You are the captain of the Indian Empress, a supertanker carrying 300 000 tonnes of crude oil from the Middle East for refining in Perth, Australia. 

Your maximum speed is 10 knots. 

At latitude 5 degrees South, 70 degrees east, a severe cyclone damages your vessel.  You are near the Chagos Archipelago

The engineer's report states you have 24 hours before the vessel will break apart and the entire load will be lost to sea. Your vessel cannot be saved, and there are no facilities near enough to take on your load

Your task:

Points to consider:

• Where can you take your tanker in the time available?
• What will be the impact on animal life?
• What will be the impact on plant life?
• What people will be affected, and how?
• How does oil act when released at sea?
• What differences are there between a deep ocean spill and an offshore spill?
• How are oil spills dealt with?

  The Comparisons Sheet will assist you in organising some of your data.

Other sites to find information:

Ocean life:
library.thinkquest.org/J002747/kl.html	oceanlink.island.net/ask/pollution.html	abc.net.au/oceans/alive.htm
Geography
Oceanography	satellite image - A good atlas!
Oil and pollution: Many of these have sections on ocean life too.
Oil spills - environmental concern.	oceanlink.island.net/	www.onr.navy.mil/focus/ocean
www.itopf.com	Oil Spill Information	Seabirds and oil pollution
A Strange solution for oil spills	Experiment - Cleaning up an oil spill

How Do I Present My Work?

Through Drama: 
You are in the International Court, and must justify your decisions to that court. 
Use maps and diagrams to support your case.

                                              or:

As a slide show using Kid Pix or Clarisworks/Appleworks or Powerpoint.
Here you must compare the effects of the oil spill in different environments, and then justify your final decision.