Sorbents are normally applied by hand, and recovered with nets, rakes, forks and pike poles. Manual Recovery Manual recovery of oil with buckets and shovels is common, especially in areas of high oil concentration near shore. Viscous oils are more easily removed by manual methods than more fluid oils. When oil is spilled on water, some of it often reaches the shoreline. It is often impossible to protect all shoreline areas from oil contamination so priority is assigned to the most sensitive areas.
Large waves crashing onto rocks and cliffs can remove and disperse oil naturally.
These areas are generally left alone. Also, particularly sensitive areas like marshes are often better left alone once contaminated, since clean-up operations can cause more damage than if the oil were left to degrade naturally. Although these methods are very simple, they are often the most effective. Clean-up must be done carefully. Some experts believe that much of the biological damage observed on Alaskan beaches after the Exxon Valdez spill was caused by clean-up activities.