Page 43: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2014)

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Environmental Concerns & Controls

Increasingly, there has been a growing focus on environmental issues, acceler- ating in the late 1970s and onward, as spills mounted, each seeming worse than the last. There was a palpable shift in fo- cus to combating pollution, and provid- ing adequate training and certi? cation of crews. Even the oil companies got into the act, proactively launching spill re- sponse coalitions in both Europe (1985) and the U.S. (1990), to respond to catas- trophes and providing training.

It all started with the Torrey Canyon. “In the same way the Titanic led to the development of safety regimes, the Tor- rey Canyon stimulated the development of international environmental regula- tions,” said ICS’ Bennett. The Interna- tional Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) is one of the earliest, and most in? uential international environmental safety con- vention. In the wake of the Torrey Can- yon and other spills, it was designed to protect the marine environment with the hopeful goal of “completely” eliminat- ing pollution by oil and other harmful substances, and by minimizing the acci- dental discharge, dumping or exhaust of oil and other substances.

To achieve its objectives, MARPOL provides a detailed set of regulations, covering issues from vessel construction and operation to the discharge of sewage and other substances via a set if six tech- nical Annexes.

It was signed in 1973, but it took so long to get the necessary rati? cations that the original set of protocols were merged with a 1978 update fueled by a number of accidents in 1976-1977. It ? - nally became effective in 1983, 16 years after the outrage over Torrey Canyon.

The international community has come around: o date 152 states, representing 99.2 percent of the world’s shipping ton- nage, have signed on.

Similarly, the Amoco Cadiz oil spill a decade later was “pretty monumental” on the pollution side of [regulations],” he added, noting that six annexes later,

MARPOL today covers every form of pollution from tankers.

But the real game changer has been the fallout from the March 24, 1989, Exxon

Valdez spill, which dumped 11 million gallons of oil into the pristine inlet, cre- ating the country’s worst ecological di- saster until the Deep Water Horizon well blow out April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of

Mexico.

The U.S. Coast Guard considers the

Valdez to be one of the largest human- caused disasters and cites as contributing causes to the accident, ineffective look- out, poor navigational watchkeeping, in- operable radar, reduced manning, lack of shore side supervision and loss of situa- tion awareness, among other things.

OPA OPA Double Hulls

The U.S. responded with the Oil Pol- lution Act (OPA) 90, essentially the ? rst time a Port State had acted on its own to create and enforce rule that would affect global shipping. OPA created a compre- hensive program to address prevention, response, liability and compensation for oil pollution incidents within U.S. wa- ters.

It set requirements for construction (double hulls), crew licensing and man- ning, created the national Oil Spill Li- ability Trust Fund (up to $1B per spill incident), mandated contingency plan- ning and the development of disaster response plans from tankers, ties driving records with mariner licenses and man- dated post-casualty drug and alcohol tests. It also decreed that all tankers en- tering U.S. water after a certain date be double hulled. “The whole world felt that change,” said Bennett. And resisted at ? rst. But a pile up of oil spills in European waters, particularly the Prestige and the Erika, brought an outraged EU in line with U.S. thinking quickly.

While not a perfect solution, the move to double hulls added to the level of environmental protection. “It’s why the record of the industry is better than it was in 1990, never mind 1970. It’s a

Rules & Regulation

The following are the major international shipping conventions, adopted by the In- ternational Maritime Organization (and the International Labour Organization) con- cerning safety and pollution prevention. However, many other maritime instruments concerning more specifi c issues are also in force worldwide.

Dealing with the ship • SOLAS (International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974) lays down a comprehensive range of minimum standards for the safe construction of ships and the basic safety equipment (e.g. fi re protection, navigation, lifesaving and radio) to be carried on board. SOLAS also requires regular ship surveys and the issue by fl ag states of certifi cates of compliance. • MARPOL (International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973/1978) contains requirements to prevent pollution that may be caused both accidentally and in the course of routine operations. MARPOL concerns the preven- tion of pollution from oil, bulk chemicals, dangerous goods, sewage, garbage and atmospheric pollution, and includes provisions such as those which require certain oil tankers to have double hulls. • COLREG (Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Colli- sions at Sea, 1972) lays down the basic “rules of the road”, such as rights of way and actions to avoid collisions. • LOADLINE (International Convention on Loadlines, 1966) sets the minimum permissible free board, according to the season of the year and the ship’s trading pattern. • ISPS (The International Ship and Port Facility Security Code, 2002) includes mandatory requirements to ensure ships and port facilities are secure at all stages during a voyage.

Dealing with the shipping company • ISM (The International Safety Management Code, 1993) effectively requires shipping companies to have a licence to operate. Companies and their ships must undergo regular audits to ensure that a safety management system is in place, including adequate procedures and lines of communication between ships and their managers ashore.

Dealing with the seafarer • STCW (International Convention on Standards of Training, Certifi cation and

Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978/1995/2010) establishes uniform standards of competence for seafarers. • ILO 147 (The ILO Merchant Shipping (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1976) requires national administrations to have effective legislation on labor issues such as hours of work, medical fi tness and seafarers’ working conditions. This was superseded by the ILO Maritime Labor Convention, 2006) which entered into force on 30 August 2013.

Credit: International Chamber of Shipping

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