Twenty years of Belgian North Sea aerial surveillance: A quantitative analysis of results confirms effectiveness of international oil pollution legislation

Temporal Displacement of Environmental Crime. Evidence from Marine Oil Pollution

“…Clearly, the trend is downwards. The suggested drop in illegal oil discharges is confirmed in counts of beached seabirds that are oiled (Camphuysen 2010) and in the trend in radar-identified spots in the German and Belgian part of the North Sea (Carpenter 2007, Lagring et al 2012). The decline has been attributed to a range of factors including changes in ship design, better facilities for legal disposal in the harbor, strengthened port state control and greater environmental awareness of shipping crews (ibid.).…”

“…The graphical evidence in Figure 5 suggests that close to all illegal oil discharges occur during the nighttime, because all upswings in the probability of detecting a spot are concentrated in 14 the nighttime. The size of the other estimated parameters changes compared to the previous period, which may be related to oil discharges slowly becoming smaller in volume (Lagring et al 2012).…”

“…Oil may also be transferred to the sediment, where it might persist for many years, and impact on organisms on and in the sea bed. Marine oil pollution remains a great environmental concern globally (National Research Council 2003, Gullo 2011), even though the incidence of illegal oil discharges has been reported to have declined in some areas including the North Sea (Camphuysen 2010, Lagring et al 2012, the Baltic Sea (HELCOM 2011) and the Pacific Ocean off the Canadian coast (Serra-Sogas et al 2008). The policy relevance of the findings of this study extends beyond the confines of the Dutch part of the North Sea: many coastal countries in the western world use deterrence technology that is similar to the Netherlands, including the UK, the US, Germany, Belgium, Canada and France.…”

Oil Pollution in the Dutch Sector of the North Sea

“…Figure 5 shows the trend in the probability of detecting spots by airborne radar during 1992-2011. Clearly, the trend is downwards, as it is in the German and Belgian parts of the North Sea [56,57]. All Bonn Agreement contracting parties report similar trends since 1999, and this is reflected in the annual reports produced by the Bonn Agreement Secretariat [58].…”

Illegal discharges in Spanish waters. Analysis of the profile of the Alleged Offending Vessel

“…Aerial surveillance is proving to be the most useful and effective tool for the prevention and detection of marine pollution (Lagring et al, 2012). Certainly, this resource is the one that allows the most direct information, data and evidence about an alleged illegal activity to be obtained for the implementation of the administrative sanctioning procedure.…”