NOAA Special Report: The ARGO MERCHANT Oil Spill - a Preliminary 

 Scientific Report. Edited by Peter L. Grose and James S. Mattson. 

 Ivlarch 1977. U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and 

 Atmospheric Administration. 



ADDENDUM 



Section 2.2.8, entitled "Tar Ball" Reports, on p. 40, the last paragraph of 

 Section 5.2, Fate of the Oil , on p. 129, the March 10 entry on p. 7, and the 

 third full paragraph on p. 7 of Appendix VIII, the Sunmiary Fact Sheet , all 

 refer to the finding of tar balls on Nantucket. Tar balls were indeed found 

 on Nantucket in early March. However, tar balls came ashore on February 9 

 at Jamestown, Rhode Island (some weighing up to 15 to 20 pounds) and on 

 Martha's Vineyard about February 17, and small tar balls came ashore on the 

 outer reaches of Cape Cod in late February and early March. Tar balls from 

 these three locations, Jamestown, Martha's Vineyard, and Cape Cod, were 

 analyzed by infrared spectrophotometry by C. Brown of the University of Rhode 

 Island. After comparing the tar balls with a sample of the Argo Merchant 

 cargo, as well as with an artificially weathered sample of the cargo. Dr. 

 Brown can state conclusively that these tar balls did not come from the Argo 

 Merchant. They are too high in wax content to have been part of the Argo 

 Merchant cargo. The Jamestown and Martha's Vineyard tar balls appear to be 

 identical and the Cape Cod tar balls are similar, but not identical, to the 

 other two. Samples of the Nantucket tar balls are being forwarded to Dr. 

 Brown for analysis. (PLC JSM 4/6/77) 



VIII-7, col. 1, lines 1-7. (The divers found no oil on the bottom. The 

 R/V Endeavor found oil near the bow section on Feb. 11, 1977. Ed.) 



