Major incidents such as the Amoco Cadiz (France, 1978 ). The Exxon Valdez (USA, 1989), The Braer (UK,1993), The sea Empress(UK, 1996), The Erika(France,1999) and The Prestige (Spain, 2002) have provided the stimilus for the development of alternative response techniques to tackle oil pollution both at sea and at the shoreline.