Using these models, Kuwait estimates the lost biomass in commercially valuable species, including finfish and shrimp, and categorizes each species into one of three trophic levels (primary, secondary and tertiary consumers).

The demise of one species or trophic level (which contains organisms performing the same function in the food chain), leads to changes in others in a rapid sequence that is difficult to foresee.

By applying trophic scaling to convert the lost biomass of secondary and tertiary consumers into an estimated loss in units of primary consumer biomass, Kuwait estimates that its loss of aquatic biota amounts to 70,000 tonnes of shrimp biomass.

OSCAR includes an oil spill physical fates sub model that estimates the distribution of contaminants on the water surface, on shorelines, in the water column and in sediments as well as exposure and population sub models which together estimate the effects of contaminants on eggs, larvae, juvenile and adult fish, wildlife and lower trophic level biota.