The ocean faces many threats from pollution to climate change. In this new series “Disasters at Sea” we will be covering environmental disasters and their effects on marine systems. In this, the first article of the series, we're covering one infamous environmental disaster that sparked the beginning of the environmental movement of the 1970s and led to the creation of America’s first Earth Day: the Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969. The Disaster: The Santa Barbara Oil Spill of