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Oil spill victims

June 18, 2009

Oil washed into the West Falmouth marsh and tide pools after a 1969 spill, with disastrous consequences for these small marine animals in a tidal pool. Though the marsh now looks completely recovered, oil has persisted in the sediments, and is still affecting marine animals. Investigated by numerous WHOI researchers, including chemist Chris Reddy, director of the WHOI Coastal Ocean Institute, and oceanographer emeritus George Hampson who still monitors marsh grasses, this spill and later spills in the area have yielded much information about oil in the environment.
(Photo by George Hampson, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)