Abstract: Organic pollutant spills on aquatic bodies may be collected by a method comprising distributing a plurality of buoyant magnetically susceptible, oleophillic, hydrophobic, resilient sorbent particles on the surface of the pollutant, allowing the sorbent to attract and bind the pollutant, magnetically collecting the pollutant-bound sorbent particles, compressing the pollutant-bound sorbent particles to expel the pollutant to a pollutant sump, allowing the compressed sorbent particles to recover from compression, and redistributing the sorbent particles on the surface of the remaining pollutant.

Abstract: Sorbent particle suitable for use in conjunction with methods and apparatus for pollutant spill control is fabricated from a buoyant, compressible, resilient, oleophillic, hydrophobic, synthetic plastic substrate and a plurality of non-abrasive magnetically susceptible particles imbedded in, and substantially evenly distributed throughout, said substrate.