Scientists want to release a glowing chemical into the North Sea to work out what would happen in the event of a major oil spill.
Experts from Marine Scotland Science say an artificial oil spill involving the chemical “tracer” would improve the response to a real emergency.
It is thought such an experiment would involve releasing at least several gallons of a glowing dye beneath the waves, which would then be observed by a team on a boat to calculate where oil would drift.
The Scottish Government insists any release of chemicals would be tightly monitored.
The results of a workshop on accidental oil spills west of Shetland have been published online by the Scottish Government.
More than 50 scientists and oil industry experts discussed “aspects of the science needed to respond in an effective way to a deepwater oil spill west of Shetland.”
The report said: “It would be useful to carry out an artificial spill to track and predict, to challenge the existing models and to lead to improvements.
“Such an experiment would also further develop our ability to monitor spilled deepwater oil in a real situation.”
Recommended for you
