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The prevention of oil pollution
Book reviews
Soviet leaders into believing that Russia was, for the first time in its long history, threatened from the sea. The case he must have made is in the book - the threat from, first, American carrierborne nuclear capable aircraft, and then the subma~ne-launch~ ballistic missile with a smattering of US amphibious forces thrown in for good measure. And I do agree with those who argue that the primary cause for the progressive development of an ocean-going submarine and anti-submarine navy was the threat emanating, for the first time, from offshore. In other words, I find no difficulty in accepting the kind of analysis which, in this context at least, defines Soviet naval pro~~mes as a response to a sense of threat, and having to do with essentially defensive impulses. Having won that point, Gorshkov built on it to demonstrate - as so many Western writers had already done -that sea power has the virtue of flexibility and that once you had some, whatever the purpose for which it was originally acquired, it could also do other rather useful things for you. It could interdict sea lanes; it could carry the Soviet flag to distant countries; it could raise the putative cost of an intervention by the USA; it could be used to reassure allies; and the sea was a useful place in which to park some strategic nuclear missiles as a Comforting reserve in any future nuclear war. His case carries conviction to a Western audience, and we must presume that the Soviet leaders were also convinced, as time passed, that Gorshkov had delivered into their hands something which was seen as being progressively more and more useful. To judge by the fluster that the Soviety navy was (and is) causing in the West, the Soviet navy would appear to be something very useful indeed. In fact one senses in this book that Admiral Gorshkov is acutely aware of the real limitations of the ins~ument that he has, almost single-handedly, created. I doubt very much whether anyone in the USSR believes that they would be in a position to mount a global challenge to the Western navies for control of the seas, because sea control implies something very different from sea denial, but they would be entitled to feel confidence (and the West must acknowledge) that they can, in selected
MARINE
POLICY January 1980
areas, challenge Western naval supremacy in a way that would not have been possible ten years ago, Furthermore, they are in a position to mount guard over substantial sea areas of strategic interest to them in such a way as to make it an extremely costly business for the West to attempt to penetrate that maritime covering force - in northern waters, in the northwest Pacific and in the eastern Mediterranean, to say nothing of the Baltic and Black Seas which would be, one suspects, very dangerous waters in war. Finally, there is every reason for the West to begin to worry about the beginnings of a real capability to project power from the sea in regions distant from the Asiatic iandmass. Although I would contend that such Soviet naval developments as the new carriers and the large amphibious vessels of the Ivan Rogov class seem to have justification in missions which are defensive or for
Pollution -search THE PREVENTION OF OIL POLLUTION
edited by J. Wardley-Smith Graham 81 Trotman, London, 1979, 309 ppr f 15.00
Wardley-Smith has edited a previous volume of essays on the control of oil pollution which surveyed remedial measures and technology at its best. With a number of able specialists, he has now produced a technical guide to preventive measures, summing up the major aspects of safety, conse~ation and environmental protection in the oil trade. The 14 essays provide a brief and generally useful introduction to the technical and practical problems which coexist with good housekeeping and waste m~agem~t in extraction, production, transport and use of oil and oil products. Each self-contained chapter condenses a great amount of information in a manner suggested by one author as ‘more than superficial, less than exhaustive’, but interest is
securing adjacent narrows (such as the Dardenelles and the Baltic straits) to allow access in war, the fact remains that they do represent a small but growing capability to interfere in areas far from the USSR. This book provides some clues, once its self-serving character is set aside, to the direction in which Soviet naval power is heading and the book is something of a piece with what we know about Soviet naval progr~mes already. There remain a number of questions which cannot be answered by reading the book - to do with recently identified construction. But I for one still do not know for certain why it was written.
Jonathan Alford Deputy
Director
Internationalinstitute for Strategic Studies London, UK
for panaceas mostly sustained by a generous supply of drawings, photographs and tables. As the editor states, oil loss and thus waste can occur in all types of circumstances, despite abundant equipment, safety devices, codes of and practice personnel training. Whatever steps are taken to prevent such pollution, no dialogue or improvement could begin without at least a wider appreciation of the complexity of the problem. The book then follows the pattern which has become common in similar studies: a scientist, A. Nelson-Smith, reminds us about the ecological effects of oil pollution; various oil company experts speak with authority on pollution during exploration and production, transport by sea, road and rail, port operations, storage and reflning; and a lawyer, E.D. Brown, recounts all the glittering prizes of national and internationaf legislation. Professor W.T. Singleton of Aston University offers by far the most interesting novelty in his essay on the general theories and causes of human error, which illuminates a riddle repeatedly stated but not otherwise explained by others.
