Abstract
Marine accident of the Maltese tanker Erika is the biggest environmental disaster ever to hit France. 12th of December 1999, on the way from Dunkerque (France) to Livorno (Italy), Erika broke in two and sank near the French coast, spilling around 20.000 tons of heavy fuel oil into the sea. About 11.000 tons of dangerous cargo, trapped inside the sunken wreck, presented a danger to the environment. Severe weather conditions prevented any offshore clean-up operations. Oil trapped inside the wreckage was pumped out, while the on-shore clean-up operations lasted for another two years. This accident had a direct impact on the economy of affected regions and resulted in numerous lawsuits against the ship owners, charterers and classification societies. This paper aims to provide an overview of oil spill pollution clean-up methods and technologies after the accident of tanker Erika.
Highlights
The Maltese tanker Erika was 24 years old
Large disposal sites were in the vicinity of Elf Antar France Donges refinery, 30 km from Nantes. Four such disposal sites were opened all together in which by September 2000 about 220,000 tons of waste were collected. These packages of safety measures were symbolically called Erika I, II and III, as a reminder of disastrous consequences of the spill that could have been avoided if more care had been taken of the safety of sea transport, and less of economic cost effectiveness provided by ships such as Erika - older tankers with single shell plating
The accident of the tanker Erika pointed to a number of problems with which the International Maritime Organisation had to cope so as to prevent similar incidents in the future
Summary
The Maltese tanker Erika was 24 years old. From the economic point of view her old age was an advantage, i.e. her chartering cost was 50 % lower than that of a newer tanker. New air surveys carried out in the following few days confirmed that the stain broke into a series of smaller ones 5 to 8 cm thick that continued floating parallel with the coast line. Heavy wind and bad conditions at sea continued breaking the stain into smaller ones, smaller stain were heaping as soon as short calming down of conditions occurred. Ships equipped for this type of accident and pollution were brought, according to the regulations of the Bonn Convention, from several European states with the aim of preventing further expansion and allow later recovery from pollution.
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