Potential oil spills in the TSS Słupska Bank area – case study using the PISCES II simulator

The specificity of navigation in the Baltic Sea means that intensive ship traffic occurs on the main shipping routes. Therefore, there is a high risk of a collision that will result in an oil spillage; the Baltic Sea is an area that is very sensitive to this type of accident. In addition, there are sensitive Natura 2000 areas that require special protection. A case study of a potential oil spill in the Słupska Bank area has been carried out in this paper; the results of the oil spill simulations and their analyses are presented in this article. The simulations were carried out in the PISCES II oil spill simulator. The spread of oil pollutants in typical weather conditions, the size of the threatened areas and the oil’s impact time have been analyzed. Based on the results obtained from the simulations, the most adverse weather conditions for the simulated oil pollution accident in the TSS Słupska Bank region have been determined.