83
Book rev~ews~p~biications
On the technical side, generalities revert to specifics only where lay curiosity might be satisfied as to why rigs must have Christmas trees, pipelines have pigs, and oil tankers have cows. Evidently, the book’s format prevents the contributors from offering
further details on why evidence for depletion of fish stocks in Scandinavian lakes because of sufphur drift from the UK is yet inconclusive ( p 59), or on how one (only one?) drafting error in the 1973 Marine Pollution Convention could affect practical application of legal regulations (p 284). Rather more space is devoted to shipping than to any
Publications The Book of Shipwrecks by Kenneth Hudson and Ann Nichotls (Macmillan, London, 1979,f IO pp, 25.95) A selective record of shipwrecks of the world, from about 2500 BC to the present. Britain and the Sea: the 200 Mife Zone and Its Implications, Proceedings of the Third Greenwich Forum Conference at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, UK, 5-7 October 1977 (Marine Management (Holdings), 76 Mark Lane. London. EC3R 7JN. 1979. 45 pp, E12.00)’ The third Greenwich Forum took for its subject ‘Britain and the Sea - the 200 mile zone and its implications’, providing for presentation of papers and discussion covering proper planning and management of the marine and subma~ne resources of the North Sea and of the 200 mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around UK shores, and including fisheries, hydroc~bons exploitation, dredging, marine transport and recreation, traffic and pollution control, care for the marine environment, communications, joint surveillance of ship movements, policing these activities, and safety at sea. The aim of the Forum has been to persuade the UK government to view these problems as a whole and not in part, and to strive for interdepartmental coordination, such considerations being within the concept of policy making becoming the *NTIS documents listed in this section should be ordered by number to expedite delivery. The price of particular reports varies according to size, paper copy or microfiche, domestic order or oversea, delivery option chosen, etc. Address for National information ordering: and
Technical Department
Service, US Information of Commerce, Springfield,
VA 22161, USA, or NTIS United Kingdom Service Centre. Microinfo Ltd. PO Box 3, Alton, Hants GU34 1 EF, UK.
84
of the other sources of oil pollution, because it is this which seems least manageable and presumably requires more explanation than the other causes. Exxon’s W.O. Gray and BP’s R. Maybourn describe in detail what current improvements and internationally agreed standards we may expect of the industry, although they offer little hope of early implementation on a united front by means of the relevant treaties. Each topic in this book is better and more extensively chronicled elsewhere, notably in trade journals, company hand-outs, and publications by
prerogative of the European Community. Six papers were presented: (1) ‘Legal implications for the United Kingdom of UNCLOS III’ by L.D.M. Nelson; (2) ‘The legal, political, financial and economic inhibitions to the proper exploitation of the UK exclusive economic zone by British industry’ by C.P.S. Hardcastle; (3) ‘The changing fisheries regime and its effect on British Industry’ by D.I.A. Steele; (4) ‘Future catching and processing technology: optimum technical solutions in an ideal world’ by M. Ha*field; (5) ‘Food from the sea: prospects and problems of marine aquaculture’ by R.S.V. PuUin; (6) ‘The organisation and structure of the British offshore oil industry’ by F.H. Mann. In addition to the papers there were four discussion group sessions covering law, organization, money and finance, fisheries, exports, research and development, information and public education. Chemical Dispersantsfor the Control of Oil Spills edited-by L.T: McCarthy Jr, -G.P. Lindblom and H.F. Walter (American Society for Testing and Materials, 1916 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA, 1978,307 ml, $30.00) Proceedings of a conference on spill control systems held at Wilii~sburg, VA, USA, 5October 1977. Directory of Shipowners, ~h~bujiders and Marine Engineers 1979 (IPC Industrial Press, London, 1979, 1 524 pp,fi5.00, UK,
E25.00,overseas) Ecology OS the Marine Environment. Volume 4. Avril, 1977-March, 1978 (A Bibfiography with Abstracts) by Elizabeth A. Harrison (National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA, USA, 1979,190 pp, NTIS PS-79/0320/6WO)* Ecoiogv oftheMarine Environment. Volume 5. A&l. > 1978-March. 1979 (A Biblioproohv with Abstracts) by Elizabeth A. H%son (National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA, 1979, 162 pp, NTIS PS?9/0321/4WO)
governments In exchange,
and petroleum institutes. however, for the more
specialized literature that would require more expense in terms of cash and time to acquire, this book offers a timely and comprehensive alternative. fairly Readers, however, must bring all appropriate expectations to a book on a problem to which the solution is aut~hthonous, yet most of whose contributors come from the oil industry itself.
