An environmental group has created an that predicts the grim impact of oil spills on British Columbia's coast.
The Living Ocean Society, a non-profit research and public education organization, released the program in response to concerns that a current moratorium against drilling and shipping off B.C.'s coast could soon be lifted.
According to the oil spill animation, even the smallest accident could cause major devastation.
"The oil spill model clearly demonstrates that Canada and the Province of B.C. must strengthen and enforce the moratorium on oil tankers and offshore oil and gas in order to maintain the wealth of marine resources on B.C.'s coast," said Oonagh O'Connor, Energy Campaign Manager for the Living Oceans Society, in a news release.
A number of scenarios were developed using up-to-date oceanographic data to show how oil spills would affect ecosystems and communities on the North Coast of B.C.
The animation is based on a model developed using a software program built by the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration -- the same software used by response crews during actual spills to determine where clean up efforts should be directed.
The model outlines, day-by-day, how oil would wash into bays, inlets and beaches depending on the season and break location. Users can click options to see how whales, fish and habitat would be affected.
"It's very different than off the East Coast. We're right on the inside, we're in inside waters, the oil is trapped and it's almost immediately hitting land, which is the worst case scenario," O'Connor said.
The animation is designed as a warning to illustrate what the group argues would occur if drilling and shipping are allowed off B.C. -- something currently banned under a moratorium.
The B.C. Liberal government has been pushing the federal government for the right to offshore drill, and has said it wants an offshore oil and gas industry in operation by 2010.
O'Connor says that if the moratorium is lifted, an accident is inevitable.
"It is not a question of if a spill would happen, but one of when and how big. The oil spill model clearly demonstrates that a spill from just one tanker could devastate coastal ecosystems and communities," she said.
The Living Oceans Society says planned expansion of Alberta's tar sands has led to at least six proposed mega-projects in northern B.C. that call for pipelines to ports in Kitimat and Prince Rupert.
"There is considerable pressure to open the coast to oil tanker traffic and offshore oil and gas," O'Connor said.
Despite the fact that there are no drilling platforms along the coast, the animated scenarios don't seem so farfetched.
The Exxon Valdez tanker dumped nearly three-quarters of a million barrels of oil in nearby Alaska 19 years ago.
And when the Queen of the North, a 125-metre ferry, sank near Prince Rupert in 2005, it left behind a large slick on the water and tonnes of oil beneath it.
But amidst the fear of a pipeline from the tar sands and suggestions from the province that off-shore exploration could soon begin, some environmentalists hope that public educators such as the oil spill animation can keep such tragedies from happening in B.C.
"I think the conservation concerns of Canadians in terms of climate change and in terms of our rich coastal systems are maybe going to keep that from happening here," Jay Ritchlin, a marine conservation specialist with the David Suzuki Foundation, told Â鶹´«Ã½.
With a report from CTV's Todd Battis
