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SAR convention enters into force
Marine Pollution Bulletin
management point of view, some have argued that until recently the pollution problem has essentially been ignored, and the over-fishing problem side-stepped in the Chesapeake Bay. Regarding the oyster fishery, Kennedy and Briesch stated in 1983 that "in the last century, the main effort has been to appease oyster fishermen, a vociferous minority in the state'.' The overfishing vs pollution issue cannot be treated as an either/or phenomenon, however politically expedient that may be. The current, expensive, oyster re-seeding and larval fish re-stocking programmes are often marketed as remedial measures to help solve the overfishing problem. However, the truth is that they have little demonstrable effect and only serve to emphasize the decline in water quality in the natural spawning areas. "Save the Bay" exclaim the bumper stickers in Maryland and Virginia, and all legislators genuinely want to do their bit; and from a political standpoint, they want to be seen to be doing their bit. But biological cycles far exceed political cycles, and administrators and legislators are going to have to accept that they may not even survive to see the fruits of their programmes. Our environment deserves better, far better than past efforts. Despite its political success, and with great respect to the many excellent people who worked on it, the Chesapeake Bay Program, to date, has been scientifically weak. Creaking under an enomous bureaucracy of committees
SAR Convention Enters into Force The International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, which was adopted in 1979 under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), entered into force on 22 June 1979. The main purpose of the Convention is to facilitate co-operation between search and rescue organizations and between those participating in search and rescue (SAR) operations at sea by establishing the legal and technical basis for an international SAR plan. SAR facilities appropriate to the needs of shipping are required to be provided under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea of 1974, each Party to which undertakes "to ensure that any necessary arrangements are made for coast watching and for the rescue of persons in distress around its coasts. These arrangements should include the establishment, operation and maintenance of such maritime safety facilities are are deemed practicable and necessar3£' The technical requirements of the SAR Convention are contained in an annex. Parties to the Convention are required to ensure that arrangements are made for the provision of adequate maritime SAR services off their coasts and are encouraged to enter into SAR agreements 300
who did not commit and coordinators who failed to coordinate, it has been estimated that, of the initial outlay of nearly S30M, less than 25% was spent on original data collection. For a system about which there has been so much concern over pollution, and where biological effects are the centre of concern, it is a sad fact that less than 0.1% of this budget has been estimated to have been spent on the analysis of pollutants in Bay animals. Lack of hard information in many areas led to a stampede of modellers desperately trying to construct models with inadequate data. More and more, one receives the impression that the model is being used as a camouflage rather than a tool. We must not repeat these mistakes. Before the committees and administrators reproduce geometrically, we must have more data. They must be the right kind of data and they must be long-term. Without delay, we need to put in place programmes which will allow scientists to work unfettered by a suffocating bureaucracy, every single year into the twenty-first century and beyond. Less administration equals greater efficiency equals more information per dollar equals greater confidence in the data equals more effective management equals greater public confidence and support. An efficient programme will help maintain itself. Any legislator who can put into place a protected programme of this nature will have earned some claim to the mantle 'Saviour of the Bay'. D. A. W R I G H T
with neighbouring states involving the establishment of maritime SAR regions, the pooling of facilities, the establishment of common procedures, co-operation, training and liaison. The Convention states that Parties should authorize immediate entry into their territorial waters of rescue units from other Parties solely for the purpose of search and rescue. The Convention also establishes those preparatory measures which should be taken, including the establishment of rescue co-ordination centres and sub-centres. It outlines operating procedures to be followed in the event of emergencies or distress alerts and during SAR operations. This includes the designation of an on-scene commander and his duties. Parties to the Convention should establish ship reporting systems where this is considered necessary and practicable to facilitate SAR operations. The introduction of such systems should enable the interval between the loss of contact with a vessel and the initiation of SAR operations to be reduced; help to permit the rapid determination of vessels in the vicinity of the incident which may be called upon to provide assistance; the delineation of a search area; and the more rapid provision of urgent medical assistance or advice when this is required. Since the adoption of the Convention IMO has been working on the establishment of a world-wide SAR system as required by the Convention. The world's oceans have been divided into 13 areas, in each of which a maritime SAP, plan is being developed by the countries
Volume 16/Number 8/August 1985
concerned. At the present time the North Sea SAR area is the only area for which the provisional maritime SAR plan has been completed, but substantial progress is being made in other areas.
