THE oil spillage from the Tasman Spirit may have stopped according to a news item, but it has not ended the disaster. The massive pollution challenges are still there to cope with, and this will need better strategic planning, organization and research to dealt with the hangover problem related to the health of the coastline residents and the natural ecosystem of our seas.
Lack of strategic planning and self-reliance has made this incident an environmental catastrophe of massive proportions with long-term impact on marine ecology, health and economy.
Although all global incidents of pollution by oil have environmental consequences, pollution of the sea and coastline is particularly problematic, both in its scale and severity of its ecological perturbation.
To restore the sustainable marine ecosystem urgently requires the development and implementation of measures to reduce the oil pollution of marine and coastal system, and to mitigate its environmental impact.
In the circumstances of oil spills, dispersion and biodegradation might complement each other. Dispersants are products that are applied to the water surface in order to break up surface oil slicks and facilitate the movement of an oil particle into the water column. Consequently, dispersed oil degrades more quickly by biodegradation. Bioremediation is a process in which oil molecules are broken down by microorganism, i.e. bacteria. fungi, protozoa and metazoan.
To understand the process of microbial degradation of oil, which has enormous economic and academic implication, one has to know the crude oil composition. Allan G. Marshall, a chemistry professor, has dubbed the word ‘Petroleomics’ because it involves the complicated mixture of hydrocarbons and petroleum products. Asphaltenes are the most aromatic and least soluble portion of crude oil, corrosive compounds, acidic compounds (which are measured by total acidic number) and aliphatic hydrocarbons are the ingredients of crude oil. The chemical composition of crude oil varies between regions and even within the same geologic formation.
A complex organic compound such as crude oil has to be converted into non-toxic substances such as Cot, 02, and H20, thereby ensuring a cleaner and healthier environment. The heavy fuel oil is a highly viscous product and does not easily break down and dissipate naturally, even when wave action is severe. Therefore, bioremediation is an effective alternative to cleaning oil spills, but only under proper conditions. The phenomenon of bioremediation is associated with the rapid microbial degradation of the easily metabolisable component of crude oil. The metabolisation of the complex web of molecules present in petroleomics is beyond the biochemical potentials of one type of bacteria, or even genetically manipulated bacteria.
Biodegradation happens naturally due to the indigenous flora of the sea, ocean, lake or pond. The growth of this indigenous microbial flora is either impaired or seriously curtailed in heavy oil slick, even when nitrogen, phosphorus and iron nutrients are supplemented.
At present we know little about the diversity, distribution and metabolic potential of crude oil degrading microbial population. One has to evaluate the ecological parameters that influence their hydrocarbon degrading activity.
Bioremediation of hydrocarbon is carried out by a diverse group of microorganisms, therefore it is necessary to understand the phylogenetic perspective and the mechanism of degradation. Analysis of microbial biodiversity also helps in isolating and identifying new and potential oil degraders.
Microbial degradation is based on the enzymatic activity of the degrader. These enzymes are either extra-cellular or intracellular. Ring fission enzymes of meta pathway, Ortho-pathway enzymes and lipases can help to disintegrate the cyclic and aliphatic noxious and hazardous hydrocarbons. These enzymes are produced by bacteria, fungi and protozoa. The combination of microorganisms would have a considerably larger degradation capacity than bacteria or fungi alone.
The research activities in bioremediation will generate a diverse and comprehensive collection of new and characterized marine oil degrading organisms. One has to determine the corrosive ability of these microbial degrader in order to avoid the vessel’s corrosion. More testing of a large number of samples and knowledge about the ecosystems in the contaminated area would be needed before the application.
Finally, preventive, legislative and remedial measures ought to be taken simultaneously for the rehabilitation of aquatic life and coastal environment.
THE oil spillage from the Tasman Spirit may have stopped according to a news item, but it has not ended the disaster. The massive pollution challenges are still there to cope with, and this will need better strategic planning, organization and research to dealt with the hangover problem related to the health of the coastline residents and the natural ecosystem of our seas.
