Pollution

Taylor Energy agreed to host a public meeting next month in order to provide information on the oil leak and company’s response to the leak.

In 2002, the Greek-owned and Bahamas-operated tanker ‘Prestige’ encountered heavy weather during a routine voyage and eventually sank off the coast of Spain, causing the worst environmental disaster in the country and one of the greatest oil spills in Europe.

Many of our waste products end up in the sea and then can move through the ocean, endangering marine life through entanglement, ingestion and intoxication. The Sea Change, a project funded from EU H2020, cited the top five sources of marine pollution and the implications they create for marine life.

The sinking of the Amoco Cadiz in 1978 came to claim again the title of the world’s worst oil spill, putting another dark spot in the environmental record of shipping.

More than 50 years after the supertanker ‘Torrey Canyon’ ran aground off England, spurring every drop of its crude oil cargo into the Atlantic, SAFETY4SEA attempts to analyze the world’s first major oil tanker disaster that put the meaning of environmental conservation in a new context.

One of the most concerning problems that our oceans are facing nowadays – if not the most important – is plastic pollution. Plastics are the cause of increasing ocean pollution, which in turn affects marine life, and consequently humans as well. However, there are easy steps that everyone can follow, in order to eliminate this matter.

ITOPF paper As of 1st January 2013, amendments to MARPOL Annex V mean that shippers have new responsibilities regarding cargo classification and how it affects the ability of the crew to discharge hold wash water into the marine environment. From this date shippers will need to consider whether or not the cargo residues present in the water are harmful to the marine environment (HME).ITOPF paper on Bulk Cargo Hold Wash Water Discharge and Cargo Declarations under MARPOL Annex V sets out the requirements as well as the concept and process of classification of cargoes as HME.The discharge of wash water and any non-recoverable cargo residues contained therein is primarily controlled through MARPOL Annex V, where it is classed as garbage and therefore subject to the controls specified within Regulations 4.1.3 and 6.1.2. of the recent amendments to MARPOL. In essence the discharge of cargo residues contained in wash water is governed by the following criteria:No discharge of cargo residues should occur less than 12 nautical miles from the nearest land, or the nearest ice shelf.No discharge of cargo residues should occur within the six MARPOL defined "Special Areas" (the Mediterranean, the ''Gulfs'' area, the wider Caribbean including the Gulf of...

BIMCO Special Circular on Voyage HME Cargo Clause published A new clause for voyage charter parties has been published for the disposal of cargo residues and washing water from cargoes that are hazardous to the marine environment (HME). It has been developed in response to amendments to MARPOL Annex V that came into effect in 2013.Amendments to MARPOL Annex V covering the disposal of cargo residues and hold washing watercontaining materials that may be "harmful to the marine environment" (HME), took effect in January2013.In July 2013, a revised version of the BIMCO Hold Cleaning/Residue Disposal Clause for TimeCharter Parties was issued (see Special Circular No. 6 - 18 July 2013) holding charterers responsiblefor the costs and time of removal and disposal of HME cargo residues and hold washing water.Under a voyage charter party, cargo residue removal and disposal would normally be for owners'account. However, there is at present no definitive list of HME substances, leaving determination tobe made subjectively by reference to listed criteria. In turn, this relies on the accuracy and integrityof shipper declarations or decisions made by port or other officials.This, in itself, is an unsatisfactorysituation and when coupled with the lack of suitable cargo reception facilities in...

To come into force on 1 January 2013. Revised MARPOL Annex V sets new regulatory requirements regardingthe disposal of garbage from ships and will come into forceon 1 January 2013. The new amendments prohibit the disposal of almost all kinds of garbage at sea with the exemption under specific requirements of food waste, animal carcasses, cargo residues contained in wash water and environmental friendly cleaning agents. As a result of these regulations more and more ships will dispose theirship-generated waste to reception facilities ashore.MARPOL Annex V applies to all ships.Generally, discharge is restricted to food wastes, identified cargo residues, animal carcasses, and identified cleaning agents and additives in washwater which are not harmful to the marine environment. Garbage discharge regulations do not apply when the discharge of garbage from a ship was a necessary action for the purpose ofsecuring the safety of a ship and those on board or saving life at sea. In such casesan entry should be made in the Garbage Record Book, or in theship's official log-book forships of less than 400 gross tonnage.According to revised MARPOL Annex V shipboard generated garbage is to be grouped into the following categories:Plastics -Garbage thatconsists of or includes plastic in...

Plastics are the most common form of marine debris. It is estimated that 8.8 million metric tons of plastic waste are dumped in the world's oceans each year. UN says that plastic debris results in an estimated $13 billion a year in losses from damage to marine ecosystems, including financial losses to fisheries and tourism as well as time spent cleaning beaches.