Welsh History Repeats Itself
In October 1978 there was a terrible fuss because a Greek tanker, the Christos Bitas, attempted to take a short cut around south-west Wales in the way originally pioneered by the Torrey Canyon off Cornwall, and promptly impaled itself on some outlying rocks known as the Hats and Barrels (Mar. Pollut. Bull. 1979, 10, 122-123). At 1900 h on the fine calm evening of 16 June 1985 the 1100 t British coastal tanker Bridgeness took a In June Morocco became the first developing country to similar short cut between Milford Haven and New Ross, sign the 1984 Protocols to the International Convention southern Ireland, and promptly grounded in the same on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage of 1969 place, rupturing at least two tanks containing diesel and (CLC) and the International Convention for the Estabfuel oil within sight of three of the greatest seabird lishment of an International Fund for Compensation for colonies in western Europe on Skokholm, Skomer and Oil Pollution Damage of 1971. The 1969 CLC and 1971 Grassholm. A tug was hastily called up overnight, and by Fund Convention were adopted as part of a series of the following morning the culprit had been hauled back, measures taken by the International Maritime Organizaleaking, into Milford Haven, but by then at least 185 t of tion to deal with problems arising from the Torrey Canyon disaster of 1967. The 1984 Protocols, already oil had escaped. On the first morning the slick had spread and signed by the United Kingdom and the United States measured 4 x 1 miles across, west on Grassholm, and by (Mar. Pollut. Bull. 1985, 16, 177), substantially increase the second it had broken up and been separated by the the amount of compensation payable in the event of a tide to give rise to two slicks to the north and south. It major oil pollution incident. was inspected by the authorities from the air, who The 1984 Protocol to the 1969 Convention increases the initial compensation available to around $62 million decided, perhaps correctly, but to the annoyance of the per incident. The 1984 Protocol to the 1971 Fund Con- local conservationists, that it would not be dispersible by vention further increases the compensation by providing spraying, although oiled birds were beginning to come for a total compensation limit of $140 million per inci- ashore. On the evening of 20 June a front passed, and dent. After the Fund Protocol has been ratified by the first the SE pre-frontal winds blew oil and birds north large oil-importing countries this total will be further towards the Irish Sea, and then the subsequent west winds swept them back ashore on Wales' again. By the increased to $208 million.
Morocco Signs CLC and Fund Protocols
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"Today it's your turn to be Official Food Taster."
301
management point of view, some have argued that until recently the pollution problem has essentially been ignored, and the over-fishing problem side-stepped in the Chesapeake Bay. Regarding the oyster fishery, Kennedy and Briesch stated in 1983 that "in the last century, the main effort has been to appease oyster fishermen, a vociferous minority in the state'.' The overfishing vs pollution issue cannot be treated as an either/or phenomenon, however politically expedient that may be. The current, expensive, oyster re-seeding and larval fish re-stocking programmes are often marketed as remedial measures to help solve the overfishing problem. However, the truth is that they have little demonstrable effect and only serve to emphasize the decline in water quality in the natural spawning areas. "Save the Bay" exclaim the bumper stickers in Maryland and Virginia, and all legislators genuinely want to do their bit; and from a political standpoint, they want to be seen to be doing their bit. But biological cycles far exceed political cycles, and administrators and legislators are going to have to accept that they may not even survive to see the fruits of their programmes. Our environment deserves better, far better than past efforts. Despite its political success, and with great respect to the many excellent people who worked on it, the Chesapeake Bay Program, to date, has been scientifically weak. Creaking under an enomous bureaucracy of committees
SAR Convention Enters into Force The International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, which was adopted in 1979 under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), entered into force on 22 June 1979. The main purpose of the Convention is to facilitate co-operation between search and rescue organizations and between those participating in search and rescue (SAR) operations at sea by establishing the legal and technical basis for an international SAR plan. SAR facilities appropriate to the needs of shipping are required to be provided under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea of 1974, each Party to which undertakes "to ensure that any necessary arrangements are made for coast watching and for the rescue of persons in distress around its coasts. These arrangements should include the establishment, operation and maintenance of such maritime safety facilities are are deemed practicable and necessar3£' The technical requirements of the SAR Convention are contained in an annex. Parties to the Convention are required to ensure that arrangements are made for the provision of adequate maritime SAR services off their coasts and are encouraged to enter into SAR agreements 300
