The Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) is utilizing advanced satellite technology to enhance the detection of oil spills across the global ocean.
With global crude oil demand exceeding 100 million barrels per day in 2023, the risks associated with oil spills remain significant, with thousands of spills contributing roughly 700 million gallons of oil into the oceans annually. While large spills have decreased since the 1970s, smaller spills persist at high rates, often going unreported due to their remote locations.
Oil spills cause severe environmental damage through physical fouling and toxicity, affecting wildlife, sensitive habitats, human health, and local economies dependent on tourism, fishing, and aquaculture.
PML’s research focuses on developing innovative satellite monitoring systems to address these challenges. This includes creating services to observe illegal oil discharges, analyzing oil spill patterns with high spatial resolution, and designing systems for sub-daily detection of oil spills.
PML has supported spill response efforts in Malaysia and Mauritius and contributed to policy reports on coastal health in West Africa, highlighting the importance of tackling marine pollution with new technologies.
Recent advancements by PML include a high-resolution oil slick detection algorithm developed with Capella Space, and an upcoming machine learning model for accurate sub-daily oil spill detection.
