Oil Pollution in the Mediterranean Sea: Part II

This book (Part II of a volume on “Oil Pollution in the Mediterranean Sea”) presents a review of knowledge on oil pollution in the Mediterranean Sea, through a series of national and regional case studies. Making use of a range of data on oil extraction and production activities, oil transportation, satellite technology, aerial surveillance, in situ monitoring, oil spill sampling and oil fingerprinting, for example, it presents a picture of trends in oil pollution in various areas of the region over many years. It examines national practices in a number of Mediterranean Sea states. A range of legislative measures are in place to protect the marine environment of the region. For example, the Mediterranean Sea and its various regions, such as the Adriatic Sea, have Special Status for the prevention of pollution by oil from ships under the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships and its Protocols (MARPOL 73/78 Convention). At the same time, the Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea Against Pollution (Barcelona Convention, 1976) and its various protocols provide a legislative framework under which countries in the region can work together to cooperate in preventing pollution from ships, for example, and work together to combat pollution in the event of an emergency. National contingency planning and oil pollution preparedness and response activities and the work of the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Centre (REMPEC) for the Barcelona Convention’s contracting parties are also discussed within various national case studies. This book brings together the work of scientists, legal and policy experts, academic researchers and specialists in various fields relating to marine environmental protection, satellite monitoring, oil pollution and the Mediterranean Sea.

This chapter presents an overview of the French Mediterranean marine pollution prevention and response organization and its recent evolution in relation to the threat and consequences of tankers accidents and operational spills in the maritime areas under French jurisdiction. Accidental shipping spills statistics for the whole Mediterranean from 1977 to 2010, gathered and exploited by Girin in Part I (The International Context) of this book, were compared with existing data for water areas under French jurisdiction. During the period surveyed, there was no accidental spill above 10 tons in those waters. However, in 1991, waves, wind and current carried, to the famous “Côte d’Azur,” an estimated 10,000 tons of weathered and partially burnt oil from a 144,000 tons spill in Italian waters. As regards operational pollution, aerial surveillance reported an average 330 spills per year during the decade 2000 to 2009 in the area of the Mediterranean under French jurisdiction; down to 115 spills in 2012.

The chapter examines then the specificities of the Mediterranean waters under French jurisdiction as regards oil pollution and highlights the main areas of progress under way. This concerns mainly (1) the evolution of aerial and satellite surveillance of operational spills and the transfer of that experience to accidental spills; (2) the prosecution of offenders and the measures taken to constrain shipowners to deal with the risk of possible pollution from wrecks, at their expense; (3) the sharing of experience and response with partners from the industry and counterparts in neighbouring countries; (4) support to initiatives of the Regional Marine Pollution Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).

The Mediterranean Sea, rich in biodiversity and with a large number of endemic species, provides sustenance for millions of people living along its coasts. Due to its position it also represents the natural route between major oil production areas and oil consumers. Its preservation passes also through satellite technologies which are ever and ever playing an increasing role in environmental monitoring. Italy, recognizing its contribution, has decided to invest in this sector with the satellite Mission COSMO-SkyMed. Its frequent revisiting time, day and night and all weather acquisition capability, makes it an essential part together with aerial and naval component of the National Contingency Plan (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Review in Maritime Transport. Available at http://​unctad.​org/​en/​PublicationsLibr​ary/​rmt2015_​en.​pdf) to contrast marine oil pollution.

Despite the northwest-southeast orientation of the Adriatic Sea, commercially it is virtually a north–south sea, as it penetrates deep into the European continent, nearly to the foot of the Alps. Large vessel traffic is dense, and accordingly there is a great deal of operational pollution along with the constant threat of accidents and incidents. Researchers have developed the means to detect much of the pollution in the Adriatic, to estimate its extent, and even the means, through satellite images and the process of backtracking, to identify polluters. These techniques promise that the increasing volume of traffic in the Adriatic may coincide with a reduction of pollution from commercial vessels. However, many other sources of oil pollution are of concern, including offshore industry, fishing, natural seeps, extraction of natural gases and oil from beneath the seabed and the corroding wrecks from as long as 70 years ago. There is also concern that legislation is not strict enough in the cases of platforms and chemical tankers. Further issues and complications derive from the nature of the sea, which is shallow and is fed by a high number of streams and rivers. The Adriatic, as is actually the case for the entire Mediterranean, is classified as a Special Area (according to MARPOL Annex I), which limits the amount of legal discharging of oily wastes, for instance. In addition, since few years the possibility to extend to the Adriatic the status of Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) is under discussion. Yet the likelihood that traffic will increase and the causes of pollution detailed here will persist suggests that the need for continued scientific intervention and further legislation will also increase if the Adriatic is to maintain a semblance of a healthy environment.

Spaceborne synthetic aperture radars (SAR) are used as major instruments for operational oil spill detection and monitoring, and for this reason attract significant research interest. A large number of SAR images acquired and collected over the Adriatic Sea provided high number of oil slicks to be analysed. These slicks may come from different sources, from natural to anthropogenic, accidental or deliberate. Given are examples of oil slicks detected on the images of the Envisat and Radarsat-1 satellites in the period 2003–2016. The SAR images were obtained mainly through research projects from ESA and other sources. The images were processed via ESA software and integrated using Geo-Mixer by SCANEX RDC (www.​scanex.​ru). We presented and discussed the most pronounced causes of oil pollution, their sizes, shapes and prevailing locations in the Adriatic Sea as well as oil spill distribution maps. Main sources are considered to be due to routine tank washing operations and illegal discharges. The Adriatic Sea is a small semi-enclosed sea, and oil spill accidents could have far reaching consequences for the encompassing countries. Because of the general regime of circulation and its variability the coast of Croatia is highly vulnerable. Presented are also geographical and geological features and physical properties of the Adriatic Sea, particularly those relevant for transport and dispersions of oil pollution. Discussed are possible threats to the Croatian coastal communities, regarding increased transport in the Adriatic and new investigation and exploration, some of which is about to be executed in the Southern and Middle Adriatic, and some are already going on in the west coast.

