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RMTnews :: january 2007 :: www.rmt.org.uk
24
M
oroccan-flagged
chemical tanker Al
Farabi has been accused of
trailing a 12-mile oil slick
within France’s 200-mile
Exclusive Economic Zone in
September.
Its owner has paid a
£172,000 bond and the
captain is summoned for trial
next April.
A court also fined the
owner and master of the
Maltese-flagged freighter Fast
Independence £345,000
recently for illegally
discharging oil sludge after a
French navy patrol aircraft
spotted it last May trailing
miles of discoloured water.
Since a 2002 law granting
the Brest, Le Havre and
Marseilles courts competency
based on the International
Maritime Organisation’s
Convention for the Prevention
of Pollution from Ships
(MARPOL) provisions, the
court has dealt with 37 cases
of illicit maritime pollution.
Most offences occur within
the Brest court’s jurisdiction
between Mont St Michel in
Brittany and Bayonne near the
Spanish border.
The main offenders are
Flags of Convenience: Panama
(five cases), Malta (four) and
the Bahamas (three). Cyprus,
Saint Vincent and Grenadines
and the Isle of Man each have
two cases. But ships registered
in Italy (four cases), Greece
(three) and France (two) also
offend.
The maximum prison
sentence on French - but not
foreign - masters rose from
four to 10 years.
The largest fine so far -
£550,000 – was imposed last
April on the owner and the
master of the Maersk
Barcelona container carrier,
caught in trailing a 50 mile
slick.
Shipping unions and other
maritime organisations are
concerned at the increasing
criminalisation of seafarers in
accidental pollution cases.
In response to an EU draft
directive introducing criminal
liability, they have demanded
that seafarers not be
criminalised in compliance
with the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the
Sea (UNCLOS) and MARPOL.
There is a growing trend
for a ship’s flag state to try
cases under UNCLOS - the
Montego Bay Convention –
under which a ship’s flag state
has the right to try masters
and owners accused of
pollution, no matter where the
offence is committed.
A row has erupted with
Malta claiming precedence
over France to try the Fast
Independence case.
The Brest court questioned
why Malta did not invoke
Montego Bay in previous
pollution cases in French
waters.
Brest court chief prosecutor
Xavier Tarabeux says that the
higher fines are having an
effect with the number of
detentions falling.
The Al Farabi incident is
the first for 12 months.
But it is suspected that, to
avoid detection, some
pollution may be taking place
at night or at the limit of
France’s Exclusive Economic
Zone.
FRENCH PROSECUTE
MARITIME POLLUTERS
INTERNATIONAL FOCUS