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Thousands of ships pollute the world’s seas by dumping oil-containing debris on them. This often goes unpunished even when it happens that in international waters there are dramatic consequences for the environment.
“In the beginning I had a problem with this,” the young ship engineer told Deutsche Wellen. He has seen many times how oil polluted water is pumped directly from the boat into the sea. In the Navy school he learned that this is illegal. But in international waters no one deals with the implementation of this rule, says the sailor in a telephone conversation that is interrupted from time to time.
We get it on the phone from Berlin when it is thousands of miles away. He begs us not to reveal his identity for security reasons. Also not to mention the name of the large tanker ship with which it is sailing. He points out that oil-polluted waters are released into the sea mainly at night, being protected from darkness. This happens regularly. “In the meantime I’m used to it, though it’s sad,” he says softly. Being young in the crew he risks losing his job if he eats with superiors.
Newsletters and satellite imagery
The dumping of oil and oil-polluted waters into the sea has been banned for decades. But many tankers and container vessels systematically circumvent this rule in order to save money and time, which has major consequences for the environment. This has been confirmed by a research conducted by Deutsche Welles with the investigative network Lighthouse Reports and eight other European partner media.
The research, which lasted several months, is based on reports from Whistleblowers and experts. They show what tricks the crews use to escape the rules when they are in territorial waters. Analysis of satellite images shows that illegal spills of oil waste from merchant ships are a common thing. Only a small number of cases are detected and prosecuted.
World Merchant Navy in magnification
The global dimension of this problem can be seen by looking at the world merchant fleet, which has greatly enlarged in recent decades. 55,000 tankers and container vessels today transport oil, cereals, smartphones and clothing across world waters. 90 percent of all goods in the world are transported by water. Which means that without sea freight, one half of humanity would suffer from hunger and the other half would freeze from the cold.
Modern container vessels can reach lengths of up to 400 meters. During the operation of this giant machine waste is created, which is collected in a tank of the ship. These wastes are harmful mixtures consisting of water, oil and grease, fuels and cleaning detergents. A single vessel can produce several tons of these toxic fluids a day.
Cleaning of contaminated ship debris is provided by law
International rules are very clear: Shipwrecks must be cleaned before being dumped at sea. This is done with the help of a so-called oil separator, which separates the oil from the water. For large ships this process is mandatory. This has been provided for by law by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) since the 1970s.
According to him, every liter of ship waste must contain very low amounts of oil before being emptied into the sea. Oil residue left over from cleaning should be kept on board and removed later when the vessel is in port. The amount removed at the port, the crew must document in a log for cleaning the waste. But this, people inside say, can be easily manipulated.
Money saving crime
In practice, many ships do not follow the rules and dump the waste at sea without filtering it. Thus they save time and money: Because they do not pay for garbage disposal at ports and the transport company does not waste hours of freight hours. This increases profit.
These practices of illegal dumping of waste in international waters were confirmed to Deutsche Wellen and other media partners, five Whistleblowers, whistleblowers. They have been eyewitnesses of illegal dumping of waste from tankers and container vessels.
Ecological catastrophe
When shipwrecks are dumped unfiltered into the sea, this has dramatic consequences for the ecosystem: The oil contained in the waste harms the small marine animals that feed on the large fish. Also ending up in mussels and fish, the oil ends up in food networks and therefore in humans.
Other harmful substances found in ship debris, such as lead metal and cadmium, are also harmful to the environment. Researchers say the problem is not with a single ship dumping garbage into the sea, but with the large number of cases that cause a steady increase in harmful substances in marine waters.
Trick with a portable pump
Some Whistleblowers told Deutsche Wellen how to break the rules for cleaning debris on board ships: With the help of a small portable pump, liquid waste is collected in a tank other than the one that should be, mainly collected in waste tank. “This is very simple,” explains one sailor. “You can mount the pump in five minutes, and also disassemble it in five minutes, and hide it somewhere.”
In the dark of night the harmful mixture is pumped out of the waste tank into the sea, sailors say. This reduces the risk of detection by satellite imagery, by ships or surveillance aircraft, which are for example on missions in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea.
“Many black sheep”
Fearing they might lose their jobs, many Whistleblowers beg to be anonymous. Deutsche Welle is therefore not able to fully verify the cases they point to. But the central aspect of their stories, made independently of each other, is the same. They also match the knowledge of experts such as Christian Bussau, a marine biologist at the environmental organization Greenpeace. “If something like this were to happen in the English Channel, for example, in the middle of the day, on a good day, then the water police would surely be on the run,” said Bussau, who has been involved for 25 years. with pollution of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. “But when ships do them when the weather is bad, there are storms or at night, then the chances are high that they will go undetected.” There are “many black sheep in international waters.”
Discoveries from satellite images
Pollution with oil residues in international waters is difficult to detect, but they leave traces in satellite images. The traces of oil that ships leave behind are often several miles long. Their characteristic shape can be well distinguished from the orbit.
The American environmental organization SkyTruth specializes in evaluating such satellite images, combining satellite data with local shipping data. Based on SkyTruth data, Deutsche Welle and other partner media were able to identify from July 2020 to December 2021 more than 1,500 illegal oil spills worldwide.
According to SkyTruth estimates, the amount of oil-containing waste that ends up in the oceans by this route could reach 200,000 cubic meters. That’s five times the amount spilled during the 1989 oil disaster, when the Exxon Valdez tanker sank in Prinz-William-Sund, Alaska.
However satellites cover only part of the world’s waters, so the actual number of potential pollutions is thought to be greater.
European Union warning system
European authorities have also begun the fight against pollution of the seas with oil waste. This fight is the responsibility of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). This agency also evaluates satellite images, but does not make public its data. It leaves criminal prosecution to member states.
If EMSA detects a contamination with oil residues in a satellite image, then within 30 minutes it sends a warning signal to the coastal state affected by the pollution. The affected country may launch aircraft or vessels to verify the warning data.
Since 2007, EMSA has discovered with its “CleanSeaNet” program more than 44,000 potential spills of oil waste in European waters. But this system has its drawbacks: Many countries react more slowly after receiving the warning signal. Thus for example in 2019, only 30 percent of the warning signals were verified locally, and only five percent of them within the critical three-hour timeframe. After this period, the oil begins to dissolve in the water.
Punishments do not scare you
In the opinion of Maja Markovič Kostelac, Executive Director of EMSA, “in European waters there are regular illegal spills of oil and other substances harmful to the environment.” Only a small number of violations are detected and prosecuted. The fines that are imposed do not cause fear, in Germany the fines are often not more than 15,000 euros.
The US follows another path: There, in Whistleblowern, plaintiffs receive large financial rewards when they report illegal dumping of waste in U.S. waters and when the case ends in court. Fines can go up to several million dollars.
Whistleblowers receive up to half that amount if they are not U.S. citizens. Such an incentive system could become a model for Europe by increasing the penalties for those who dump oil waste at sea without much thought./DW
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