Four illegal discharges of oil detected during the CEPCO North aerial surveillance flights over the Baltic Sea

Helsinki, 20 May  (HELCOM) - Four small illegal discharges of oil were detected during the Helsinki Commission’s CEPCO (Coordinated Extended Pollution Control Operation) North 2005 aerial surveillance flights, which took place on 17-19 May over the central and north-eastern parts of the Baltic Sea.

Five aircraft from Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Sweden have for more than 36 hours continuously surveyed the agreed route for oil pollution. Also five surveillance vessels from Estonia, Finland and Sweden participated in the operation. The base airport for CEPCO North flights this year was in Visby (Gotland). Remote sensing equipment, such as side looking radars (SLAR), infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) cameras, were used during the operation.

The spills have been recognized to contain only minor amounts of oil. Due to heavy ship traffic in the area no suspects have been identified so far.

During the last years CEPCO North flights five spills were detected. Two of them were considered of a large scale: one has been evaluated to contain over 30 cubic meters, another at least 1.5 cubic meter of oil. 

Notes for the editor

Two CEPCO (Coordinated Extended Pollution Control Operation) flights are arranged annually by HELCOM in the Baltic Sea: one in the South and one in the North. During CEPCO flights several HELCOM countries jointly carry out continuous aerial surveillance activities for 24 hours or more along the prefixed flight patterns with high likelihood of operational spills. CEPCO flights are also intended to support national aerial surveillance data by detecting also those illegal discharges which would not be disclosed by regular national surveillance activities and thus get a realistic estimation of the total number of oil spills discharged to the Baltic Sea during one randomly selected day.

Contacts

HELCOM Secretariat

Mr Tadas Navickas
Professional Secretary
Tel: +358 9 6220 2242
Fax: +358 9 6220 2239

Mr Nikolay Vlasov
Information Secretary
Tel: +358 9 6220 2235
Fax: +358 9 6220 2239