COASTAL nations will have to provide a safe haven for ships in difficulties, under proposals being considered by the International Maritime Organization, the UN agency that regulates the world鈥檚 shipping.
The proposals are partly designed to prevent a rerun of what happened to the oil tanker Prestige, which split in two and sank 200 kilometres off the Spanish coast. Five months after the wreck, oil from the tanker is still washing up on holiday beaches in France and Spain.
When cracks began to appear in the Prestige鈥檚 hull, Spain closed its ports to the ship, forcing it to be towed out to sea. At the time scientists were divided over whether the oil would cause more damage if released near the coast or farther out at sea.
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Maritime specialists argue that it is always easier to save a ship鈥檚 crew or salvage its cargo if it is near the coast and in calm water. Speaking in London last week, Bill O鈥橬eil, secretary-general of the IMO, pointed out that even the Prestige survived 鈥渟ix days of severe punishment from the weather as she was towed out into the Atlantic鈥� after the cracks started to appear.
In its analysis of the accident, the American Bureau of Shipping, which undertook the Prestige鈥檚 last annual survey, said last month that if 鈥渢he vessel had been afforded a safe refuge鈥t would have remained intact and afloat for a sustained period, certainly long enough to light the oil cargo off the vessel鈥�. The IMO will consider the proposals at its meeting in November.
The Prestige is not the first ship to be turned away from port when it needed help. Spain was one of five countries to refuse the Castor access to its ports in January 2001 after it developed a 20-metre crack in its hull. It toured the Mediterranean for a month before its cargo of 25,000 tonnes of petrol was transferred to another tanker off Malta.