Maritime and Logistics Management Project - Coursework Example

CHAPTER FIVE IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION 5.1 Implications of the study The implications of the study are of paramount importance to the government and government agencies as well as other organizations involved in the Maritime transportation business (Brown & Savage, 1996). From the study findings, the results highlight that there is need for quicker response to an oil spill. The impacts of the oil spill by Laura D’ Amato on the Sydney Port Waters, fisheries and on tourism were limited and short term. This is attributed to the fact that there was a quick response to the oil spill (Andrew & Krystal, 2003), which was well coordinated by the concerned stakeholders, such as the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, Marine Incident Investigation Unit, the Sydney Port Harbour Control, NSW Fire Brigade and Shell Company. The study also implies that whereas Oil spills are perceived to have long term impacts, on the environment, human activities such as tourism and on the fisheries, (Burger, 1997), the negative consequences of the oil spills can significantly be reduced by using the appropriate methods of environmental cleaning and spilled oil collection (Richard & Julio, 2005). The study implies that Oils spills have not only direct impacts on the tourism, fisheries and the port waters, but that that the spills can significantly affect the aforementioned factors indirectly. However, deriving and understanding the effects of Oil spills may at times be a challenge due to the vastness of the sea and the presence of several exogenous factors, influencing the marine environment. Moreover, changes in the marine environment are dynamic, such that no one factor can be singled out as the cause of the marine destruction. Moreover, several other pollutants with the same consequences as the oil spills end up in the sea, it is therefore challenging to evaluate the impacts of the oil spills independent of other factors. The study findings also imply that there is a need to have a policy outline and a clear blue-print and a guiding metric of gauging the impacts of Oil spills that goes beyond the evaluation of the direct impacts that may be important for assisting countries, states, localities, and concerned stakeholders in their efforts to establish and maintain coherent oil spill recovery efforts. Coherence among the stakeholders concerned with the management of oil spills assists in facilitating recovery from oil spills. This coherence was cited in the way Sydney Port Harbour Control, NSW Fire Brigade and Shell Company responded to the oil spill. This has the advantage of creating consistent and collaborative environment when responding to the occurrence of spills. A second potential advantage is that it may allow for more focused and more efficient instruction and management during oil spills. Finally, coherence among the stakeholders concerned with the maritime business offer additional opportunities for capacity building. There is an importance of developing strategies and mechanisms that allow for consistency over time, in the way of responding to oil spills. The way and means of responding to oil spills may need to strike a balance between current and desired practice, and between different methodologies, so as to decrease the negative consequences of the oil spills. The study findings also offer that there is need to locate recreational beaches and amenity areas, away from oil terminals, where oil spills can easily occur. This is to reduce the negative consequences of any occurrence of an oil spill, on the recreational activities. Recreational activities and tourism may bear the longer term sub-lethal impacts of the oil spills. The research findings also imply that oil spills have diverse impacts and effects, therefore a single model cannot substantially be suitable in determining the actual effects of the oil spill on all the affected factors either directly or indirectly. It is therefore important that in evaluating the impacts of an oil spill on the environment, fisheries, tourism and port waters, a pragmatic approach has to be utilised, which involves integrated approach using relative density gradients and Input-Output Model framework, as well as deductive reasoning. Moreover, the findings imply that there is need to have a comprehensive policy, rules and regulations governing the oil spills. 5.2 Limitations of the study There are several characteristics of design or methodology that set parameters on the application or interpretation of the results of the study. The study focused on evaluating the impacts of the effects of the oil spill on the Sydney Port waters. This however was limited, since other studies have suggested that the indirect impacts of oil spills have been several kilometres away from the location of the oil spill. Oil spills also have diverse consequences, which are not limited to the Port waters, fisheries and tourism as limited to in the study. The oil spill by Laura D’ Amato, may have had other environmental, economic and social impacts which were not captured by only focusing on the impacts on the Sydney port waters, tourism and fisheries (Gary, 2005). Moreover, the research was limited by the data collection methodology implemented. Most of the data collected was collected from secondary sources which are limited in terms of quality of research (Terry,2007). Unlike the primary research, the sources of information in a secondary research may be questionable since in a primary research, data collection is to a great degree self-governed and controlled by the researcher. Moreover, in some instances, validity and reliability of the information provided, concerning the effects of the oil spill by Laura D’ Amato may be questionable. The utilization of secondary sources of data also may not