No significant oil discharges detected during HELCOM’s Super CEPCO operation in the Baltic

Visby, Sweden, 17 September (HELCOM Information Service) – Only some small illegal oil discharges from ships were detected in the Baltic Sea during HELCOM’s Super CEPCO flights, one of the world’s largest multi-national aerial surveillance operation for oil pollution, which was conducted on 12-17 September from the Visby airbase on the Swedish Island of Gotland.

Six surveillance aircraft and 36 crew members from HELCOM and Bonn Agreement Member States, including Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, participated in the flights, during which they continuously, for 24 hours per day, surveyed the agreed route from Gotland to the western part of the Gulf of Finland and down south along the territorial waters of Estonia and Latvia and back to Gotland. The operation was monitored by experts and observers from Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). Additionally, three coast guard vessels from Sweden and two from Finland were on standby in case any investigation would have to be made onboard of ships detected illegally discharging oil.

The details of the operation, including the flight route, remained classified until the last aircraft landed on 17 September in order to prevent possible offenders from discovering the ongoing surveillance activities. The surveillance aircraft monitored the movement of about 1812 ships during the operation. Only 18 detections of possible discharges were made of which three were confirmed as mineral oil. The confirmed illegal discharges were very small, amounting to about 5, 50 and 273 litres of oil. One of the spills, which was spotted south of Gotland, was first detected during an EMSA satellite overpass and later confirmed by a Dutch surveillance aircraft. Two other discharges were detected by aircraft in the Finnish EEZ in the westernmost part of the Gulf of Finland.   

“The 2009 Super CEPCO operation was successful,” says Commander Leif Welming, Head of Staff of the Swedish Coast Guard Flight Department. “The results confirm that there is a decreasing trend not only in the number of oil discharges in the Baltic, but what is even more important, also in their volume, even though the density of shipping has grown and the detection capabilities around the region have been significantly improved. It is clear that regular aerial surveillance has contributed significantly to the decrease in discharges, as ships are well aware that their illicit polluting activities can be detected and that the offenders could be prosecuted.”

The decrease in oil discharges is also attributed to the success of a set of measures which the HELCOM countries have been implementing since the 1990s, says Commander Welming. They require all ships, with a few exceptions, to deliver all oily wastes to reception facilities before leaving port. To encourage delivery, the countries bordering the Baltic Sea have agreed that ships should not be charged for using such reception facilities, under the “no-special-fee” system. Costs are instead recovered from general harbour fees or general environmental fees.

Super CEPCO 2009 was organized by Sweden with the assistance from Finland and EMSA’s CleanSeaNet Service, which provided satellite images of the flight area. The major aim of the operation was to continuously survey one of the major shipping areas in the Baltic where there is a high probability of illegal discharge, identify the source and case of pollution and report the details for further investigative and possible legal actions, improve cooperation between countries, exchange experience between crews, as well as to optimize the use of satellite imagery as a complementary surveillance means, says Commander Welming.

Background:

The Super CEPCO flights usually take place on top of surveillance operations conducted regularly in different European regions. Super CEPCO 2009 was the first such operation conducted in the HELCOM area. In the Baltic Sea, HELCOM annually arranges two CEPCO (Coordinated Extended Pollution Control Operation) flights: 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 predetermined routes in areas where operational spills are likely. CEPCO flights are also planned to support national aerial surveillance data by detecting illegal discharges which would not be disclosed by routine national surveillance activities. This enables a realistic estimation of the total number of oil spills discharged into the Baltic Sea during one randomly selected day. The HELCOM aerial surveillance fleet today consists of more than 25 aircraft and helicopters, most of which are equipped with up-to-date remote sensing equipment, such as maritime search radars (MSR), side-looking airborne radars (SLAR), electro-optic/infrared sensors (EO/IR), forward looking infrared cameras (FLIR camera), infrared/ultraviolet line scanners (IR/UV), as well as photo and video cameras. Also EMSA’s satellite images are used to supplement the aerial surveillance.

In 2008, during SEPCO South 11 small discharges of mineral oil were observed by aircraft with a total amount of 5.14 cubic meters. One possible suspect of illegal pollution was identified by the German authorities. And during the CEPCO North operation seven spills were detected containing only minor amounts of mineral oil, with the largest of about 5.0 cubic meters. The total amount of oil in all detected slicks has been estimated at 10.1 cubic meters. 

Deliberate oil discharges from ships have been also regularly observed during national surveillance flights over the Baltic Sea since 1988. One of the peak years was 1989, when 763 spills were detected during 3,491 flight hours. Since 1999 the number of discharges and their volume has been steadily decreasing. Last year, there were only 210 oil spills reported during 4603 hours of surveillance flights. This is 55% less than in 1999 when 488 discharges were detected during 4,883 air patrol hours.

In 2008, most of the illegal oil discharges were detected along major shipping routes. 182 (87%) of the oil discharges detected in 2008 were smaller than one cubic metre, and of these oil spills as much as 148 were even smaller than 0.1 cubic metre or 100 litres. No confirmed oil spill was over 10 cubic metres in size and the total estimated volume of oil spills observed in 2008 amounted to 64 cubic metres. In 2007, there were four discharges of over 10 cubic metres, and the total estimated volume of oil spills amounted to 125.4 cubic metres.

Note to Editors:

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, usually referred to as the Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, is an intergovernmental organisation of all the nine Baltic Sea countries and the EU which works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution. 

HELCOM is the governing body of the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area," known as the Helsinki Convention.

For more information, please contact:

Ms. Monika Stankiewicz

Professional Secretary

HELCOM

Tel: +358 (0)207 412 643

Fax: +358 (0)207 412 639

E-mail: monika.stankiewicz@helcom.fi

Mr. Nikolay Vlasov

Information Secretary

HELCOM

Tel: +358 (0)207 412 635

Fax: +358 (0)207 412 639

E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi