Comparison of two fluorometers for measuring oil concentrations in the sea

Abstract

The report describes an exercise to compare two techniques for the continuous measurement of sub-surface concentrations of oil in sea water. One uses a flow-through fluorometer calibrated by collecting discrete water samples and determining their oil content, whilst the other uses a towed, submersible fluorometer calibrated by homogenising a known quantity of oil in sea water. The performance of the two instruments was compared during a field trial carried out by Warren Spring Laboratory and the MAFF Fisheries Laboratories. Both instruments were found to give very similar outputs beneath both non-dispersed and chemically dispersed oil slicks and this suggests that the sensitivities of the two instruments are similar.