REMPEC - protecting the Mediterranean Sea

Pamela Hansen talks to Rear Admiral Roberto Patruno, outgoing director of REMPEC, about its role and future

Rear Admiral Roberto Patruno ended his term of office as the director of the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC) earlier this month.

I met up with him at his office in Manoel Island; almost six years to the day the oil tanker Erika broke up and sank off the coast of France, causing an environmental disaster.

Few people seem to know what REMPEC's remit is, and that it is based in Malta. The centre has been administered by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and forms part of the Regional Seas network of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The Mediterranean was the region chosen to start the UNEP Regional Seas Programme.

REMPEC was established within the framework of the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) in 1976, by the decision of the Conference of Plenipotentiaries of the Coastal States of the Mediterranean Region on Protection of the Mediterranean Sea.

Its objectives, functions and work programme are defined by the contracting parties to the Barcelona Convention, which established the need to react to emergencies at the regional level.

Although awareness on pollution is rising, and more and more people are becoming involved in working towards less air pollution and waste management, environmental interest has mostly focused on land.

It is only when disasters like the break-up of the Erika, on December 12, 1999, occur, that people suddenly realise the importance of keeping our seas pollution-free.

The 25-year-old Maltese-registered oil tanker broke in two and sank in stormy seas off the Brittany coast of France, spilling nearly 90,000 barrels of heavy oil into the Bay of Biscay.

Although the oil spill occurred over 50 miles from shore, stormy weather and easterly winds conspired against clean-up efforts, and part of the 14-mile oil slick began washing up on the French coastline.

The oil spill killed tens of thousands of birds, destroying fish and oyster grounds, and eventually covered more than a 250-mile stretch of coastline, damaging tourism for months after the shipwreck.

Hot on the heels of the disaster, in January 2002, 15 Mediterranean countries (including Malta, which was working to join the European Union at the time and had to get its shipping register in order) and the EU signed a new protocol, in Malta, concerning co-operation in preventing pollution from ships and, in cases of emergency, combating pollution of the Mediterranean Sea, which came into force in March 2004.

In November 2002, the Prestige, a 26-year-old, single-hull tanker carrying some 77,000 tons of oil, sank 160 miles off the northwestern Spanish coast.

In an all-too-familiar sight for French citizens, oil from the sunken tanker began to leak and high winds carried the oil north towards France's Atlantic Coast.

In addition to the pollution of Spain's Galicia and Asturias regions and northern Portugal, some 125 miles of French beaches, from the southwest corner of the country half-way up the Atlantic coast to the port city of La Rochelle, were polluted by the thick sludge emanating from the Prestige.

Although the Prestige oil spill was not as ecologically damaging to France as that of Erika, the incident nonetheless galvanised France into taking action to prevent future oil spill catastrophes. In March 2003, the EU agreed to ban large single-hull tankers carrying heavy-grade oil to and from European ports.

It is estimated that about 30 per cent of international-borne trade volume originates or is directed to the Mediterranean ports, and 50 per cent is in transit in the Mediterranean Sea; 2,000 merchant vessels are at sea at any moment, of which 250-300 are oil tankers.

Oil tankers transport some 1,800 million tonnes of crude oil around the world by sea. The Med is the major route for transportation of crude oil from the oilfields in the Middle East and North Africa, and oil ports in the Black Sea towards the major consumption centres in Europe and also in North America.

The most important oil traffic lane (estimated 90 per cent of total tanker traffic) connects the Suez Canal and the Sidi Kerir terminal of the Sumed pipeline in Egypt with Gibraltar, passing between Sicily and Malta and then following the coasts of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

When the centre began its work, only a few Mediterranean countries were considered to have a minimum capacity for oil spill response, Admiral Patruno told me.

Now the region is well prepared to deal with pollution incidents, particularly oil spills. Sub-regional contingency plans have been established between neighbouring countries, including the RAMOGEEPOL between France, Italy and Monaco; the Lyon plan between France and Spain; the bilateral plan Spain-Morocco; the sub-regional plan for the southeast Mediterranean between Cyprus, Egypt and Israel; the trilateral plan for the southwest Mediterranean between Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia and the sub-regional plan for the Adriatic basin between Croatia, Italy and Slovenia.

The last three were negotiated, developed and adopted thanks to REMPEC's strong support, added the admiral.

Work in progress includes other operational agreements between Libya and Tunisia, Tunisia-Malta and Italy and Albania-Montenegro-Greece and Italy.

No country is able to respond on its own to a major accident and all these operational agreements will work towards pulling together resources with things like training and exercises and a standards system of alert, said the admiral.

REMPEC has significantly contributed to the success of the Barcelona Convention mechanism developing its activities along four main roads: disseminating information and raising awareness at regional level, training personnel - some 2,600 specialists (1,600 in the last seven years); assisting countries in the preparation of their national systems and facilitating co-operation in case of emergency.

Other main achievements of the centre include the complete assessment of the reception facilities in the main harbours of the region; the continuous assistance to the countries in legal, financial, technical and operational matters related to marine pollution from ships, and the regional strategy for prevention of and response to marine pollution from ships for the years 2006-2015.

Although oil spillage, arising from incidence of ship grounding and collision has been a major international concern, in recent years, this concern has also included hazardous and noxious substances (HNS), ballast water discharge and antifouling paints.

A number of land-based waste products, notably nutrients and toxic pollutants, exert direct effect on economically or culturally important fish-stocks such as physiological impacts brought about by endocrine disruptors.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are caused by microalgae, which have negative impacts on human activities, including human health, fisheries, aquaculture and tourism, among others.

Despite the achievements of the past decade, considerable challenges must still be tackled to ensure the environmental protection of the Mediterranean region and the sustainable and balanced development of the countries around the Mediterranean Sea, Admiral Patruno said.

The coastal areas and wildlife are still threatened by unsustainable development and uncontrolled pollution, such as from unprocessed sewage oil and toxic discharges. Biodiversity is threatened by invasive species and scraping of the seabed.

Uncontrolled fisheries in many countries also endanger wildlife. Besides, the growth of maritime traffic and the doubling of oil quantities shipped in the Mediterranean might significantly increase the level of related risk for the marine environment, especially in some seas like the Adriatic, the Bosphorus, the Aegean and the Sicily channel, where this risk is already high, he said.

REMPEC will continue to work with all the Mediterranean countries and the EU to enhance and reinforce a regional attitude to protect the Med from all sources of pollution, making maritime transport safer and cleaner, which represents the key towards the MAP's ultimate target, said Admiral Patruno.