European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 21, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Casualties continued from Page 7 within a couple of Miles of Shore May not be Able to make a living Quot said Mahmoud Nowai Laty assistant director of the saudi meteorological and environmental Protection administration. Quot there will be much Competition for the fish that Are  today a Pound of fish costs twice As. Much in saudi Arabia As it did six months ago. Before the spill 70 percent of the seafood consumed in saudi Arabia was caught by saudi fishermen. Now More than 70 percent is imported said Nasser Al Saleh general manager of saudi fisheries the state run fishing company. Quot the future of All fishing in the area is Bleak very Bleak Quot Saleh said. The Marsalis Brothers know this firsthand. Although they  the water in april they Are averaging less than 200 pounds of fish a Day. Tamir said he has heard that fishing is not bad 15 Miles into the Gulf but he and his brother do not have the equipment to fish in the deeper Waters. Quot we re very poor now,&Quot.he said. The months before the Oil spill had been Good for Tamir and Rashid. They had purchased a new pickup truck for the business and Rashid had moved out of his brother s Home and into his own. They believed that they had shaken free of their poverty once and for All. A few foreigners own successful fishing businesses in saudi Arabia Tamir said and he was proud to be one of the few. But now the Brothers doubt if they can survive As fishermen. That Many saudi fishermen Are equally devastated by Saddam a eco terror is Little Consolation. A Bulldozer operator attempts to clean up an Oil soaked Beach near Manl Fah  of the Earth and Back again a contract worker tosses a Large Stone into an Oil pit near Manl Fah Bay. While in the pit some impurities separate from the Oil which eventually will be refined into Low Grade Petroleum products such As Industrial lubricants. The havoc the Oil spill caused in the persian Gulf is something like nature committing suicide. Petroleum is nature s own creation. The deterioration of All organic matter animal and vegetable since the beginning of time has been consolidated in vast reservoirs of Oil below ground. Underground bacteria consume the oxygen in once living organisms leaving Only the hydrocarbon that becomes Oil. Quot when Oil is spilled on water Quot said University of Maryland geologist or. Jiri Brezina Quot the process is basically  As a substance totally without oxygen Oil is completely foreign to life above the Earth s surface Brezina explained. The re mixing of Oil with oxygen is one of the essential elements to harnessing its Energy. This re mixing is essentially oxidation which is what occurs As Oil floats on water following a spill Brezina said. The Oil separates into components called Sheens that have varying degrees of stability Quot the Light Sheens which Are used to make gasoline and the process will begin again kerosene evaporate in a matter of Days Quot Brezina said. Quot the More stable components take years to completely  the Light Sheens Are the most flammable. If a response occurs quickly after a spill before these Sheens evaporate the majority of the Oil can be burned off the water with Little damage to the Marine environment. In the Gulf however the raging air War made such a response impossible. A what is left after the Light Sheens evaporate is the crude Black Oil that washes onto beaches suffocating animal and Plant life and conceals into balls sinking to the Ocean floor. There is much debate Brezina said Over whether cleaning this muck is better than allowing nature to reclaim it. Scrubbing beaches with harsh chemicals or dredging the Ocean destroys a great Deal of the Micro life on which the Marine ecosystem is founded. At the same time however the spilled Oil destroys much of the same matter. Left alone for a couple of years. Brezina said nil will break Down naturally. Eventually it will sink Back into the Earth and Page 8 a the stars and stripes sunday july 21, 1991