Causes of oil pollution are many. They can range from minor spills from recreational boats to serious oil spills from commercial vessels. Whatever the cause, it leads to serious marine pollution.

Large oil spills come to notice very quickly. Marine pollution authorities therefore respond quickly to clean them up. But minor oil spills that result from pumping oily bilge water overboard or from careless refueling go unnoticed even though they are a major cause of marine pollution, which harms the marine environment.

Several steps have been taken to prevent marine pollution, including laws such as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 and the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. According to these acts, the discharge of any kind of oil in the navigable water of the United States that causes a film, sheen, discoloration, sludge, or emulsion on or beneath the surface of water is strictly prohibited and can result in stiff civic penalties.

To avoid these penalties and to prevent further oil pollution here are some preventive measures that will help in keeping the discharged bilge water clean.

• The engine of the boat should be maintained properly to avoid fuel or oil leaks. Oil filters should also be changed often.

• Floating oil, if any, should be soaked up with a sorbent material before pumping the bilge. An absorbent pad or a drip tray should also be kept under the engine.

• During bilge cleaning do not mix detergents with oily bilge water as they can prove even more toxic than the oil. Instead, use a biodegradable bilge cleaner like Oil Gone Easy Marine S-200. This bilge cleaner is environmentally friendly and will not cause marine pollution.

Following these simple preventive measures will not only result in clean bilges but will also result in a green earth.

1. Amoco Cadiz – The Amoco Cadiz ran aground on Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, France on March 16, 1978 due to stormy weather. Approximately 200 miles of the coastline was polluted as the entire cargo of 68.7 million gallons of oil was spilled into the sea.

2. Arabian Gulf Spills – About 900 million barrels of oil spilled into the Arabian Gulf as the Iraqi army destroyed tankers, oil terminals, and oil wells in Kuwait during the Gulf war in January 1991, resulting in one of the largest oil spill disasters ever.

3. Exxon Valdez – In what is regarded as the largest oil spill disaster in American history, the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska on March 24, 1989, spilling 10.8 million gallons of oil. The cleanup alone cost $2.5 billion.

4. Ixtoc I – The exploratory well blew out on June 3, 1979 in the Gulf of Mexico and by the time the well was brought under control, 140 million gallons of oil had spilled. This is rated as No. 2 on the list of worst oil spill incidents on record.

5. Burmah Agate – The Burmah Agate collided with the Mimosa in Galveston harbor on November 1, 1979 to cause one of the most infamous marine oil spills.

6. Atlantic Empress – The Greek oil tanker Atlantic Empress was involved in two major oil spills when it collided with the Aegean Captain off Trinidad and Tobago during a tropical rainstorm on July 19, 1979. The spills together are the largest ship-based spill and the fourth largest total oil spill in history.

7. Argo Oil Merchant - On December 15, 1976 the Argo Merchant ran aground on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts spilling 7.7 million US gallons of fuel oil, enough to heat 18,000 homes for a year.

8. Prestige Oil Spill – The largest environmental disaster ever in Spain, the sinking of the oil tanker Prestige off the Galician coast on November 13, 2002 caused considerable damage to the local fishing industry.

9. Barge Bouchard 155 – Three ships, the barge Bouchard 155, the freighter Balsa 37, and the barge Ocean 255, collided in Tampa Bay, Florida, on August 10, 1993. The Bouchard 155 alone spilled an estimated 336,000 gallons of No.6 fuel oil.

10. Southeast Queensland – The cleanup efforts were estimated at a staggering A$100,000 dollars a day in one of the recent oil spill disasters, which occurred on March 11, 2009 off the coast of southeast Queensland.