Source Identification and Fingerprinting of Tar Balls Appeared at Goa Beach

Tar balls are frequently reported as indicators of extent of marine pollution owing to spill incidents. It has now been fairly established that the potential threat from operational or accidental oil spills from tankers and other oil related activities could lead to environmental pollution. The study represents the chemical analysis and source identification of tar balls appeared at Goa beach. Four tar balls samples were collected from several locations along the coast of the Goa and were analyzed for their acyclic and Poly Aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique. Analysis of crude oil, burnt oil and weathered oils were also included as possible sources of tar balls. Comparison was carried out between the compounds found in tar balls with that of crude oil, burnt oil and weathered oil. This study indicates that, the major source of tar balls was likely to be crude oil as evident from the fingerprints obtained from the study performed on GC-MS.