&Sects of Oil Slick Properties on the Dispersion of Floating Oil into the Sea by Jerome H. Milgram, Richard G. Donnelly, Robert J. Van Houten and John M. Camperman, (Coast Guard Office of Research and Development, Washington, DC, 1978, 340 pp, NTIS AD-A062 693llWO) The salient physical effect causing initial dispersion of oif into the sea is breaking waves. Subsequent behaviour of the dispersed oil, including droplet trajectories and droplets rejoining the slick are strongly influenced by oceanic turbulence caused by breaking waves and other sources. All the aspects of dispersion are related to oil slick properties, the most important being physical and chemical properties of the oif as well as the slick thickness distribution. This report does not give a way of making a quantitative prediction of the extent of dispersion of an oil slick of prescribed properties; this is because there is not yet sufficient knowledge to do this. Rather, the report deals with the fundamentals of the dispersing processes and reports the results of a group of laboratory experiments relating to them. These results can ultimately be used in a model for predicting dispersion and also lead to some immediate conclusions. One of them is that the most important slick influencing property dispersion is oil slick thickness. Extended Fishery Jurisdiction: Problems and Progress, i977. Proceedings of the North Carolina Governor’s Conference on Fishery Management under Extended Jurisdiction, Raleigh, NC, 11-12 October 1977 (OtTice of Marine Affairs, North Carolina Dept of Administration, Raleigh, NC, 1978,288 pp) The 1977 conference assessed the problems and progress of implementing -the US Fishery Conservation and Management Act (FCMA). The conference provided a forum for those involved in programmes under the FCMA to discuss difficulties of operating these programmes.
MARINE POLICY January 1980
Soviet leaders into believing that Russia was, for the first time in its long history, threatened from the sea. The case he must have made is in the book - the threat from, first, American carrierborne nuclear capable aircraft, and then the subma~ne-launch~ ballistic missile with a smattering of US amphibious forces thrown in for good measure. And I do agree with those who argue that the primary cause for the progressive development of an ocean-going submarine and anti-submarine navy was the threat emanating, for the first time, from offshore. In other words, I find no difficulty in accepting the kind of analysis which, in this context at least, defines Soviet naval pro~~mes as a response to a sense of threat, and having to do with essentially defensive impulses. Having won that point, Gorshkov built on it to demonstrate - as so many Western writers had already done -that sea power has the virtue of flexibility and that once you had some, whatever the purpose for which it was originally acquired, it could also do other rather useful things for you. It could interdict sea lanes; it could carry the Soviet flag to distant countries; it could raise the putative cost of an intervention by the USA; it could be used to reassure allies; and the sea was a useful place in which to park some strategic nuclear missiles as a Comforting reserve in any future nuclear war. His case carries conviction to a Western audience, and we must presume that the Soviet leaders were also convinced, as time passed, that Gorshkov had delivered into their hands something which was seen as being progressively more and more useful. To judge by the fluster that the Soviety navy was (and is) causing in the West, the Soviet navy would appear to be something very useful indeed. In fact one senses in this book that Admiral Gorshkov is acutely aware of the real limitations of the ins~ument that he has, almost single-handedly, created. I doubt very much whether anyone in the USSR believes that they would be in a position to mount a global challenge to the Western navies for control of the seas, because sea control implies something very different from sea denial, but they would be entitled to feel confidence (and the West must acknowledge) that they can, in selected
MARINE
POLICY January 1980
areas, challenge Western naval supremacy in a way that would not have been possible ten years ago, Furthermore, they are in a position to mount guard over substantial sea areas of strategic interest to them in such a way as to make it an extremely costly business for the West to attempt to penetrate that maritime covering force - in northern waters, in the northwest Pacific and in the eastern Mediterranean, to say nothing of the Baltic and Black Seas which would be, one suspects, very dangerous waters in war. Finally, there is every reason for the West to begin to worry about the beginnings of a real capability to project power from the sea in regions distant from the Asiatic iandmass. Although I would contend that such Soviet naval developments as the new carriers and the large amphibious vessels of the Ivan Rogov class seem to have justification in missions which are defensive or for
