How the Ships Run Illegally Into the Sea Without Punishment

Thousands of ships pollute the world's seas by throwing oil - containing waste into them. This often goes unpunished even when international waters have dramatic consequences for the environment.

I first had a problem with this thing,„tells about Deutsche Welle young ship engineers. He has seen many times how contaminated oil waters are thrown directly from ship to sea. At naval school, he has learned that this is illegal. But in international waters no one handles this rule, says the sailor in a telephone conversation that is repeatedly interrupted.

We call him from Berlin when he's thousands of miles away. He begs us not to reveal his identity for safety. And let us not even reveal the name of the large tank that is sailing. It shows that contaminated oil waters are released mainly at night, protecting themselves from darkness. This happens regularly. „And while I'm used to it, although it's sad,” says so softly. As a youth on the crew, he risks losing his job if he is eating with his superiors.

Information and satellite images

Throwing oil and contaminated oil waters into the sea has been banned for decades. But many tankers and container ships systematically bypass this rule in order to save money and time, with great consequences to the environment. This has confirmed a Deutsche Welle investigation done with the investigative network Lighthouse Reports and eight other European media partners.

The research that has lasted several months is based on Whitleblower reports and experts. It shows what tricks crews use to escape law enforcement in territorial waters. Analyzing satellite images indicates that illegal oil waste spills from commercial ships are common. Only a small portion of the cases are uncovered and prosecuted.

World Trade Fleet in Zoom

The global dimension of this problem is seen looking at the World Trade Fleet, which has grown in many decades. 55,000 tankers and container ships are now shipping through the world's waters of oil, cereals, smartphones and clothing. 90 percent of all the world's goods are transported by waterways. Which means that without commercial shipping, one half of mankind would suffer hunger and the other half would freeze out of the cold.

Modern container ships can reach up to 400m in length. During the operation of this giant machine, waste is created, which is collected in a reservoir. These remains are harmful mixtures made up of water, oil, and graso, fuel, and cleaning detectors. A single ship can produce several tons of these toxic fluids one day.

Cleanup of polluted ship remains is envisioned by law

The international rules are very clear: The remains of the ship must be cleaned before emptying the sea. This is done with the help of a so - called oil divider who cuts oil out of the water. For large ships this process is mandatory. This has been envisioned by law by International Maritime Orgzanization (IMO) since the years seventy.

According to him, each liter of ship's waste should contain very low amounts of oil before emptying into the sea. The oily remnant left of the cleaning must be kept aboard and later removed when the ship is at port. The amount removed from the harbor, the crew must document it to a diary for waste cleaning. But that, people on the inside say, can easily be manipulated.

Money - Saving Creation

In practice, many ships do not follow the prepained rules and pour waste into the sea without filtering them. So they save time and money: Because they don't pay for waste disposal at ports, and the shipping company doesn't lose hours of transportation hours. This increases the profit.

These illegal waste spill practices in international waters confirmed for Deutsche Welle and other media partners, five Whitleblower, the conveyors. They have witnessed the illegal spills of remains from tankers and concave ships.

Ecological Disaster

When the remains of ships run unfiltered at sea, this has dramatic consequences for the ecological system: Waste oil harms small sea animals that feed large fish. And also, by ending up in flies and fish, oil ends up in food networks and people.

Other harmful substances in ship's remains, such as poisonous lead and cadmium metal, are also harmful to the environment. Researchers say that the problem is not in a single ship that dumps garbage into the sea but in the large number of cases that cause the steady increase of harmful substances in marine waters.

Deception through a portable pump

How the violation of the waste-cleaning rules on shipping boards showed Deutsche Welle some Whitleblower: By means of a small portable pump, liquid waste is collected into a non - sufficient reservoir, mostly in the waste tank. This is very simple,” explains a sailor. You can assemble the pump in five minutes, and dismantle it in five minutes, and hide it somewhere. ”

In the night's wind, the harmful mixture is pumped out of the waste reservoir at sea, say sailors. This reduces the risk of discovery by satellite images, ships, or surveillance planes, which, for example, are on a mission in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea.

“Many black sheep”

Fearing they might lose a lot of Whitleblower jobs, they pray to preserve anonymity. So Deutsche Welle is unable to verify completely the cases they point to. But the central aspect of their stories, made apart from each other, is the same. They also match expert knowledge such as Christian Bussau, a marine biologist in the Greenpeace environmental organization. If such a thing were done on the La Mansh channel in broad daylight, on a good day, then surely the water police,” says Bussau, who has been involved in the pollution of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea for 25 years. „But when the ships do them when the weather is bad, there are storms or at night, then the chances are that they will remain undiscovered”. There are very many black sheep in international waters. ”

Discoveries From Satellite Images

Oil waste pollution in international waters is difficult to detect, but they leave traces on satellite images. The traces of oil left behind are often several miles long. Their characteristic shape can be well identified by orbit.

In the assessment of such satellite images, U.S. environmental organisations SkyTruth specialised, which combines satellite data with local shipping. Based on SkyTruth data, Deutsche Welle and other partner media were able to identify from July 2020 to December 2021 more than 1500 illegal oil waste spills worldwide.

According to SkyTroth's assessments, the amount of oil - bearing waste that ends in the oceans on this route can reach 200,000 cubic metres. This is five times more than the amount spilled during the 1989 oil disaster, when Cisterna Exxon Valdez drowned in the Prince-William-Sund of Alaska.

However, satellites cover only one part of the world's waters, so the actual number of possible pollution is thought to be greater.

European Union Warning System

European authorities have also begun fighting pollution of the oil waste seas. This war is the competence of the European Agency for Marine Transport Security (EMSA). This agency also estimates satellite images, but it does not publish its data. The prosecution she left to member states.

If EMSA detects an oil waste pollution in a satellite image, then in 30 minutes it sends a warning signal to the coastal state affected by pollution. The affected country can launch planes or ships to verify warning data.

Since 2007, EMSA has discovered with its program “CleanSeaNet” more than 44,000 possible oil waste spills into European waters. But this system has its weaknesses: Many countries respond slowly after receiving the warning signal. So for example in 2019, only 30 percent of the warning signals were verified in the country, and only five percent of them within the three-hour critical deadline. After that, oil begins to spread into water.

Punishments Do Not Harm Your Fear

In Maya Markovji's opinion Kostelic, EMSA executive director, “in European waters regularly has illegal oil spills and other harmful materials for the environment”. Only a small number of offenses are uncovered and prosecuted. Fines imposed do not scare the fears, in Germany the fines are often no more than 150,000 euros.

The U.S. follows another route: There, Whitleblowern, callers receive huge financial rewards when reporting illegal waste spills into American waters and when the case ends in court. Fines can go up to a few million dollars.

Wistleblowers get up to half of this amount if they're not American citizens. Such a stimulating system can become a model for Europe as well by increasing the penalties for those who throw very little thought into the sea. / DW