THE EUROPEAN CONTROLLING SYSTEM TO REDUCE OIL DISCHARGES IN THE SEA

Abstract

Ship-origin operational discharges of oil mainly include the discharge of bilge water from motor rooms, fuel oil sludge and oily ballast water from fuel tanks. Also, various tankers can illegally discharge of tank-washing residues. Accidental discharges can appear when ship collide or come in distress at sea (e.g. engine breakdown, fire, explosion, pipeline breaks). There is necessity of continuous inspection of marine shipping routes, especially in environmentally sensitive areas (e.g. whole Baltic Sea). If protection against oil pollution is considered - the coastal nations of the North Sea are formed in the Bonn Agreement, whereas coastal nations of the Baltic Sea are formed in the HELCOM convention. Both organizations carrying out the international aerial surveillances and manage international oil-combat systems. Unfortunately, air surveillance can operate mainly in good weather, good visibility and in daylight. The surface of the whole world is observed independently on the time of day and weather by antennas of Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR) of dozen military satellites with resolution of several meters. Some civil satellites equipped with SAR, supply every few days a set of signals which in ground-based centres are transformed to image of a define area of the sea surface. In these images, the shapes of places, which can be interpreted as polluted by an oil film, are shown. The system is introduced after EU directive and managed by European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). EMSA has developed the CleanSeaNet service - a satellite based monitoring system for marine oil spill detection. Advantages and limitations of the SAR-methods are discussed in this study. Physical, meteorological and hydrological as well as organizational conditions for effective use of this system are considered.