Such a survey was done before oil from the tanker Sea Empress hit the Welsh coast in 1996, and made it possible to monitor the quite pleasing speed of the recovery.

In a rough sea it would no doubt be unpleasant to be kicked around in a bucket like that while waiting for recovery, but we will try to launch on a day with nice weather.

And in the Arctic, an extraordinary summer retreat of sea ice in 2007 has been followed by less substantial losses and projections by some researchers of a possible, if temporary, recovery.