growing panic. Large areas of mangrove forests were killed and had not grown back ten years later. The tucuxi dolphin species inhabit the bay but were able to avoid the primary effects of the oil spill.
The 1997 Guanabara Bay oil spill was one of three major oil spills in Guanabara Bay in Brazil. It leaked from the oil refinery at Duque de Caxias (REDUC) operated by Petrobras.
St. Croix Island is the largest of three islands in Algoa Bay, South Africa located within 8 kilometres of the Port of Nqgura. The islands are of critical importance to sea bird populations, including the endangered African penguin.
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been described as the worst environmental disaster in the United States, releasing about 4.9 million barrels of crude oil making it the largest marine oil spill. Both the spill and the cleanup efforts had effects on the environment.
The MV Treasure oil spill occurred on 23 June 2000, when the ship sank six miles off the coast of South Africa while transporting iron ore from China to Brazil. The ship was carrying an estimated 1,300 tons of fuel oil, some of which spilled into the ocean, threatening the African penguin populations living on nearby islands. Cleanup efforts began promptly after the incident with particular attention being paid to salvaging the penguin communities.
The MT Castillo de Bellver oil spill began on 6 August 1983, when the Spanish tanker caught on fire off Saldanha Bay, approximately 70 miles northwest of Cape Town, South Africa. It was carrying 250,000 tonnes of light crude oil, and was traveling through an environmentally sensitive area known for its seabird rookeries and important commercial fishing grounds. The burning vessel was abandoned and broke apart after drifting offshore. Three crew were lost. The stern capsized and sunk and the bow was sunk using explosives. A total of 145,000-170,000 tonnes of oil entered the sea. Onshore impacts were considered negligible as the slick traveled seaward. The only visible impact was the oiling of 1,500 gannets that were on a nearby island.
