The worst kind of marine pollution
A quick take on bilge dumping and it's ecological cost
Companies only care about the environment when they’re forced to. The maritime industry, in particular, is guilty of flouting the regulations established to save the marine environment. Until 2019, Carnival Corporation (cruise operator) has paid more than $60 million in fines for oceanic pollution. The company logged 800 offences, many of them were heinous to the oceanic life forms, like discharging plastics. But the worst of them all was bilge dumping. 1
What is bilge dumping?
Bilge dumping is the deliberate dumping of heavy oils, harmful chemicals and other hazardous substances into the water, harming the ecosystem at an incomprehensible scale. Carnival is just one example - recently - New Trade Ship Management was fined $1.1 million for discarding bilge. 2
MARPOL has established regulations for proper treatment and discharge of bilge water. Dumping of untreated bilge water in the waters was banned some 50 years back but it remains a common practice even today. As a whistleblower in the DW report mentions, ”it’s just something you’re expected to do”. 3 The regulatory oversight is weak and the fines are not enough to stop this. Maritime operations are often time-bound with slim margins. Companies would rather pay the fines than comply with the regulatory procedures for discarding bilge water. Besides, the fines are a slap on the wrist. In Carnival’s case, $60 million in total fines is about 0.7% of their total profit on which they pay no corporate income tax. It’s nothing! To come to terms with the scale of the problem, just check the fleet traffic in the waters at any given time. 4
Bilge dumping can be done with very simple techniques, as the whistleblower mentions in his anonymous letter to the authorities, seeking for help. 5
Scale of the problem
A collaborative investigative journalism from Lighthouse and SkyTruth estimated an average of 3000 mineral oil discharges into the European waters every year, with each spill having an average size of 750 football fields. It was further revealed that workers objecting to the illegal dumping face a risk of getting fired and never being able to get a job in the industry again. 6
A 2003 report by the nonprofit conservation group Oceana estimated that in the European waters alone “illegal dumping and routine operations of vessels account for between 666,000 and over 2.5 million tons of hydrocarbons of marine pollution per year.” That amount is up to 70 times greater than the Exxon Valdez oil spill and is likely even greater today. 7
Oil disturbs the marine ecosystem in multiple ways. Juvenile sea turtles can also become trapped in oil and mistake it for food. Dolphins and whales can inhale oil, which can affect lungs, immune function and reproduction. Many birds and animals also ingest oil when they try to clean themselves, which can poison them.Fish, shellfish, and corals may not be exposed immediately, but can come into contact with oil if it is mixed into the water column — shellfish can also be exposed in the intertidal zone. When exposed to oil, adult fish may experience reduced growth, enlarged livers, changes in heart and respiration rates, fin erosion, and reproduction impairment. Fish eggs and larvae can be especially sensitive to lethal and sublethal impacts. Even when lethal impacts are not observed, oil can make fish and shellfish unsafe for humans to eat. 8
But treating bilge water and cleaning the bilge tank is just a lot of work. If you were to google ‘The dirtiest jobs on ships’, bilge tank cleaning will rank first. In the Royal Navy, workers having duties in the bowels of the vessel were called bilge rats - as an insult.
What’s the solution?
Bilge dumping has a great economical and ecological cost, the second and third degree impacts of which we have not been able to consider and quantify yet. This has to stop. The solution lies in a tight regulatory oversight enforcing responsible behaviour from the fleet operators.
ClearSeaNet initiative by the European Maritime Safety Agency analyzes satellite imagery to identify potential discharges from the ships. Not all discharges are identified, or sometimes it will raise a false alarm for legal discharges of fish or vegetable oil. EMSA shares the data with neighbouring EU countries, but the feedback levels have been low and the response time has been very high. This decreases the likelihood for collecting relevant evidence enough to punish the offenders. Also, it’s not always possible to identify the ships as the bilge discharge is often done during the nighttime and by morning, the visible traces may or may not be detected in the satellite imagery. Nevertheless, the tool has been an important asset in the authoritative hands to discourage the offenders. Further ongoing work and feeding the model with additional data will improve the system.
Intergovernmental cooperation and tighter regulatory controls have the potential to curb the burgeoning issue. At surface level, it may not drive the environmental justice outrage as seen with oil spills but the scale of the problem is definitely at par or greater than that of accidental oil spills.
Btw, meet Bilgewater!
Here is ‘Bilgewater,’ the mascot of the Coast Guard Academy, circa 1944.
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