EXPLOITATION AND INDUSTRIALIZATION OF THE SEA

Following the Robin des Bois press conference this morning at 10:00 AM at Brest, the prefecture of Morbihan made public on their website at 2:34 PM the prefectural mandate regarding emergency conservation efforts surrounding the worksite for the deconstruction of the cargo ship TK Bremen. The recipient of this prefectural mandate is the ship owner, Blue Atlantic Shipping, ltd. based in Malta.

Robin des Bois estimates that the emergency conditions invoked by the prefecture are intended to precipitate work upon the demolition of the TK Bremen, to know the fragility of the hull, are not one in the same. If there is an emergency, it is to erase as fast as possible the traces of errors made at the time of the casting off of the ship and its navigation in the afternoon of December 15, 2011 and the night of the 16th.

A Demolition Derby
The demolition of the TK Bremen on French territory is a spectacular example of the administrative simplification so dear to the government. The dumping of this industrial waste amounting to 2,000 tons is containing asbestos in several forms, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), hydrocarbon traces, lead paint, mercury and tin are not submitted to French and European control’s temporary authorization for a Classified Facility for the Protection of the Environment. The guidelines of the Bale Convention and the International Maritime Organization on the dismantlement of ships are not being respected. Robin des Bois requests that the prefect of Morbihan, the maritime prefecture, and the labor inspectors publish the map of dangerous waste present on the TK Bremen, if it exists.

TK Bremen (ex-Melinau Satu, ex-Melinau, ex-Elm). IMO 8113487. General cargo. Length 109 meters. Maltese flag. Classification society Bureau Veritas. Built in 1982 at Pusan (South Korea) by Dae Sun SB & E Co. her Turkish ship owner Adriyatik GemiIsletmeciligi controls 8 ships, all Maltese-flagged, built between 1982 and 1985. Each of them is officially the property of “single ship company” except in the TK Bremen’s case where it happens to be a “double ship company”, Blue Atlantic Shipping, ltd., also holds the TK London. The financial damages provoked by the drifting and beaching of the TK Bremen are chargeable to this single company based in the European Union at Malta.

In referring to Article R 304-11 of the Code of Maritime Ports (1), the Port Authority of the port of Lorient – Morbihan – could have proceeded with the postponement of the departure of the TK Bremen. In effect, this 30 year-old ship had reached the age of demolition. She presented numerous deficiencies. The absence of panels on the entire hold, as was demonstrated before by aerial photos – might be one more of them. The ship had been recently detained in a Russian port and its Turkish ship owner, proprietor of two older ships, did not immediately furnish all of the guarantees of reliability. The profile of the TK Bremen was such that those responsible for the security and of the traffic of the port of Lorient should have, in view of the imminent dangers about to confront them in a dangerous maritime environment rich in marine life, banned its departure.

The grounding of the Rena in New Zealand

The grounding of the Rena on October 5th and the subsequent inability of the ship-owner and New Zealand maritime authority’s to free the vessel, to stop the fuel from leaking and to avoid the loss of containers foreshadow big future disasters in the field of container shipping.

In 1980 the largest container ships carried up to 2,000 containers, in 1991 up to 4,400, in 2003 the figure increased to 8,800 and in 2007 up to 14,500 containers. Starting from 2013, some container ships from the Danish company Maersk will be able to transport up to 18,000 containers. The “normal” crew size of 19 could further be reduced to 13. The container ships will measure 400 meters in length, 59 meters in width and the containers will be staked up to 73 meters in height. These new container ships will also carry 15,000 to 20,000 tons of bunker fuel however, the exact capacity is confidential. Insurers as well as Search and Rescue services, port stakeholders, maritime experts and some environmental NGOs are all concerned about this endless race to gigantic container ships.

Once more, he could not say no to the invitation of a ship owner with a polar cruise. Michel Rocard, French ambassador for the Arctic and Antarctic poles embarks September 4th from Iqaluit in the Canadian arctic for eleven days aboard the Boréal.

This voyage is not without risks for the passengers and the environment. A year ago exactly, in the same waters, the Clipper Adventurer ran aground on a reef. The 197 passengers and crew members had to wait forty-eight hours on the ship, in distress, before beginning to be evacuated. Means of assistance and salvage from Canada like other coastal states of the icy Arctic Ocean are inadequate. The ship owner sued the Canadian government for mistakes in the mapping surveys. Today, only ten percent of the Arctic Ocean is correctly charted.

Early last week the Gannet Alpha platform situated approximately 180km east of Aberdeen, Scotland started leaking light crude oil into the North Sea. To date it is believed that some 218 tonnes (1,300 barrels) of oil has leaked from an 8 inch thick pipeline which joins Gannet E and F drilling fields. The leak was only confirmed a couple of days after it started by the operator Shell. The platform continues to operate but the sub-sea line between Gannet E and F has been isolated and the flow line depressurised which should reduce the leak flow.

On July 7th 2011 a maritime border agreement between Russia and Norway entered into force. This new dividing line ends a 44 year dispute over 175,000 square kilometres in the Barents and Arctic seas and opens up the former so called “grey zone” for exploration. The day following the entry into force Norway deployed the Harrier Explorer (Imo 7807380) a seismic vessel to start exploration in the zone.

This border agreement follows a Treaty on Cooperation on Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue in the Arctic on May 12th 2011. It is the first legally binding treaty under the circumpolar intergovernmental forum the Arctic Council and was signed in Nuuk Greenland by Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States of America. The Treaty so called the “Nuuk Agreement” is focused on saving lives. It is an important step towards policy-making as there is an increasing amount of traffic venturing into the Arctic, which includes tankers and passenger ships of which a number were not constructed to navigate in ice-covered waters.

The Gulf Jash, ex- Probo Koala, is anchored in Halong Bay, Vietnam. Today, June 3rd GMS, U.S. based ship broker, denies ownership of the ship. Under this hypothesis, it is for Dubai based Gulf Navigation, owner of the ex- Probo Koala since 2006, to clarify the conditions of the sale and the destination of the vessel.

In accordance with Robin des Bois’ (“Robin Hood” international association based in Paris) press release published May 17th 2011, the Equasis database displays, since May 31st that the Gulf Jash ex-Probo Koala, the Gulf Ahmadi ex-Probo Bison and the Gulf Shagra ex-Probo Panda are indeed “to be broken up”.

Warned by Robin des Bois as early as May 17th 2011 of the Probo Koala’s imminent arrival to be beached for demolition (1), Bangladesh authorities, through its Ministry of Environment & Forest have just closed access to the demolition shipyard to this ship whose last known name was Gulf Jash, IMO number 8309816. This is the first time a ship destined to demolition is turned away from Bangladesh waters. The decision is justified by the history of this tanker and the particularly toxic residue still possibly on board. The list of these substances and a draft of the ship can be found here.