Black tides of spilled oil pollute the world's coasts with depressing regularity, giving scientists ample opportunity to observe their environmental impacts and learn how to clean up and restore the affected shorelines. The author has been a leader in this field for over 20 years. Hayes tells the story of responding to most of the modern day oil spills including the Gulf War spills, the Exxon Valdez, the Amoco Cadiz spill in France as well as the Ixtoc I blowout in Mexico. Interspersed amongst them are personal events and adventures, such as his survival of a plane crash while mapping a remote part of Alaska. From this story emerges a statement of the ongoing conflict between environmental preservation and the exploitation of natural resources to sustain an industrial society.