An oil spill is that the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, thanks to act , and may be a sort of pollution. The term is typically given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters, but spills can also occur ashore .Oil spills penetrate into the structure of the plumage of birds and therefore the fur of mammals, reducing its insulating ability, and making them more susceptible to temperature fluctuations and far less buoyant within the water. Cleanup and recovery from an oil spill is difficult and depends upon many factors, including the sort of oil spilled, the temperature of the water (affecting evaporation and biodegradation), and therefore the sorts of shorelines and beaches involved.Spills may take weeks, months or maybe years to wash up.

Oil spills can have disastrous consequences for society; economically, environmentally, and socially. As a result, oil spill accidents have initiated intense media attention and political uproar, bringing many together during a political struggle concerning government response to grease spills and what actions can best prevent them from happening. Crude oil and refined fuel spills from tanker ship accidents have damaged vulnerable ecosystems in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, the Galapagos Islands , France, the Sundarbans, Ogoniland, and lots of other places. the number of oil spilled during accidents has ranged from a couple of hundred tons to many hundred thousand tons (e.g., Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Atlantic Empress, Amoco Cadiz),[4] but volume may be a limited measure of injury or impact. Smaller spills have already proven to possess an excellent impact on ecosystems, like the Exxon Valdez oil spill due to the remoteness of the location or the problem of an emergency environmental response.