Journal of Marine Biology

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Tonekabonis a city in north of Iran that located in the south coast of Caspian Sea. The Caspian Sea is the largest continental water body on earth and controversy still exists whether this water body should be referred to as a sea or as a lake. Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) maps can provide a concise summary of coastal resources that are at risk if an oil spill occurs nearby. Typical ESI map includes information for three main components: shoreline habitats classification, biological resources and human-use resources. Before shoreline classification can take place in the field, the following basic data set must be obtained and processed: base map, aerial photos, topographic map of shoreline. The analysis of ESI map showed that Tonekabon area could be considered a medium sensitive place for oil spills. Eight categories from main 10 categories are identified along with minor categories. This can be concluded after the comparison of the local sensitivity index with the standard sensitivity index of NOAA, on which about 84% of the study area has taken medium sensitivity rank (5, 6A, 6B) and the remaining areas have taken low (6%) to high (10%) ranks. The lowest ESI mapped was assigned to Fine- to medium-grained sand beaches (ESI 3A) and the highest to freshwater marshes (10B). Data was available about six main resources in Tonekabon area. These resources are birds, fishes, habitat (native/rare plants), invertebrate, marine mammals (seals), and reptiles. Fishing economy could be brought to a standstill by spilled oil.

Keywords: Environmental Sensitivity index, oil pollution, geographic information system, shore line, Tonekabon.

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