Initial impacts of the Hebei Spirit oil spill on the sandy beach macrobenthic community west coast of Korea

► We monitored for 1 year to assess the initial impacts of Hebei Spirit oil on the sandy macrobenthic community. ► The mean density and biomass of macrobenthic fauna continued to decrease until 12 months after the oil spill. ► Macrobenthic density at the most heavily affected sites increased by about twofold. ► The dominant species occurred at very low densities in strongly affected sites. ► Cluster analysis showed that the macrobenthic community at oil affected site differed significantly from the other sites.