Southward, 1978), Monte Urquiola 1976 (Wennergren, personal communi- 

 cation), and Amoco Cadiz 1978 (Hess, 1978). The recuperative ability of 

 communities in the affected coastal areas is surprising. The smaller 

 spills in protected environments, such as Florida 1969 in Buzzards Bay, 

 Massachusetts (Sanders, 1978), often have the stronger locally acute as 

 well as long-term effects. Well documented examples of this principle 

 exist for isolated parts of a system, such as salt marshes (Krebs and 

 Burns, 1977; Baker et al., 1977) and sediments in areas with low water- 

 exchange rates (Mayo et al., 1978; Teal et al., 1978). In such areas, 

 the aromatic hydrocarbon compounds have been shown to be most persistent 

 (Vandermeulen and Gordon, 1976). 



The Irini study suggested, quite logically, that an important 

 relationship exists between recovery rate and the proximity of source 

 areas for re-colonization. This implies that the areal extent and 

 patchiness of defaunation are also important factors in determining the 

 rate of recovery. Spill studies to date have not shed much light on 

 this aspect. 



3.2 Discussion of results and major conclusions 



In the supra-littoral zone, faunal and floral surveys were carried 

 out about 8 months after the accident. In general these studies showed 

 no obvious remaining effects either on the invertebrate fauna of the 

 beaches or on the various land plant species along' the shores. These 

 results, at least with respect to the flora, are in accordance with the 

 findings in other studies (e.g. Baker, 1971). It is interesting to note 

 that the only remaining damage in this area had obviously been caused 

 during the clean-up operations (for example, deep wheel-tracks from dump 

 trucks). One important factor in explaining the absence of effects in 

 the supra-littoral zone might be 'that the oil spill occurred at a season 

 characterized by extremely low standing stocks and production rates of 

 animals and plants in the system. 



The studies of the impact of the oil on the littoral zone indicates 

 substantial acute damage to all macrofauna species of the Fucus belt. 



44 



