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The Guardian
29-07-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Only 0.5% of 90,000 oil slicks reported over five-year period, analysis finds
Just 474 out of more than 90,000 oil slicks from ships around the world were reported to authorities over a five-year period, it can be revealed, and barely any resulted in any punishment or sanctions. The figure, obtained from Lloyd's List by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations, shows the pollution incidents reported between 2014 and 2019, compared against a scientific study using satellite imagery that counted the number of slicks from ships over the same period. Furthermore, all oil slicks from ships visible by satellites are illegal because they exceed pollution limits by at least three orders of magnitude, new research by Florida State University has found. Many of the slicks are the result of ships deliberately discharging bilge water containing oil in order to keep the vessels stable. 'The level of under-reporting of pollution is a huge unknown,' Dr Elizabeth Atwood from Plymouth Marine Laboratory said. 'The argument that has historically been made is that there is an equal amount coming from natural seeps. But recent research keeps underlining that this is not true for much of the globe,' said Atwood. Hugo Tagholm, the executive director of Oceana UK, said: 'It is appalling to hear of the extreme levels of toxic pollution caused by these oil spills from shipping, as well as the frankly mind-bending under-reporting of the situation.' Extensive analysis by scientists of hundreds of thousands of satellite images of slicks in the world's seas between 2014 and 2019, found that 20% – or 90,411 – originated from ships and added up to about the size of Italy, with 21 high-density slick belts coinciding with shipping routes. In comparison, 2% were from oil platforms and pipelines, and just over 6% from natural oil seeps on the ocean floor. The rest were either from land sources or unidentified ships. 'Our data show that these spills represent persistent and widespread violations,' said Ian MacDonald, a retired professor of oceanography from Florida State University and coauthor of the paper. The researchers say this is the first time that real world data has proven that properly treated discharges do not leave a visible trace. 'It suggests that bilge dumping has been a pervasive issue in the global oceans for decades,' said Carrie O'Reilly, the lead author at Florida State University. Yet only a fraction of these pollution incidents have faced any sanction under the international convention for the prevention of pollution from ships (Marpol). 'It's hard to think of a case where a transient oil slick would have invited regulatory action,' said McDonald, who believes the time and expense of bringing a case against a well-financed shipping company is prohibitive. In European waters for example, despite EU pollution laws that sometimes surpass Marpol in stringency and satellite-based systems being utilised, enforcement remains uneven with limited penalties and few prosecutions, the European court of auditors warned in March. 'In our recent audit of EU actions tackling sea pollution by ships, we concluded that polluting ships can still slip through the net,' said Nikolaos Milionis, the ECA member responsible for the audit. 'In particular, we found that EU countries check fewer than half of the possible spills detected by the EU satellite-based system. In the end, they confirmed pollution in only 7% of the cases. This shows both limitations in the technology and in the means used by member states to check the alerts,' Milionis said. The auditors concluded that pollution from ships was a serious problem and that with more than three-quarters of European seas estimated to have a pollution problem, the EU's zero-pollution ambition to protect people's health, biodiversity and fish stocks was out of reach. In another new study of satellite images off the coast of six west African countries from 2021 to 2022, Atwood found that 16% of slicks, covering roughly the size of 28,800 football pitches, were from ships. In that same timeframe no incidents were recorded by international marine pollution authorities off the coasts of Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Togo. Experts have warned these chronic spills are threatening sea life. 'All visible slicks should be considered harmful to the marine environment, especially given that trace quantities of oil are damaging to planktonic organisms, which form the base of the marine food web,' said O'Reilly. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion 'Individually the volumes of oil are pretty small, nonetheless, when you add up all the ship traffic, and we should note that ship traffic and the occurrence of these oil slicks is increasing over time, the cumulative effect is certainly significant,' McDonald said. Much of the pollution from ships comes from what is known as bilge dumping. Oil and potentially toxic liquids from the engine room of a ship accumulate in the lowest part of a ship, known as the bilge. Ships need to get rid of bilgewater because, if left unchecked, it can affect a ship's stability and be corrosive, leading to safety hazards. It can legally be released at sea if it is treated by an oily water separator, which large ships have onboard, but that does not always happen. 'Some vessels might be badly maintained and the bilge will be filling up constantly,' said a mariner who wishes to remain anonymous. 'It takes time to go through the separator, so to keep on top of it, the oil water separator is bypassed. Or the separator might be broken.' Bilgewater could also be off-loaded at port for treatment, but this is costly. 