Ship-Source Spills – it's More Than Just Oil

Abstract

For over 50 years, ITOPF has attended on-site at marine spills worldwide on behalf of the shipping industry. ITOPF staff have provided objective technical advice at over 800 incidents in 100 countries, gaining unparalleled insight into changing trends in ship-source pollution. Spills of oil were originally the focus of ITOPF's activities, initially from tankers and later from a wide range of ships. Over time, there has been a dramatic and sustained reduction in both the number of oil spills and the quantity of oil spilt from tankers, as ITOPF's statistics demonstrate. Though spills of oil cargoes and bunker fuel remain at the core of ITOPF's work, its activities have expanded in recent years to include other pollutants, such as vegetable oils, hazardous and non-hazardous chemicals, coal, foodstuffs, plastics and the myriad of other products transported in container ships. Almost two thirds of the incidents ITOPF attends now involve non-tankers and in the past 20 years, 14% of all attended incident involved products or substances other than, or in addition to, oil. Oil spill events can cause environmental damage and typically attract considerable media attention. However, other marine pollutants also have the potential to cause environmental damage and pose significant challenges for responders. This paper draws on ITOPF's first-hand experience to examine some of the recent trends in spill response, using case histories to highlight key issues involved with the response of spills of assorted oils and cargoes at sea.