who did not commit and coordinators who failed to coordinate, it has been estimated that, of the initial outlay of nearly S30M, less than 25% was spent on original data collection. For a system about which there has been so much concern over pollution, and where biological effects are the centre of concern, it is a sad fact that less than 0.1% of this budget has been estimated to have been spent on the analysis of pollutants in Bay animals. Lack of hard information in many areas led to a stampede of modellers desperately trying to construct models with inadequate data. More and more, one receives the impression that the model is being used as a camouflage rather than a tool. We must not repeat these mistakes. Before the committees and administrators reproduce geometrically, we must have more data. They must be the right kind of data and they must be long-term. Without delay, we need to put in place programmes which will allow scientists to work unfettered by a suffocating bureaucracy, every single year into the twenty-first century and beyond. Less administration equals greater efficiency equals more information per dollar equals greater confidence in the data equals more effective management equals greater public confidence and support. An efficient programme will help maintain itself. Any legislator who can put into place a protected programme of this nature will have earned some claim to the mantle 'Saviour of the Bay'. D. A. W R I G H T
with neighbouring states involving the establishment of maritime SAR regions, the pooling of facilities, the establishment of common procedures, co-operation, training and liaison. The Convention states that Parties should authorize immediate entry into their territorial waters of rescue units from other Parties solely for the purpose of search and rescue. The Convention also establishes those preparatory measures which should be taken, including the establishment of rescue co-ordination centres and sub-centres. It outlines operating procedures to be followed in the event of emergencies or distress alerts and during SAR operations. This includes the designation of an on-scene commander and his duties. Parties to the Convention should establish ship reporting systems where this is considered necessary and practicable to facilitate SAR operations. The introduction of such systems should enable the interval between the loss of contact with a vessel and the initiation of SAR operations to be reduced; help to permit the rapid determination of vessels in the vicinity of the incident which may be called upon to provide assistance; the delineation of a search area; and the more rapid provision of urgent medical assistance or advice when this is required. Since the adoption of the Convention IMO has been working on the establishment of a world-wide SAR system as required by the Convention. The world's oceans have been divided into 13 areas, in each of which a maritime SAP, plan is being developed by the countries
Volume 16/Number 8/August 1985
concerned. At the present time the North Sea SAR area is the only area for which the provisional maritime SAR plan has been completed, but substantial progress is being made in other areas.
Welsh History Repeats Itself
In October 1978 there was a terrible fuss because a Greek tanker, the Christos Bitas, attempted to take a short cut around south-west Wales in the way originally pioneered by the Torrey Canyon off Cornwall, and promptly impaled itself on some outlying rocks known as the Hats and Barrels (Mar. Pollut. Bull. 1979, 10, 122-123). At 1900 h on the fine calm evening of 16 June 1985 the 1100 t British coastal tanker Bridgeness took a In June Morocco became the first developing country to similar short cut between Milford Haven and New Ross, sign the 1984 Protocols to the International Convention southern Ireland, and promptly grounded in the same on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage of 1969 place, rupturing at least two tanks containing diesel and (CLC) and the International Convention for the Estabfuel oil within sight of three of the greatest seabird lishment of an International Fund for Compensation for colonies in western Europe on Skokholm, Skomer and Oil Pollution Damage of 1971. The 1969 CLC and 1971 Grassholm. A tug was hastily called up overnight, and by Fund Convention were adopted as part of a series of the following morning the culprit had been hauled back, measures taken by the International Maritime Organizaleaking, into Milford Haven, but by then at least 185 t of tion to deal with problems arising from the Torrey Canyon disaster of 1967. The 1984 Protocols, already oil had escaped. On the first morning the slick had spread and signed by the United Kingdom and the United States measured 4 x 1 miles across, west on Grassholm, and by (Mar. Pollut. Bull. 1985, 16, 177), substantially increase the second it had broken up and been separated by the the amount of compensation payable in the event of a tide to give rise to two slicks to the north and south. It major oil pollution incident. was inspected by the authorities from the air, who The 1984 Protocol to the 1969 Convention increases the initial compensation available to around $62 million decided, perhaps correctly, but to the annoyance of the per incident. The 1984 Protocol to the 1971 Fund Con- local conservationists, that it would not be dispersible by vention further increases the compensation by providing spraying, although oiled birds were beginning to come for a total compensation limit of $140 million per inci- ashore. On the evening of 20 June a front passed, and dent. After the Fund Protocol has been ratified by the first the SE pre-frontal winds blew oil and birds north large oil-importing countries this total will be further towards the Irish Sea, and then the subsequent west winds swept them back ashore on Wales' again. By the increased to $208 million.
Morocco Signs CLC and Fund Protocols
,..,...-,--
•
~-/~'~=r~_
.
~
..'"
..~
".= . .
"Today it's your turn to be Official Food Taster."
301