During the dozen years in which I have been actively interested in oil pollution, not only has the quantity of petroleum products con- sumed in industrially developed nations (and thus the volume of crude oil shipped to them) greatly increased; disastrous accidents, particularly the wreck of Torrey Canyon in the approaches to the English Channel and the blow-out of Well A-21 off Santa Barbara, California, have made the public in general aware for the first time of the implications of their growing appetite for oil and the goods made from it. Concern over the pollution of coastal waters and...