EDITORS' NOTE 



Support for the editing and publication of this report was provided 

 by the Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program (OCSEAP) . 

 Since most of the scientifically important results of the Tsesis study 

 will appear in journal articles, with a more thorough review process, 

 the current document is intended primarily for use by government scien- 

 tists and managers who are involved in environmental issues of oil and 

 gas development, and specifically in decisions and legislation related 

 to oil pollution. 



It was with the above purpose in mind that this scientific report 

 was organized. It begins with a condensed description of the spill and 

 the study that followed and becomes progressively more detailed. Three 

 levels of detail are represented by the Abstract, Chapter 3, and the 

 Research Reports. Chapter 1, dealing with matters of executive and 

 management concern, is highlighted by section 1.6, which reviews the 

 mistakes and successes and makes recommendations for the future manage- 

 ment of spill follow-up studies and environmental protection. Chapter 2 

 was added to address such questions as "so what?", or in general the 

 potential overall significance of the incident, by attempting to put it 

 into ecological perspective. The study was heavily supported by OCSEAP 

 with the objective of putting the incident into perspective for Alaska 

 as well as the Baltic, where the spill took place. Since OCSEAP is a 

 goal-directed program, with basic research applying to the environmental 

 assessment of Alaska, the validity of the spill research concept is 

 judged by the value of such connections. 



Chapter 3 integrates and highlights the most important scientific 

 results and major conclusions of the overall study and places them in a 

 position for quick reference. 



Although it was not possible to include a separate section detail- 

 ing the daily clean-up operations performed by the Swedish Coast Guard, 

 such information is summarized in Section 1.2. It is impossible to 

 separate the effects of an oil spill from the mitigating or sometimes 

 damaging effects of the cleanup. 



VII 



