Tar balls deposition at Juhu Beach, Mumbai. Photo: Shaunak Modi/Mongabay
- Tarballs are weathered oil blobs. They are often remnants of oil spills but can also be produced from natural seeps, places where oil slowly escapes from the earth’s surface above some petroleum reservoirs.
- Researchers contend that these tarballs result from crude oil spills or fuel discharge from cargo ships along the western coast.
- India’s National Institute of Oceanography has plans to design standard operating procedures to handle oil spills from all sources.
Right after the monsoon spell, the coastlines of India’s western states, from Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Goa to Karnataka, are lined with dark, sticky balls. These are tarballs, a “seasonal phenomena” surfacing on the west coast of India every year between April and September and cause worry to conservationists and researchers. Tarballs affect marine life and flag concerns about oil spills from an offshore oil rig along the Maharashtra-Gujarat coast in the Arabian Sea.
These weathered oil blobs are often remnants of oil spills but can also be produced from natural seeps, places where oil slowly escapes from the earth’s surface above some petroleum reservoirs.
Unpacking the chemical characteristics and fingerprints of tarballs, researchers at India’s National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) documented the sources of the 2010/11 tarballs that appeared in Goa to be from oil tanker wash, while the probable source for the tarballs on Gujarat’s coasts in 2012 was the crude oil spill from the Bombay High (BH) offshore oil rig.