have been specific to the researcher’s needs. Most of the secondary data collected was not presented in a form that exactly meets the researcher’s needs. In addition, some of the secondary sources of data were not timely, in that some of the sources of data, were out-of-date research reports with little or no relevance to understanding the impacts of the oil spill by Laura D’ Amato. Moreover, the dynamism of the affected area, such as Sydney City is very high (Richard, 2006) . There have been several changes on the city, the beaches and the port terminal such that it is challenging to exactly reconstruct the effects of the Oil spill, and to collect data using primary sources. There have been limited studies and researches on investigating the effects of the Oil spill caused by Laura D’ Amato. Moreover, the cleanup was done within a short time, such that there was short time media coverage, hence leading to Incomplete Information. Very few researches have been documented on the effects of the oil spill, further limiting the possible sources of secondary data collection. 5.3 Recommendations for future research The study makes several recommendations of priority in the future research. Comprehensive frequent studies should be carried out on the oil terminals, such that reference points can be easily deduced, when an oil spill occurs (Eric, 2006). In addition, the future research should consider a common global standard or metric for defining the effects of oil spills (Al-Azab, 2005), and a wider research be done, to derive findings, which can be applied to more general contexts, concerning the impacts of oil spills. Most of the data collected was based on secondary sources of data; however, the no recent studies have been documented as a follow up to the initial studies done after the spill, (Joanna, 2004). The future researchers should therefore consider follow-up studies so as to understand the long term effects of the oil spills. Finally, it is recommended that future researches be carried out immediately after the oil spill or even during the oil spill (Richard & David, 2008) to enable the researchers understand the short term impacts of the oil spills on port waters, fisheries and tourism. 5.4 Conclusion The study analysed the effects of the Oil spill from a Multi dimensional approach. This was measured in terms of direct and indirect effects. The oil spill had several effects, on the Sydney Port waters, fisheries and tourism. However, the consequences of the spill on the aforementioned factors were less severe and short term. On the fisheries, the spill minimally affected fisheries, since the spill did not directly result to massive reduction of fisheries species distribution in the affected area though the indirect effects of the spill on the fisheries populace is suggested by the way the oil spill affected birds. The oil spill however affected fishing activities, and the fisheries food chain, due to difference in Pre-spill and post-spill species richness. Tourism was also affected by the oil spill directly and indirectly. Whereas the spill could potentially damage the reputation of Sydney town as a tourist destination, the quick response enhanced the confidence of the residents and tourists on the City’s response teams. Furthermore, the spill resulted to fewer tourists visiting some destinations such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Berry Island, however, the disruption was short term since clean up took a short time. Moreover, the numbers of wildlife were not significantly affected, as highlighted by the few recorded deaths of birds (Macartan, Jeffrey, & Joseph, 2007) The oil spill did not to a great degree affect the activities of Sydney port. The resulting spill such as Black Oil, the Mousse and the sheen did not entirely cover the whole area, and of the areas covered, the spillage did not last for long, hence Sydney Port waters were not severely polluted (Ronald,2002). Consequently therefore, the degree of damage of the Oil spill Italian tanker Laura D’Amato on Sydney port waters, fisheries and tourism was negligible, considered in terms of the direct and indirect impacts, and was insignificant when considered in the short term and on the long term (George,Richard & James, 2009). References 1. Brown, R. S. & Savage, I. 1996, “The Economics of Double-Hulled Vessels”, Maritime Policy and Management, Vol. 23, pp. 167-175. 2. Eric W. 2006, The environment in Asia Pacific, Springer Books, London. 3. Al-Azab, M. 2005, Oil pollution and its environmental impact in the Arabian Gulf region, Elsevier, Massachusetts. 4. Joanna, B. 2004, Before and after an oil spill: the Arthur Kill, Rutgers University Press, New Jersey. 5. Burger, J. 1997, Oil spills, Rutgers University Press, New Jersey. 6. Terry, L., 2007, The paradox of plenty: oil booms and petro-states, University of California Press, California. 7. Macartan, H., Jeffrey, S.& Joseph E. 2007, Escaping the resource curse, Columbia University Press, Coulumbia. 8. Richard B. & Julio A. 2005, Tourism development: issues for a vulnerable industry, Channel View Publications, Bristol. 9. Richard, B. 2006, The Tourism Area Life Cycle: Applications and modifications, Channel View Publications, Bristol. 10. Ronald, A. 2002, Chemistry of the environment, Academic Press, Massachusetts. 11. Eric, W. 2006, The environment in Asia Pacific harbours, Springer, London. 12. George, K., Richard, T., & James, S. 2009, Introduction to Marine Biology, Cengage Learning, Boston. 13. Andrew, J. & Krystal, H. 2003, Effects of pollution on fish: molecular effects and population responses, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken. 14. Richard, T. & David E. 2008, The toxicology of fishes, CRC Press, New York. 15. Gary, M. 2005, Fundamentals of aquatic toxicology: effects, environmental fate, and risk assessment, Taylor & Francis, London. Read More