The following text has been copied from a British radio program where the presenter -Mrs. Stella Mercer- is absolutely concerned about an oil spill  in Alaska. The interviewees are Mrs. Estelle Greenshaw, a photojournalist, and Dr. Frank Spokewell, a representative from the oil industry.

STELLA MERCER: Viewed from space the planet Earth is blue, 70% of its surface covered with water. Two thirds of the human body is made up of water and we need to drink at least two litres every day. For three and a half billion years water has sustained life on Earth. Yet in the tiniest fraction of that time we have begun turning our waters into one great rubbish dump.
It has been calculated that the water of the river Rhine, on which 20 million Europeans depend for their drinking water, contains over 2,000 chemicals. Material cleared from the waterways of Holland is believed to be so dangerous that it has to be stored on a specially built island. And in our seas the delicate balance of life is being disrupted by the sewage, oil, heavy metals and the tens of thousands of artificial chemicals -plastics, pesticides, fertilisers, pharmaceuticals- we throw into it each year. As a result, here in England one in three bathing beaches is considered to be unfit for swimming.
Pollution of our seas is easy to overlook - they seem so vast that it's usually a case of "out of sight, out of mind". But someone who is deeply concerned is photojournalist Estelle Greenshaw, who has just produced a wonderful new book of photos. Called The Sea - Sink or Swim?, it contrasts the terrible effects of mankind with the beauty and riches of the sea, a sea we can no longer call "eternal".

Estelle, weIcome to the programme. Now, what was the starting idea for your book?

ESTELLE GREENSHAW: Well, it started when I was on holiday one March in Alaska. I was taking photos of the fantastic coastline there - it's astonishingly beautiful, you know, wild, completely unspoiled. There's an abundance of wildlife - sea birds, seals, otters, even killer whales. Then, while I was there the Exxon Valdez, a giant supertanker, went aground in Prince William Sound.

STELLA: Yes, I remember that. lt caused terrible pollution, didn't it?

ESTELLE: Yes. In less than tive hours more than 10 million gallons of oil poured into one of the cleanest waterways in the world. Nine hundred rniles of unspoiled coastline are estimated to have been damaged. We'll never know precisely how many animals were affected, but it's believed that hundred of thousands of birds died. Millions of fish were poisoned; the nine resident killer whales have disappeared. And fifteen hundred sea otters are thought to have been killed.

STELLA: And here are your photos of this. A sort of Before and After. The contrast is shocking.

ESTELLE: Well, it's meant to be shocking. The photo on the left page shows a stretch of coastline in Prince William Sound. You can see how beautiful it is.

STELLA: And then on the right, a beach covered - and I mean covered, carpeted - in oil... And this at the front, poor thing, what is it?

ESTELLE: That's a baby sea otter. You can hardly see it under the oil. When the oil gets into their fur, you know, they either drown or die of cold. But this particular individual - I happen to know - was rescued.

STELLA: One little life spared. Well, this is a good moment to bring in Dr Frank Spokewell, a representative from the oil industry. Dr Spokewell, you've seen Estelle's photos. What's your reaction?

FRANK SPOKEWELL: Well, I would agree with Estelle that this was a major disaster and one - I must emphasise - that no one in the oil industry would have wished to happen. After the accident, the industry launched the largest clean-up operation in history. It involved more than 10,000 individuals, several hundred boats and aircraft, and much specialised equipment. A variety of conventional clean-up techniques were used; however these methods were found to be not entirely successful, so we also experimented with biological agents - for instance micro-organisms such as bacteria, which break down the oils into harmless substances. Nature does this anyway, but this time she needed some help.

STELLA: And what was the result of all this work?

FRANK: Well, I'm happy to say that it quickly proved the gloomy forecasts of a lot of outside observers wrong. Within the first year after the spill most of the damage had disappeared. Now even the most seriously affected beaches are agreed to be back to normal. The area has retained its outstanding natural beauty, and plant and animal life is doing as weIl as before - as any visitor to the area will see.

STELLA: Well, a positive response from the oil industry there. Estelle, briefly, what do you make of this?

ESTELLE: There are many detailed points I could go in if we had time. For instance, although some beaches have indeed been cleaned, there is still oil on others. We shouldn't think that just because a beach looks clean it is clean. Further, no one knows what effect the use of micro-organisms in the clean-up operation had -or is still having- on the environment. And that brings me to my major point - how can we say, without years of study of all the ecosystems of Prince William Sound, that there have been no adverse Iong term effects?

STELLA: And there I'm afraid we must leave it for the moment ...

SOURCE: First Certificate Avenues (Cambridge University Press)