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The report presents a general overview of the way the carriage of bulk liquids in tank vessels takes place, covering statistics on the world fleet and the main shipping routes. Statistics on spills and spill volumes are presented. The effects of some accidental spills on the marine environment are presented in an exemplary fashion. Operational discharges leading to chronic pollution are discussed in a general manner (discussions on specific effects will be published in the instalments).
Despite the publicity that tanker incidents attract, pollution from tankships contributes only a small proportion of the pollutants that enter the seas each year. However, a general lack of data on transport and discharge volumes, a shortage in marine environment research programs for the evaluation of environmental impacts of the world fleet of merchant ships and the difficulties in controlling environmental standards on ships in the open sea hamper the quantitative description of the environmental effects and the long-term risk involved.
This is the first part of a four volume report on the effects of tankships on the marine environment. The three further parts of the report will deal with (i) specific environmental health effects, (ii) the scientific evaluation of the hazards of bulk liquids carried, and (iii) the international regulatory system introduced to protect the marine environment.