The increase in shipping and maritime trade in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea regions represents an ever increasing risk for our seas and coastal areas. Extensive measures to improve maritime safety are urgently required in order to counteract this growing threat. Not only the recent major pollution incidents, involving the tanker Erika off the coast of Brittany, the Baltic Carrier in the Baltic Sea and the Prestige off the Spanish coast, but also many near misses are exemplary warnings of the threats lurking on the seas at our doorstep.

The urgency of this problem is magnified by the increase in Russian tanker traffic in both the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Russia currently expands her oil terminal capacities in the Gulf of Finland and redirects oil exports from the Black Sea to the Baltic.

A new pipeline, leading from Kazakhstan to St. Petersburg, will eventually double the amount of oil transported to the Baltic for export. Likewise, the Baltic States are upgrading their oil ports. These trends show that in future a significantly higher proportion of tankers, and typically old tankers with low safety and maintenance standards, will pass through our coastal seas. Action needs to be taken!

The following catalogue of demands stipulates the main measures the BUND believes need to be taken in order reduce the risk of shipping accidents in the North Sea and the Baltic.

Maritime Traffic Monitoring

The BUND demands complete radar monitoring of vessels along the Wadden Sea/North Sea and the Baltic Sea including the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), supplemented by an Automatic Identification System (AIS), until the end of 2003.

The principal requirement for a safety concept is a continuous monitoring of vessel movements. The goals of traffic monitoring are the identification of all vessels and the generation and continuous updating of the traffic situation. This form of control can only be realised by the use of long-range radar tracking. The gradual introduction of Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) for vessels from a certain size upwards represents a useful additional control mechanism, but does not replace the necessity for long-range radar surveillance as small vessels are not covered.

Maritime Traffic Routeing and Regulation

The BUND demands safety-oriented regulation of maritime traffic to avoid or minimise risk until 2004. This can be done via mandatory navigational assistance from radar-operating pilots for all vessels in adverse environmental circumstances, such as low visibility, strong gales, storms, and ice.

To date, radar-based routing service is only provided following special request, and is limited to vessels of a certain size or cargo, such as oil, chemicals and other dangerous goods. Furthermore, routing is only offered for a few shipping areas and approaches. In future, the service must be extended to include all territorial waters and the EEZ in order to ease navigation in North and Baltic Sea waters easier for all ships, thus reducing risk.

It is necessary to organise maritime traffic regulation similarly to aviation control in order to avoid potentially dangerous situations. This includes, for instance, regulatory mechanisms which prohibit the close passage of passenger ships and chemical tankers in narrow navigational lanes. Change of the planned route in good time reduces risk and alleviates the flow of traffic. Ideally, this would be realised by the formation of one or several international traffic control centres for a complete monitoring of vessel traffic, applicable to wider regional sea areas.

Compulsory Pilotage

The BUND demands an extension of compulsory pilotage for all navigation lanes within territorial waters, inclusive of the EEZ, for all vessels transporting oil, chemicals, gas and other dangerous goods until the end of 2003.

The BUND also demands compulsory pilotage for all vessels with a draft in excess of 9m (tankers: > 7m), and for all vessels in excess of 180m length, destined for the Baltic Sea approaches Great Belt, Little Belt, Sound; as well as the Kadetrenden, the Gulf of Finland and the Bothnian Sea.

In the Kadetrenden, for which pilotage is recommended for deep-draft vessels, approximately 95% of vessels take pilots onboard. None of the 20 vessels or so which have grounded there in the past five years had a pilot on board!

Land-based routing and advisory service alone is certainly no substitute for on-board pilotage, since it lacks direct information regarding the situation onboard as well as the possibility for immediate mitigative intervention.

PSSA Status for the Particularly Sensitive Baltic Sea

The BUND demands the designation of the whole Baltic Sea including Russian territorial Waters as a PSSA (Particularly Sensitive Sea Area) in line with the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) and the adoption of appropriate measures to improve the maritime safety by the IMO.

PSSAs are marine areas requiring special protection due to their ecological, economic, cultural or scientific significance and their specific vulnerability towards detrimental effects of maritime traffic. As now for most of the Baltic Sea the PSSA status has been granted by the IMO, special measures, which exceed the already internationally recognised IMO standards, have to be adopted by the IMO and implemented.

Such measures may include,

• the establishment of traffic separation schemes,

• compulsory navigational lanes,

• closed areas,

• compulsory pilotage ,

• the introduction of formal maritime traffic management.

Task Force and Combating Capacity

The BUND demands the provision of adequate and well coordinated task force resources (salvage tugs, fire fighting, spill combating and lighter vessels) until 2005 which mirror the level of existing maritime traffic and are upgraded in line with future traffic development.

Ocean-going salvage tugs with a high tow force and speed are necessary, particularly in emergency situations in rough weather. The objective is to be ready for on-site emergency assistance within two hours.

Places of Refuge Network

The BUND demands the establishment of a “Places of Refuge Network” for ship casualties along the North and Baltic Sea coasts in agreement with neighbouring states until 2004.

The secret lists which exist since a short time should be made public to inform and prepare local authorities and volunteer organisations, as well as improve resources and training.

For years, salvage experts have called for the provision of safe havens as emergency refuges or safe anchorages to be used by ships in distress, e.g. the tanker Castor in the Mediterranean. The Prestige accident could probably have been prevented by allowing the damaged ship into port.

Strengthening of Port State Controls (PSCs)

The BUND demands tougher port state controls and corresponding significant increases in state funding. Adequate personnel and technical resources must be made available for the existing port state controls, and likewise for a tougher control regime in future.

Port state controls (PSCs) are exercised world-wide. This includes an inspection of compliance with internationally recognised minimum maritime safety regulations onboard vessels, carried out by representatives of the port state. This audit is mostly limited to an examination of certificates and vessel logs; and only rarely an evaluation of the real state of the ship, its equipment and sea crew.

The crude oil tanker Erika, which broke up in December 1999 off the Atlantic coast of France, was subject to port state control and passed without cause for complaint only days prior to sailing. The European Union has therefore initiated a tightening of port state controls as part of a catalogue of measures designed to improve safety at sea.

Reduction of Risk of Hazardous Substance Discharges following Shipping Accidents

The BUND demands a ban of single-hull tankers in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea preferable until 2005, and in no case later than 2008. In addition, the BUND demands the safeguarding against hazardous substance emissions from vessels other than tankers by the use double-hull vessel design.

Hazardous liquids like ship's fuel must no longer be transported in tanks whose outer walls are part of the hull of the vessel. The use of double-hull tanks represents an urgently required reduction in emissions risk in the case of groundings or collisions.

For smaller vessels engaged in national coastal shipping, and for all regular ferry lines, the BUND demands exclusive use of lighter fuel types (i.e. marine diesel oil, marine gas oil), reducing air emissions as well as the risk of long-term water and coastal pollution.

For further information:

BUND AK Meer & Küste
stefan.menzel@bund.net
or wolfgang.guenther@bund.net