THE RECOVERY OF SPILLED HEAVY OIL WITH FISH NETTING

ABSTRACT Most oil spill containment and recovery equipment is not suitable for use with heavy viscous crude oils. For these oils, nets have been suggested as a containment device, and some laboratory and open sea studies of their suitability have been conducted. We have used a trolley system in a large outdoor pool to measure net loading and to observe the behavior of nets in containing heavy neutrally buoyant oil (viscosity of 3 × 105 cSt at 10° C). For moderate towing speeds of about 0.3 meters per second, inexpensive ¼ inch mesh fish netting was found to be a suitable containment device.