Future oil production in Arctic regions will present the opportunity for oil pollution as a result of human error and equipment failures. In order to attain an insight into what may be expected, an assessment of the magnitude of future oil spillage is presented. In addition, factors affecting the fate and behavior of spilled oil are discussed based on the results of the U.S. Coast Guard's Arctic Oil Spill Test Program.
Eaton et al. (1) stated that "increased, rather than decreased, oxygen affinity is an effective mode of short-term adaptation to markedly reduced environmental oxygen pressures" and pointed out the need to reevaluate the idea that "decreased hemoglobin-oxygen affinity is of adaptive value to humans at high altitudes."We fully agree with these authors and wish to call attention to the fact that human natives of high altitudes are unique in having a right shift of the oxygen dissociation curve in their hypoxic environment. Thus, camelids (alpaca, vicunia, llama), rodents (chinchilla, vizcacha), ruminants (yak), and birds (ostrich, huallata) that are native to high altitudes have a higher oxygen affinity than their relatives at sea level (camel, rabbit, ox, and a variety of sea level birds) (2, 3).We have recently shown that the Peruvian high-altitude native increases his hematocrit as a function of both age and altitude (4) and, in collaboration with Sime (5), we have found that this is due to a decrease in ventilatory rate with age. Since the changes observed in the ventilatory function and the hemoglobin-oxygen affinity at high altitude do not seem to be of longterm adaptive value, the physiology of human adaptation to very high altitudes needs to be reevaluated.
The development and testing of a now operational oil spill containment-recovery system is discussed.
Unique designs incorporated into the system include: (1) an oil spill containment harrier utilizing a “Bottom Tension” concept to increase containment effectiveness and survival strength; and (2) a wave compensating, weir type skimmer system utilizing a droplet formation process to recover high viscosity emulsions.
A testing program has described the operational characteristics of the system. The results of this program are presented. A typical operational “package” using the basic boom and skimmer components is discussed.
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