The Mediterranean Sea was defined as a “special area” under the MARPOL Convention in 1983 for its oceanographic and ecological conditions and maritime traffic. 30% of all international seaborne trade are originating from or directed to Mediterranean ports or passing through these waters. The Mediterranean Sea is under heavy use by Russian and Middle East Asia petroleum transport lines which threaten the Turkish coasts. Turkish strategy for the responding accidental oil pollution is to respond as fast as possible on the sea with mechanical oil recovery techniques. The use of dispersants as a chemical recovery technique is not allowed without permission from the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization of Turkey. Preparedness for the accidental oil pollution emergency response infrastructures such as risk analysis, semi-online oil spill model, determination of the places of refuge for ships in need of assistance and decision support system and contingency plans in three tiers are completed and have been available in an emergency situation. In Turkey, illegal discharges are monitored by coast guard ships, and penalties are imposed on polluters according to the related law. Emergency response plans are in force in Turkey and renewed every 2 years.

The Eastern Mediterranean Sea, to which the State of Israel is a part of, is an area susceptible to pollution by and large because of the extra dense transport of oil products as well as oil and gas exploration and production activities. As a party to the main international legal instruments aimed at preparing to and combating oil pollution emergencies, Israel is striving continuously to have in place the structural, procedural, technical, and human means and measures that will enable it to respond to such events effectively. The basic legal framework was derived from the international agreements, and the budgets are allocated from a special fund. To this end the Marine Environment Protection Division of Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection is the national competent authority for many of the marine environmental protection subjects, as well as oil pollution preparedness and response. Although a response system to an oil spill must be in place, prevention at source always proves to be the most cost-effective and environmentally sound strategy in the marine environmental management. That is the reason Israel demonstrates rather rigorous Port State Control efforts of the proper regulations and standards, in order to create the appropriate deterrence effect. Last but not least, enforcement measures against polluters are taken on regular basis.

Cyprus is strategically located in the crossroad between three continents and accepts significant marine traffic within its maritime borders. The conflict of the oil transport activity and the high environmental and social capital of the North-Eastern Mediterranean renders the area with high risk for oil pollution. Only seven serious marine accidents have been recorded in the last decade but more than 1,000 possible oil spills were detected in the Levantine Basin through satellite observation systems. The potential increase of oil traffic in the area due to the hydrocarbon discoveries in the region between Israel, Egypt and Cyprus is likely to increase oil spill risks in the near future. To address oil pollution, Cyprus is implementing a National Contingency Plan (NCP) for Oil Pollution Combating where both the private and government sector contributes. Surveillance of accidental and operation oil spills is achieved by aerial and naval means as well as through satellite remote sensing monitoring and oil spill forecasting models. Cyprus has strong socio-economic bonds to the sea and a sensitive marine environmental heritage thus even a small oil spill can have significant environmental, social and economic impacts on the island. To avoid a marine pollution disaster, continuous improvement of the oil prevention and response capabilities of Cyprus is necessary. This can be achieved through investing in monitoring assets, technological innovation and forecasting models.

As one of the three top oil producers in Africa, with a coastline of 1,644 km along the Mediterranean south shore, Algeria is a major stakeholder in the oil pollution in the Western Basin of the Mediterranean Sea. In this chapter, we review the major sources and levels of pollution from the three largest oil export terminals of Algeria, which also combine major oil refineries, including the largest refinery in Africa, and their potential impact on the overall pollution of the Mediterranean waters and beyond.

This book (Part II of a volume on “Oil Pollution in the Mediterranean Sea”) has presented a review of knowledge on oil pollution in the Mediterranean Sea, through a series of national and regional case studies. Those chapters have used a range of data on oil extraction and production activities, oil transportation, satellite technology, aerial surveillance, and in situ monitoring, for example, to present a picture of trends in oil pollution in various areas of the region over many years. A range of legislative measures are in place to protect the marine environment of the region, including the Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea Against Pollution (Barcelona Convention, 1976) and its Protocols. The Mediterranean Sea and its various regions, such as the Adriatic Sea, have special status for the prevention of pollution by oil from ships under International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships and its Protocols (MARPOL 73/78 Convention). National Contingency Planning (NCP) and other activities take place under the aegis of the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Region (REMPEC), through which countries in the region can work together to cooperate in preventing pollution from ships, for example, and work together to combat pollution in the event of an emergency. NCP and oil pollution preparedness and response activities are discussed within a number of the national case studies. By bringing together the work of scientists, legal and policy experts, academic researchers, and specialists in various fields relating to marine environmental protection, satellite monitoring, oil pollution, and the Mediterranean Sea, these national case studies present a picture of oil pollution from a range of sources (shipping – accidental, operational, and illegal), offshore oil and gas exploration and exploitation, and coastal refineries, to present a picture of the current situation in the Mediterranean Sea.