Paper Title
A Review on Marine Oil Spills- Potential Causes, Impacts and Current Remediation Approaches

Abstract
Oil spills have been a great trouble for the environment for many years. Oil spills are environmental calamities that occur due to release of surplus amounts of oil in the environment. Spills occurring in marine environments involve more potential risks than other locations because most people are directly dependent on marine ecosystems for water, food, nutrition and employment. Oil spills are caused by accidental breakage of tankers, pipelines, refineries, improper storage facilities, and during extraction and transportation of oil. These spills pollute the environment and cause potential harm to living organisms. Thus, immediately after occurrence of an oil spill, these should be cleaned up to make the environment suitable, which is often a costlier process. Methods that can be applied in remediation are: physical, chemical, thermal, biological and nanoparticle mediated remediation. Physicochemical methods cause secondary harm to marine life and environment that is rare in biological and nanoparticles mediated remediation of oil spills. Bioremediation employs the inherent capability of microbes for uptake of hydrocarbons present in oil for their energy source. Nanoremediation involves use of nanoparticles which can remove a wide range of hydrocarbons present in oil spills. But bioremediation and nanoremediation can be combined together in which nanoparticles help microbes to increase their bioremediation potential. This technology is called nano enhanced bioremediation. In this review we will critically analyze oil spills, their causes and impacts on marine environment, and different remediation technology and their effectiveness to clean oil spills. Keywords - Marine Oil Spills; Causes; Impacts; Bioremediation; Nanoremediation; Nano-Enhanced Bioremediation