[Larry381]

This really is an ecological disaster that will take years to recover from

I'm curious, during WW 2 there were literally hundreds of tankers sunk or damaged including quite a few off the U.S. coast. Granted these tankers were quite a bit smaller than the supertankers of today but I don't recall hearing too much about fouled beaches or dead wildlife during the war. Can someone please explain this to me?

[SF Republican]

I was not around during the war but my guess would be because this is in the bay, not off the coast, and the concern with the environment is a little more front and center since the ‘70s

[hawkboy]

Good question. When I was a kid I lived in coastal North Carolina and the old timers all talked about the submarine warfare off the coast in WWII. IIRC, there was a tanker sunk about 60 mi. offshore that was still releasing oil well into the 1970’s and maybe still is AFAIK.

It was one of several that were hit by the Nazi U-Boats.

[Redleg Duke]

Yes, they couldn’t blame Bush!

[TalonDJ]

I'm curious, during WW 2 there were literally hundreds of tankers sunk or damaged including quite a few off the U.S. coast. Granted these tankers were quite a bit smaller than the supertankers of today but I don't recall hearing too much about fouled beaches or dead wildlife during the war. Can someone please explain this to me?

The sea eats it up. Under sea oil seeps (natural geological features) put more oil in the ocean than spills do. The things is a wreck is just so concentrated when it washes up on a nearby shore that it messes things up. Release the same oil a couple thousand feet down and it will be pretty broken up and dissolved by the time it comes up you will not notice it.