The Government should designate the coasts of Donegal, Mayo and Galway as "high risk" marine environmental areas and should purchase an emergency towing vessel for pollution protection, according to a report just published. The report, which has been submitted to the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, says that this island could be forced to suspend all coastal activities if a shipwreck and oil spill just a sixth the size of the Amoco Cadiz disaster occurred in these waters.
Passing vessels which pose a potential pollution threat, due to their cargo or their size, should be required to stand a specified minimum distance off the coast, and marine safety information services should be extended to incorporate traffic management of shipping, the study says.
It recommends purchasing an emergency towing vessel which could double up for use in fishery protection as the most cost effective option for the State. Six locations were examined, and it was decided that the most strategic option would be the Dublin-Rosslare coastline catchment. A vessel that could be shared with Britain would be mutually beneficial if it was "dynamically positioned", the report says.
About 380 km of the Brittany coastline was severely polluted when Amoco Cadiz grounded in 1978, spilling 221,000 tonnes of crude oil.
France responded by introducing emergency towing vessels, which are publicly funded with the government sharing any salvage award; the two largest tugs are available at 40 minutes' notice.
The need for such vessels off the British coastline was highlighted after the Braer tanker grounded off the Shetlands in 1993, and a delayed response resulted in extensive pollution. The Lord Donaldson inquiry into the incident recommended that the British government should make a series of tugs available, with adequate salvage capacity, at key points around the coast.
Three years later, after the Sea Empress disaster off Wales, the decision not to deploy two of these vessels was queried in the official investigation.
The 175-page report was carried out for the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources by marine specialists attached to or associated with the nautical enterprise centre in Cork Institute of Technology. The expertise of the Coastal Resources Centre at University College, Cork, the Dutch Maritime Research Institute, and Marine Analytics in Rotterdam, Holland, was also drawn on for the study.
The report analysed vessel traffic within the Irish pollution responsibility zone; determined the commercial and environmental resources at greatest risk from maritime-associated pollution; investigated the Republic's legal position regarding liability; and examined the capabilities of emergency towing vessels.
It noted that although Ireland had implemented many international conventions, the marine environment was still exposed to significant pollution resulting from accidents at sea. On average, there are a predicted 28 merchant ships and 100 offshore fishing vessels in the Irish pollution responsibility zone at any one time.
