In 1990, in late summer, when we realized that every Friday morning there was an oil spill in the Ithaca channel, we spent the whole night in inflatables at sea together with the fishermen in their boats (in agreement with the port police authorities, of course) in order to find out which ship was polluting: it was obviously a passenger ship passing by every Thursday night.
We followed 4 ships that passed through the channel that night but none polluted, either that or next week. Possibly, our goal had become known to the culprit. In any case however, the result was that no oil spill appeared again in the Ithaca channel during that period.
Picture: the curling lights of the ship we are following reflect the movement of our boat by the waves – not that of the ship itself.
