Only 0.5% of 90,000 oil slicks reported over five-year period, analysis finds | Shipping industry

Only 474 out of more than 90,000 oil slicks from ships from around the world have been reported to the authorities over a period of five years, it can be revealed, and barely any punishment or sanction.

The figure, obtained from the Lloyd list by Guardian and Watershed surveys, shows the pollution incidents reported between 2014 and 2019, compared to a scientific study using satellite imagery which counted the number of ships of ships during the same period.

In addition, all the petroleum smoking of ships visible by satellites are illegal because they exceed the pollution limits of at least three orders of magnitude, revealed new research from Florida State University. Many of theiles are the result of ships that deliberately deposit holder water containing oil in order to maintain stable ships.

“The level of pollution sub-declaration is a huge unknown,” said Dr. Elizabeth Atwood of Plymouth Marine Laboratory. “The argument that has historically been advanced is that there is an equal quantity from natural oozing. But recent research continues to point out that this is not true for a large part of the world,” said Atwood.

Hugo Tagholm, the executive director of Oceana UK, said: “It is appalling to hear about the extreme levels of toxic pollution caused by these oil spills, as well as the frankly folding sub-declaration of the situation.”

An in -depth analysis by scientists of hundreds of thousands of satellite satellite images in the seas of the world between 2014 and 2019, revealed that 20% – or 90,411 – came from ships and increased to approximately the size of Italy, with 21 high density Celts coinciding with shipping routes. In comparison, 2% came from petroleum platforms and pipelines, and just over 6% of natural oil oozing at the bottom of the ocean. The others came from land sources or unidentified ships.

“Our data show that these spills represent persistent and generalized violations,” said Ian Macdonald, professor of oceanography of Florida State University and co-author of the newspaper.

The researchers say that it is the first time that the data of the real world has proven that the discharges properly processed do not leave a visible trace.

“This suggests that dumping of the hold is an omnipresent problem in the world oceans for decades,” said Carrie O’Reilly, principal author of Florida State University.

However, only a fraction of these pollution incidents faced any sanction under the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of Ships (Marpol).

“It is difficult to think of a case where a transitional oil table has invited regulatory measures,” said McDonald, who believes that time and expenses to file a complaint against a well -funded sea company are prohibitive.

In European waters, for example, despite the EU pollution laws which sometimes go beyond Marpol in the rigor and satellite systems used, the application of the law remains unequal with limited sanctions and few prosecution, the European hearing courtyard warned in March.

“In our recent audit of EU actions to combat maritime pollution by ships, we have concluded that polluting ships can still pass through the net,” said Nikolaos Milionis, member of the CEA responsible for the audit.

“In particular, we have found that EU countries check less than half of the possible spills detected by the EU satellite system. In the end, they confirmed pollution in only 7% of cases. This shows the two limitations of technology and in the means used by Member States to verify alerts,” said Milionis.

Auditors have concluded that pollution of ships was a serious problem and that with more than three -quarters of the European seas estimated as having a pollution problem, zero pollution ambition to protect people’s health, biodiversity and fish stocks were out of reach.

In another new study on satellite images off the coast of six West African countries from 2021 to 2022, Atwood found that 16% of theiles, almost covering the size of 28,800 football fields, came from ships. In this same period, no incident was recorded by the international authorities of marine pollution off the coast of Benin, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Togo.

Experts warned that these chronic spills threatened marine life.

“All visible smooths should be considered harmful to the marine environment, especially since the traces of petroleum are damaged to the planktonic organisms, which form the Base of the Marine Food web, “said O’Reilly.

“Individually, the volumes of oil are quite small, however, when you add all the trafficking in ships, and we must note that the circulation of ships and the occurrence of these oil tablecloths increase over time, the cumulative effect is certainly significant,” said McDonald.

Much of the pollution of ships comes from what is called the dumping of hold. The potentially toxic oil and liquids in the machine’s machine room accumulates in the lowest part of a ship, known as the hold. The ships must get rid of Bilgewater because, if it is not controlled, it can affect the stability of a ship and be corrosive, resulting in security risks. It can legally be released at sea if it is treated by an oily water separator, which large ships have on board, but that does not always happen.

“Some ships could be seriously maintained and the hold will constantly fill,” said a sailor who wishes to remain anonymous. “It takes time to go through the separator, so stay on top, the oil separator is bypassed. Or the separator can be broken.”

Bilgewater could also be discharged at the port for treatment, but this is expensive.

“The commercial pressures in the expedition are enormous. This is profit and any economy you can make. Being in the port is the most expensive period of the trip. There are shipping costs, piloting costs, it’s expensive and the less you do at the port and the less you spend the time you spend there, the less it is cheaper, “said the sailor.

He also wondered if there were enough inspectors in the ports to check the ships and examine their newspapers of oil.

A spokesperson for the Maritime International Organization (IMI) said: “Operational discharges of oil and water Bilges at sea by ships are regulated within the framework of the annex to the Marpol I convention. Ships must transport a compulsory petroleum file book, which should record all transfers and rejection of sludge and allow controls and monitoring by flag states and port … [which] have the delivery and responsibility for the implementation of the Treaties of the OMI. »»

Ocean environmentalists like Tagholm want more measures to be taken to clean the maritime transport industry.

“The oil tankers, carrying oil and gas around the world, constitute a third or more of all expeditions,” he said. “If we finish our dependence on fossil fuels – as we must prevent climate deterioration – we also stop the serious consequences of these spills, to disturb the foundations of marine food chains.”

This story was produced in partnership with the Ocean of the Pulitzer Center reports network