'Commercial pressures in shipping are huge. It's all about profit and any savings you can make. Being in port is the most expensive time of the journey. There are port fees, pilotage fees, it's expensive and the less you do at port and the less time you spend there, the cheaper it is,' explained the mariner. He also questioned whether there were enough inspectors at ports to check ships and scrutinise their oil logbooks. A spokesperson for the International Maritime Organization (IMO) said: 'Oil and bilgewater operational discharges at sea by ships are regulated under the Marpol convention annex I. Ships must carry a mandatory oil record book, which should record all oil and sludge transfers and discharge, and allows for checks and monitoring by flag and port states … [which] have the remit and responsibility for implementation of IMO treaties.' Ocean conservationists such as Tagholm want more action to be taken to clean up the shipping industry. 'Tankers, carrying oil and gas across the world, make up a third or more of all shipping,' he said. 'If we ended our addiction to fossil fuels – as we must to prevent climate breakdown – we would also halt the severe consequences of these spills, from disrupting the foundations of marine food chains.' This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center's Ocean Reporting Network
Telegraph
21-07-2025
- Telegraph
Iran's multi-front war against the West is going badly – but not in this one theatre
And now the Houthis and their smuggler allies are complicating this further by fitting the wrong sort of AIS transponder. Vessels over 300 tons should have a full Class A transponder, but smuggling ships are fitting themselves with Class B transponders intended for yachts and small craft. These don't require as much data to be transmitted. Class B kit does transmit a Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) number which is supposed to be unique to each vessel but this also can be falsified. A Lloyds List investigation has shown that one vessel in particular, the Almas, had both Class A and Class B systems fitted and was toggling between the two. This is hardly sophisticated electronic warfare but it's definitely deceptive and, a lot of the time, effective given the sheer volume of ships at sea at any one time. Even calling in to Djibouti and being inspected prior by the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism for Yemen (UNVIM) is no guarantee of righteousness. Vessels have done this and then met up with any one of a thousand non-AIS-fitted dhows between there and their destination port in Yemen and transferred systems at sea. It's a needle-in-a-haystack job that a small UNVIM team with no enforcement capability would struggle to keep up with even before the needles start making themselves look like hay. And this is only one route in. There are two solutions that will help with this. First is to reinvigorate an international inspection regime off the ports like the one Saudi Arabia had in place prior to 2022. As with dark fleet ships and those cutting cables, you still need something of a legal mechanism in place to board and detain them, but unless we get that in place, we will forever be playing catch up. The ships doing this will need to be defended and armed. I'm not talking about a US Arleigh Burke class destroyer level, but something with teeth. Of note, during the last two attacks, there were no warships in the area to either intercept the attacks or assist afterwards. All allied navies now, even the US Navy, cannot spare resources for 'just in case' tasks and the supposed ceasefire saw everyone move away from the area. Ultimately it comes down to international cooperation and funding and what's clear in this case, is that both are insufficient. The second solution is to stop trusting AIS as providing accurate records of where a ship has been. It can't do that. It was designed primarily as an anti-collision system, informing nearby vessels of a ship's presence and its course and speed, and for that it works pretty well. But twenty years ago its lack of accuracy made it inadmissible in UK courts even for fishery protection cases. Today it has shown itself as vulnerable to jamming, spoofing and general misuse as you'd expect from a system designed so long ago and never intended to be used for identification and tracking over entire journeys. What's frustrating is that there are many better sources of data, and sometimes these are used, but invariably, due to the diversity of sources they use, the end product is classified and cannot be publicly revealed. This needs to be rectified or weapons smugglers, sanctions busters and cable cutters will continue to exploit the holes in the current system. That brings us back to international cooperation and funding, which itself will be determined by priorities. You can cost what closing the Bab El Mandeb means for shippers and consumers, and for many classes of goods we are now paying that price and have been for a long time. You can't cost the principle of allowing a major chokepoint to remain closed. It's not all doom and gloom. Just this week, the Yemeni National Resistance Forces (NRF), led by General Tareq Saleh and loyal to the internationally recognised Yemeni government which continues to resist the Houthis, conducted what US Central Command described as 'the largest seizure of Iranian advanced conventional weapons in their history.' Some 750 tons of munitions and military hardware, much of which sat at the higher end of the capability spectrum outlined above, has now been impounded. Much will be learned from this haul, as well as denying its use to the Houthis. Ultimately, what is needed here is what has been needed all along – a comprehensive solution. I've outlined just two parts of this – more aggressive interdiction and more accurate vessel monitoring, but these need to be merged with ongoing intelligence gathering, diplomatic efforts with surrounding countries and an economic squeeze on the facilitators and beneficiaries, of which there are many. Only then will we be sure that a ceasefire isn't just an opportunity for one side to rearm.
