Oil spills from tankers, pipelines and oil exploration are immensely destructive, and rightly condemned, but humans are far worse. While tanker and pipeline spills average 188,000 tonnes a year, human-caused events like run-off from land spills, petrol and oil dumping in parking lots, deliberate emissions from recreational boats and military and commercial aircraft dump a yearly average of 480,000 tonnes into our seas.

Studies continue to show that the effects of oil spills, even of small amounts, are more long lasting and damaging than thought.