Pollution -search THE PREVENTION OF OIL POLLUTION
edited by J. Wardley-Smith Graham 81 Trotman, London, 1979, 309 ppr f 15.00
Wardley-Smith has edited a previous volume of essays on the control of oil pollution which surveyed remedial measures and technology at its best. With a number of able specialists, he has now produced a technical guide to preventive measures, summing up the major aspects of safety, conse~ation and environmental protection in the oil trade. The 14 essays provide a brief and generally useful introduction to the technical and practical problems which coexist with good housekeeping and waste m~agem~t in extraction, production, transport and use of oil and oil products. Each self-contained chapter condenses a great amount of information in a manner suggested by one author as ‘more than superficial, less than exhaustive’, but interest is
securing adjacent narrows (such as the Dardenelles and the Baltic straits) to allow access in war, the fact remains that they do represent a small but growing capability to interfere in areas far from the USSR. This book provides some clues, once its self-serving character is set aside, to the direction in which Soviet naval power is heading and the book is something of a piece with what we know about Soviet naval progr~mes already. There remain a number of questions which cannot be answered by reading the book - to do with recently identified construction. But I for one still do not know for certain why it was written.
Jonathan Alford Deputy
Director
Internationalinstitute for Strategic Studies London, UK
for panaceas mostly sustained by a generous supply of drawings, photographs and tables. As the editor states, oil loss and thus waste can occur in all types of circumstances, despite abundant equipment, safety devices, codes of and practice personnel training. Whatever steps are taken to prevent such pollution, no dialogue or improvement could begin without at least a wider appreciation of the complexity of the problem. The book then follows the pattern which has become common in similar studies: a scientist, A. Nelson-Smith, reminds us about the ecological effects of oil pollution; various oil company experts speak with authority on pollution during exploration and production, transport by sea, road and rail, port operations, storage and reflning; and a lawyer, E.D. Brown, recounts all the glittering prizes of national and internationaf legislation. Professor W.T. Singleton of Aston University offers by far the most interesting novelty in his essay on the general theories and causes of human error, which illuminates a riddle repeatedly stated but not otherwise explained by others.
83
Book rev~ews~p~biications
On the technical side, generalities revert to specifics only where lay curiosity might be satisfied as to why rigs must have Christmas trees, pipelines have pigs, and oil tankers have cows. Evidently, the book’s format prevents the contributors from offering
further details on why evidence for depletion of fish stocks in Scandinavian lakes because of sufphur drift from the UK is yet inconclusive ( p 59), or on how one (only one?) drafting error in the 1973 Marine Pollution Convention could affect practical application of legal regulations (p 284). Rather more space is devoted to shipping than to any
Publications The Book of Shipwrecks by Kenneth Hudson and Ann Nichotls (Macmillan, London, 1979,f IO pp, 25.95) A selective record of shipwrecks of the world, from about 2500 BC to the present. Britain and the Sea: the 200 Mife Zone and Its Implications, Proceedings of the Third Greenwich Forum Conference at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, UK, 5-7 October 1977 (Marine Management (Holdings), 76 Mark Lane. London. EC3R 7JN. 1979. 45 pp, E12.00)’ The third Greenwich Forum took for its subject ‘Britain and the Sea - the 200 mile zone and its implications’, providing for presentation of papers and discussion covering proper planning and management of the marine and subma~ne resources of the North Sea and of the 200 mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around UK shores, and including fisheries, hydroc~bons exploitation, dredging, marine transport and recreation, traffic and pollution control, care for the marine environment, communications, joint surveillance of ship movements, policing these activities, and safety at sea. The aim of the Forum has been to persuade the UK government to view these problems as a whole and not in part, and to strive for interdepartmental coordination, such considerations being within the concept of policy making becoming the *NTIS documents listed in this section should be ordered by number to expedite delivery. The price of particular reports varies according to size, paper copy or microfiche, domestic order or oversea, delivery option chosen, etc. Address for National information ordering: and
Technical Department
Service, US Information of Commerce, Springfield,
VA 22161, USA, or NTIS United Kingdom Service Centre. Microinfo Ltd. PO Box 3, Alton, Hants GU34 1 EF, UK.
