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From the article:


The black tide of contamination pouring from the container ship Rena, in New Zealand’s biggest fuel oil spill, may yet offer a silver lining in terms of knowledge to be gained by the nation’s scientists and researchers.

Two quite different American oil spills — Alaska’s Exxon Valdez grounding in 1989, and Louisiana’s BP Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010 — both highlighted the environmental clean-up provided by micro-organisms able to “eat” petroleum hydrocarbons. In both those spills, bacteria and other micro-organisms played a significant role in reducing
the overall environmental impacts.