Home / Reports / Sea Slick: The true scale and impact of chronic oil pollution in UK seas

Report | September, 2024

Sea Slick: The true scale and impact of chronic oil pollution in UK seas

 

The extent of frequent, smaller-scale ‘chronic oiling’ in the North Sea has been grossly underestimated due to a combination of the oil industry’s failure to provide data and an opaque and misleading reporting system. When these are accounted for, estimates of the volume of oil
spilling into UK seas increase by at least 43%, and the true amount is almost certainly much more. Enforcement is also weak at best, with only two recorded convictions or fines in the last five years, one of which amounted to just £7,000, equivalent to 0.006% of the company’s profit for the year, or 1.5 hours of the CEO’s time. All this puts unique and vulnerable ocean wildlife and marine protected areas at serious risk.

Oil corporations have polluted our air and water for decades, destroying and degrading marine ecosystems and driving our seas to breaking point. We must act to put the recovery of the ocean at the heart of government policy and create a future free of oil pollution. To protect the UK’s marine life and meet climate goals, we are calling the new government to enact and make permanent their commitment to end new oil and gas licences, and for the government to regulate and fine oil companies properly for chronically polluting British seas.

Download the report to read our full list of recommendations.