84
of the other sources of oil pollution, because it is this which seems least manageable and presumably requires more explanation than the other causes. Exxon’s W.O. Gray and BP’s R. Maybourn describe in detail what current improvements and internationally agreed standards we may expect of the industry, although they offer little hope of early implementation on a united front by means of the relevant treaties. Each topic in this book is better and more extensively chronicled elsewhere, notably in trade journals, company hand-outs, and publications by
prerogative of the European Community. Six papers were presented: (1) ‘Legal implications for the United Kingdom of UNCLOS III’ by L.D.M. Nelson; (2) ‘The legal, political, financial and economic inhibitions to the proper exploitation of the UK exclusive economic zone by British industry’ by C.P.S. Hardcastle; (3) ‘The changing fisheries regime and its effect on British Industry’ by D.I.A. Steele; (4) ‘Future catching and processing technology: optimum technical solutions in an ideal world’ by M. Ha*field; (5) ‘Food from the sea: prospects and problems of marine aquaculture’ by R.S.V. PuUin; (6) ‘The organisation and structure of the British offshore oil industry’ by F.H. Mann. In addition to the papers there were four discussion group sessions covering law, organization, money and finance, fisheries, exports, research and development, information and public education. Chemical Dispersantsfor the Control of Oil Spills edited-by L.T: McCarthy Jr, -G.P. Lindblom and H.F. Walter (American Society for Testing and Materials, 1916 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA, 1978,307 ml, $30.00) Proceedings of a conference on spill control systems held at Wilii~sburg, VA, USA, 5October 1977. Directory of Shipowners, ~h~bujiders and Marine Engineers 1979 (IPC Industrial Press, London, 1979, 1 524 pp,fi5.00, UK,
E25.00,overseas) Ecology OS the Marine Environment. Volume 4. Avril, 1977-March, 1978 (A Bibfiography with Abstracts) by Elizabeth A. Harrison (National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA, USA, 1979,190 pp, NTIS PS-79/0320/6WO)* Ecoiogv oftheMarine Environment. Volume 5. A&l. > 1978-March. 1979 (A Biblioproohv with Abstracts) by Elizabeth A. H%son (National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA, 1979, 162 pp, NTIS PS?9/0321/4WO)
governments In exchange,
and petroleum institutes. however, for the more
specialized literature that would require more expense in terms of cash and time to acquire, this book offers a timely and comprehensive alternative. fairly Readers, however, must bring all appropriate expectations to a book on a problem to which the solution is aut~hthonous, yet most of whose contributors come from the oil industry itself.
&Sects of Oil Slick Properties on the Dispersion of Floating Oil into the Sea by Jerome H. Milgram, Richard G. Donnelly, Robert J. Van Houten and John M. Camperman, (Coast Guard Office of Research and Development, Washington, DC, 1978, 340 pp, NTIS AD-A062 693llWO) The salient physical effect causing initial dispersion of oif into the sea is breaking waves. Subsequent behaviour of the dispersed oil, including droplet trajectories and droplets rejoining the slick are strongly influenced by oceanic turbulence caused by breaking waves and other sources. All the aspects of dispersion are related to oil slick properties, the most important being physical and chemical properties of the oif as well as the slick thickness distribution. This report does not give a way of making a quantitative prediction of the extent of dispersion of an oil slick of prescribed properties; this is because there is not yet sufficient knowledge to do this. Rather, the report deals with the fundamentals of the dispersing processes and reports the results of a group of laboratory experiments relating to them. These results can ultimately be used in a model for predicting dispersion and also lead to some immediate conclusions. One of them is that the most important slick influencing property dispersion is oil slick thickness. Extended Fishery Jurisdiction: Problems and Progress, i977. Proceedings of the North Carolina Governor’s Conference on Fishery Management under Extended Jurisdiction, Raleigh, NC, 11-12 October 1977 (OtTice of Marine Affairs, North Carolina Dept of Administration, Raleigh, NC, 1978,288 pp) The 1977 conference assessed the problems and progress of implementing -the US Fishery Conservation and Management Act (FCMA). The conference provided a forum for those involved in programmes under the FCMA to discuss difficulties of operating these programmes.
MARINE POLICY January 1980