No illegal discharges of oil detected during the CEPCO South aerial surveillance flights over the Baltic Sea

No illegal discharges of oil were detected during the Helsinki Commission’s CEPCO (Coordinated Extended Pollution Control Operation) South 2004 aerial surveillance flights, which took place on 25-26 August over the southern part of the Baltic Proper.

Aircraft from Finland, Germany, Latvia, Poland and Sweden have for more than 30 hours continuously surveyed the agreed route for oil pollution. Most of the craft that took off from Germany were equipped with standard remote sensing equipment, such as side looking airborne radars (SLAR), infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) cameras.

Only 3 small slicks of fish oil amounting to about 23 liters were found during the operation.

“This is good news,” said HELCOM observer Tadas Navickas. “It shows that the number of illegal discharges is decreasing every year in the southern part of the Baltic Sea which is an area of heavy maritime traffic”. He added that “this also means that measures adopted by the Helsinki Commission to prevent illegal discharges of oil and waste into the Baltic Sea are bringing results.”

Three years ago during the CEPCO South 2001 operation as much as 25 illegal oil discharges were discovered in the same area, in 2002 - two, in 2003 – four.

Notes for the editor

Two CEPCO (Coordinated Extended Pollution Control Operation) flights are arranged annually by HELCOM. 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 Nikolay Vlasov
Information Secretary
Tel: +358 9 6220 2235
Fax: +358 9 6220 2239