ABSTRACT
The MV Schiedyk was a bulk cargo carrier that sank in 1968 after running aground off the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Nootka Sound region. When it sank, it was carrying up to 147 tons of heavy fuel oil and diesel onboard. The vessel became a forgotten wreck until the fall of 2020, when oil sheen was observed around the wreck site just off Bligh Island. Over the next seven months, continuous upwelling from the sunken vessel resulted in up to 24 L of oil/day reaching the water surface. The Canadian Coast Guard led the response to this incident and in July of 2021 the bulk oil was removed from the vessel. Response operations during the spill were very successful in containing the oil using booms, but some oil did escape and reach nearby shorelines. To better understand how this particular historical oil behaved once it was released into the environment, a series of controlled oil weathering experiments were conducted with samples collected from the vessel. Using a floating outdoor mesocosm located at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, oil samples were weathered for a period of 168 hrs at two oil thicknesses (4.0, 7.0 mm) and three water temperatures (5, 10, 15°C) and the physical properties and chemical composition of the oil was monitored. The results from these mesocosm samples will be compared to the chemical composition of oiled shoreline samples collected 6, 12, 24 and 36 months after response operations ceased.