TIP 3 — USE OF BOOMS IN OIL POLLUTION RESPONSE

Booms are widely used during the oil spills at sea to surround and then contain the spilled oil and also to deflect the passage of the oil towards the recovery points and away from sensitive areas. It should be remembered that the success of the operations with the use of the booms is normally limited by the spread of the oil floating on the water surface and effects of winds, waves, currents and tides.

In order to reduce such problems, the booms shall be properly designed and planned very well, and response shall be duly coordinated. However, in some cases it may be inappropriate to use booms. The authors of the present document released by ITOPF are intending to provide description of the fundamental principles of the boom design and tell readers about two main operation modes. The first mode is towing by ships at sea while the second mode is mooring in shallow/inshore waters.

The booms are used as flowing barriers that are designed to perform containment and concentration of the spilled oil, its deflection and diverting it away from the harbor entrances, water intakes, nature reserves and other areas considered biologically sensitive or important from economical perspective. They can be of different sizes, designed in different ways and made of different materials...