New York Times
05-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Red Sea Passage Remains a No-Go for Shipping Despite U.S. Action
The largest commercial shipping companies continue to avoid the Red Sea and Suez Canal, despite a recent cease-fire agreement between the United States and Houthis intended to make the trade lanes safer. The cease-fire, which began May 6, ended a U.S. campaign that involved over 1,100 strikes against the Houthis in Yemen and became a source of embarrassment for the Trump administration after group chats about the strikes inadvertently became public. The Pentagon had planned on a monthslong bombardment, but President Trump ended it after about 50 days. 'If the intention was to restore freedom of navigation, which is what they stated it was, then the results speak for themselves: The shipping industry has not gone back,' said Richard Meade, editor in chief of Lloyd's List, a shipping publication. Ship traffic through the Red Sea is down by around three-fifths since 2023 when the Houthis started targeting ships there in solidarity with Hamas in its war with Israel in Gaza, Mr. Meade said. Fearing that their vessels would be struck, big shipping companies avoided the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, taking a much longer route around the southern tip of Africa to travel between Asia and Europe. The Houthis have said they are still at war with Israel and will attack vessels bound for the country. And though the Houthis have not attacked a commercial vessel since December, shipping companies say they worry that their vessels may be hit, deliberately or mistakenly, and have no plans to sail the southern part of the Red Sea anytime soon. 'We're pretty far from the threshold,' said Vincent Clerc, the chief executive of A.P. Moller-Maersk, a large shipping line based in Copenhagen. Speaking soon after the cease-fire in May, he said the Red Sea would have to remain safe for the foreseeable future before the company's vessels returned. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
BBC News
12-04-2025
- BBC News
Vintage Margate seafront telescope on display at hotel
A seafront telescope which is almost 100 years old has become the latest artefact to go on display at a hotel in east Kent. Fred Shelley used his telescope to log ships passing by Margate from the 1930s to the 1960s. It has now gone on show at the Walpole Bay Hotel museum in Cliftonville close to the clifftop spot where it used to stand. Jane Bishop, hotel owner, said she was "honoured" to put the item on display in her reception. She said: "Fred's relatives came and stayed at the hotel and decided the telescope should form part of the museum's collection of artefacts." Felicity Walker, Mr Shelley's great niece, said: "Fred set up the Walpole Bay Shipping Spotters Club in the 1930s to encourage boys into a seafaring career."He charged holidaymakers a small fee to look at the ships whilst he told them about them. Ms Walker said: "By looking up Lloyds List every day he would know what ships were going around the foreland."He was able to inform viewers about the country of origin and goods on board."Mr Walker, a trained watch and clock repairer, lived into his 90s. The telescope is the latest of over 1,000 artefacts placed around the corridors of the free on display include old typewriters, vacuum cleaners, clothing and vintage milk bottles. Ms Bishop said: "Our museum is here to preserve the past and allow our visitors to reminisce."It brings back memories of the olden days, but is also a great educational tool for children."
