Marine oil spills can be extremely difficult to deal with, requiring a lot of time and effort by experts to remove the pollutant from the surface of the water. br br In the sea of Cardiff, Wales engineers from a European research project are testing a new prototype that cleans oil spills quickly, efficiently and more cheaply than existing methods, which require multiple vessels and complex oil containment measures.br br “What we’ve developed is a net which can float on the surface of the water, without using any containment booms,” explained James Ilsley, an environmental engineer;and managing director of OPEC Ltd, which is developing they system. .br br The simplicity of the technology is an important aspect, according to Federico Meneghello, FORCE7 project coordinator: “A big advantage is that this system can operate with a single boat, and can work in stormy seas, because it doesn’t need to coordinate with other ships.