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Fattorini

intentionally released into the Persian Gulf, igniting diversity of organisms, such as ostracods. Mangrove
hundreds of oil wells in Kuwait. The spill primarily forests along the Saudi coast were also damaged, with
involved crude oil, with initial estimates ranging from nearly half affected and one-third killed, though some
approximately 270,000 to 1.5 million tons. The oil slick natural regeneration occurred. It has been estimated
reached a maximum size of over 10,000 km and was up that the full recovery from the Gulf War oil pollution
2
to 13 cm thick in some areas. The disaster affected around will take several decades, with some areas, such as salt
600–700 km of the Saudi Arabian coastline, including marshes, showing slower recovery. Although some
85
sandy beaches, gravel shores, wetlands, lagoons, and areas, such as rocky beaches and mangroves, have
muddy tidal flats. Kuwait, Iran, Bahrain, and Qatar fully recovered within a few years, the more sensitive
also experienced some oil contamination. The general ecosystems, due to their anaerobic nature and lack of
extent of the disaster was significant, halting fishing physical action, will require a longer time, which is still
and prawn industries in the Gulf due to contamination. difficult to quantify. 85,86
Oil penetrated sediments to 10–50 cm depths, slowing The events here described can be considered the most
natural degradation. Widespread mortality among significant in terms of volumes of hydrocarbon mixtures
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various marine species was registered. Nearly 30,000 released into the marine environment and impact on
seabirds, primarily grebes and cormorants, died from living organisms. Figure 1 shows the geographical
being coated in oil. The intertidal zones were severely distribution and the origin of the spills, as well as those
impacted, causing the death of 50–90% of fauna, such generated after nautical accidents, offshore platform
as crabs, amphipods, and mollusks. Benthic ecosystems accidents, or other events. Alongside these acute events
were heavily oiled, leading to decreased abundance and of great magnitude and relevance, numerous smaller

Figure 1. Main catastrophic oil and fuel accidentally spilled in the marine environment throughout the world
in the last 50 years. Popup information includes the name of the accidental spill event, the year, the estimated
quantity of discharged hydrocarbons, and the type of hydrocarbon mixtures. Dark blue pop-ups indicate
nautical accidents, mainly caused by very large oil tankers, red ones indicate accidents generated at oil
offshore platform installations, and the yellow pop-up is related to a deliberate crude oil spill during the Gulf
War (1991), as well as other causes. M indicates million. Image created by Daniele Fattorini with Microsoft
Office 365 enterprise, PowerPoint v.2504.

Volume 22 Issue 6 (2025) 28 doi: 10.36922/AJWEP025290224