An Iranian oil tanker that sunk in the East China Sea is prompting fears of damage to marine life. Why do oil spills keep happening and who is responsible when it’s in international waters?An Iranian oil tanker caught fire and sunk this past Sunday in the East China Sea, eight days after a collision with a cargo ship due to unclear causes. Its 30 crewmen are missing, with few chances of survival — and fears of an environmental harm have spread.
High seas are often a source of controversy when it comes to protecting marine wildlife and ecosystems. A lack of strong international regulations in waters outside national maritime boundaries — which cover half of the planet’s surface — results in many grey areas.
While oceans cover over 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, only about 5 percent of the world’s oceans are protected, and very little of these protected zones consist of open ocean, according to United Nations.
At the end of 2017, the UN started a process to implement a new rule book by 2020, to establish marine catch quotas and conservation areas, among protective measures.
Until this is finalized, a lack of accountability on the high seas remains the reality, leaving largely unattended the problems of illegal fishing or ocean plastic pollution.
“This accident … reminds of the importance of learning lessons to increase safety and environmental protection measures,” Paul Johnston, head of the science unit for Greenpeace International, told DW.
The oil spill’s environmental impact
Experts point out that it is too early to assess the full environmental impact of the accident, but it is expected to be relatively low compared topast oil spills on the ocean.
The cargo was carrying light crude oil — or condensate — which is particularly volatile and highly flammable. When burned off, it can easily evaporate into the air, instead of remaining on the water surface like crude oil spills do.
However, it is yet clear how much condensate has burned off or even how much has spilled, as well as possible consequences for fish species consumed by people, Greenpeace warns.
Condensate is colorless and breaks down quite quickly, along with being partially water-soluble, which could make the cleanup process more difficult. In addition, condensate has toxic components such as hydrogen sulfide, which could cause air pollution.
The oil would take at least three months to reach land — if it does, the Korean coast is the most likely location, the UK National Oceanography Centre has said, based on observations.
Who is responsible?
All international ocean-going ships are required to get insurance under the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage (CLC).
This is supposed to ensure adequate compensation for oil pollution damages and clean-up costs, among other coverage, Nele Matz-Lück, director of the Walther Schücking Institute for International Law (WSI), told DW.
“The problem is that there is damages to the marine environment that we cannot put in numbers, such as the impact on fish or birds,” Matz-Lück said.
Potential criminal responsibility is also supposed to act as an incentive for people to avoid environmental harm. But on the high seas, only the criminal laws of the flag state apply, and the international community can do nothing to bring those responsible for such a crime to justice.
Matz-Lück explains that this motivates some ship owners to choose a kind of flag of convenience — that is, to choose a flag state with a low level of enforcement, for example Panama or Liberia.
“This means that when operating in international waters, there is a grey area regarding who is responsible,” Johnston said.
No conclusions have been drawn yet for the East China Sea incident.
Toward further safety
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity expects to protect at least 10 percent of the world’s coastal and marine areas by 2020.
“We’ve seen a trend of increasingly tight regulations regarding high seas for the last decades,” Johnston said. “But there is still a very great need of further protection in the high seas.”
This is the only path for a reducing accidents that could impact the high seas environment, as well as other harmful activities, from illegal fishing to pollution, Johnston believes.
“As long as [oil] cargos exist, such accidents will keep happening — but they can be largely reduced through stronger regulations,” Johnston believes.
In the North Sea, for instance, safety measures such as the use of traffic separation schemes or double-hulled vessels have been successful in reducing accidents and thus environmental impacts.
But some powerful countries have no interest in closing the legal loopholes of the open ocean.
“There is no strict regulation on the transportation of oil by vessels, for instance, because states have an economic interest on it,” Matz-Lück points out.
