Intentional Marine Pollution

Intentional Marine Pollution
Report No. 200060

I have been sailing on crude oil tankers for the past 4 years as a junior officer and have been three times into dry dock or repair yards on these type of vessels. Prior to taking a tanker to dry dock, the major job is to clean the tanks.

On each occasion I noticed the same thing happening. After cleaning the tanks, both slop tanks are filled with an oil and water mixture. This mixture is then pumped out through the Oily Water Separator. Initially there is no problem because the water which has settled on top is discharged overboard first, then the amount of oil in the mixture increases. At that point the overboard valve shuts off automatically. The owners do not give enough time for decanting which takes about 24/36 hours and express their concern over any time delays. They also cannot accept the fact that they have to land large amounts of slops to shore facilities as this costs them money. As a consequence, the ship's staff have to find a way to get rid of the slops in order to please the Company and keep their jobs secure. I came across two methods used by ship's personnel to over-ride the oily water separator.

1. Where this is possible, they manually set the parts per million (ppm) on the pump so that the sampling pump does not shut down automatically and the ships merrily pump thick black oil overboard.

2. If the oily water separator is fully automatic and the rate cannot be manually altered, they put a fresh water hose running near the sampling pump and flood the sensor with fresh water so that it does not detect any oil and gives a low ppm reading even when thick black oil is being discharged overboard. On the orders of the Master, the ship then keeps altering course in order to churn up the residue in the wake.

The company is aware of these procedures and I guess that it may be a common practice adopted by most of the crude oil tankers that are being made ready for repairs. This pollution is practised by ships of more than one country. I have experienced it when sailing on vessels registered under different flags, all belonging to reputable shipping companies. Often the company's superintendent is on board prior to going to a repair yard and assisting and monitoring the ship's staff. This monitoring includes the intentional pumping of oil overboard.

So where does MARPOL come into action here? There are usually minimal amount of slops that are kept on board to be discharged ashore for the sake of the Oil Record Book but some ships show nil remains on board in spite of the massive tank cleaning operations that have taken place. This is not a trivial matter and causes me concern. No matter how stringent the regulations or how sophisticated the equipment is now, oil is still being pumped overboard intentionally.

Anonymous reports are not normally accepted by me. I always ask for a contact name and address. Most reporters have enough trust in the confidentiality of MARS to supply a contact name and address. This reporter is very concerned about losing his job because he is writing about illegal practices. As this report is of such a serious nature and the writer is showing genuine concern, it was decided that it should be published. I hope that, in spite of being anonymous, it will stimulate some discussion and perhaps some enquiries or even better, it may encourage other reporters to substantiate this with their experiences. Please give a name and address so that I am not given the dilemma of whether to publish or not.