Abstract
The heavy oil petroleum flowing out from the disaster stricken oil tanker 'Nakhotoka' in January 1997 widely spread along the coast of the Japan Sea and caused serious oil pollution in the area. A large-scale oil contamination of the beach plant communities was one of the most serious results of the oil spill. The heavy storm and the wavy climate conditions particularly in winter caused the pollution of beach plants repeatedly. The monitoring surveys of the plant communities have been being conducted continuously from January 1997 up to now. In this paper, the method and some results of the survey are described and some proposals are made to promote studies on the effects of oil contamination on plant communities.
