Continuous surveillance and response against operational and accidental pollution at sea

The maritime sector has been and will continue to be of strategic importance for Europe due to the nature of its economy, topology, history and tradition. Many relevant analyses indicate explicitly or implicitly that shipping stands as the backbone of the transport system. Some 90% of the goods traffic to and from the European Union is transported by sea. Europe¿s sea lanes are among the busiest in the world. The negative aspect of this is that both potential and actual marine oil spills pose a risk for European coastlines in terms of ecological damage, socio-economic losses and influence on coastal industries. Therefore the European coastal states have decided to establish satellite surveillance systems to monitor the state of the seas, to deter potential polluters and to support combating activities. This system is called the CleanSeaNet - CSN service - and is run by the European Maritime Safety Agency - EMSA - now operational for almost two years. CSN satellite service delivers oil spill alerts in near real time by using radar satellite imagery acquired by the Envisat and Radarsat SAR satellites. The significance and potential improvements of continuous satellite monitoring towards improved response capacity will be elaborated in this paper analyzing the West Cork pollution case that occurred on February 14, 2009.

PERKOVIC Marko;  POSADA SANCHEZ Monica;  VESPE Michele;  FERRARO DI SILVI E CASTIGLIONE Guido;  HARSCH Rick;  VAN WIMERSMA GREIDANUS Herman; 

2009-12-16

Faculty of Maritime Studies and Transport

JRC52538

http://icts2009.fpp.edu/en/2.html,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC52538,