The 2007 Cosco Busan incident saw at least 53,000 gallons of HFO being spilled into San Francisco Bay. The resulting Incident Specific Preparedness Review (ISPR) by the United States Coast Guard recommended that certain positions should require qualifications, particularly those that involved fully trained and seasoned personnel.

The ISPR noted the lack of spill quantification experts available to develop essential data on hazardous material type and quantity. The initial mix-up in assessing the quantity of oil on the water meant that tides had more time to broaden the oil slick. The ISPR also noted that “as moderate and large oil spills become increasingly rare, real life oil spill experience becomes difficult to find.”