The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has finalized contracts to
strengthen its pollution response coverage in the Atlantic and
Mediterranean areas.
UK ship owner James Fisher Everard will provide a
pollution response arrangement based on a pool of three vessels
normally trading between the UK and Ireland. Spanish company Mureloil
will provide a pool of two vessels which operate in southern Spain.
Maltese ship owner Tankship Management will add a vessel to the
already established arrangement in the central Mediterranean Sea and
Greek company Environmental Protection Engineering (EPE) will provide
a vessel based in southern Greece. All vessels will be equipped during
the first half of 2008 and will become operational as pollution response
vessels by mid-2008.
“Now that we have this third set of vessels contracted, EMSA is in a much
improved position to provide ’top-up’ response vessels relatively quickly should
pollution disasters occur in the future,” said EMSA Executive Director Willem de
Ruiter. “We now have a number of vessels, including back-ups, throughout the
Baltic, Atlantic and Mediterranean areas. This means that the network is nearing
completion. Next year, we will have to close any remaining loopholes, including
the Black Sea. We are looking into the best way of doing this at the present
time.”