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Chapter 17 Places of Refuge for Ships: the Danish Approach

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Chapter 17 Places of Refuge for Ships: the Danish Approach Chapter 17 Places of Refuge for Ships: The Danish Approach John Liljedahl INTRODUCTION Every year, about 60,000 ships pass through Danish waters, and this figure does not include domestic ferry traffic. The majority of the ships will, during a con- siderable part of their passage, be less than five nautical miles from the coast- line and will pass through a strait1 into the Danish territorial sea2 or pass in a 1 Passage by merchant vessels through the Danish Straits (the Little Belt, the Great Belt and the Sound) is regulated by a treaty between Denmark and most of the European States signed at Copenhagen on 14 March 1857, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Montego Bay, 10 December 1982, UN/Doc. A/CONF.62/122, 7 October 1982 (hereafter LOS Convention), and customary international law. Denmark became a party to the LOS Convention in 2004. Upon ratification, the Denmark made the follow- ing declaration: 'It is the position of the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark that the exception from the transit passage regime provided for in article 35 (c) of the Convention applies to the specific regime in the Danish straits (the Great Belt, the Little Belt and the Danish part of the Sound), which has developed on the basis of the 455 Aldo Chircop and Olof Linden (Eds.), Places of Refuge for Ships: Emerging Environmental Concerns of a Maritime Custom. 455–469. © 2006 Koninklijke Brill N.V. Printed in the Netherlands. 456 Chapter 17 corridor along the territorial sea of Denmark, Sweden or Germany (see Figure 1). Ships in distress in those waters have normally been so close to the coast and sheltered waters that a decision as to where the ship should proceed or be towed has to be taken within minutes. A place of ‘refuge’ is often reached when the ship is beached or stranded. This happens before anyone in the coastal state has a chance to make any attempt to assist the ship, except with regard to res- cue of the crew by helicopters. In the past, it has therefore not been an obvious requirement for the Danish Government to designate places of refuge. Neither have there been incidents where the authorities have ordered ships in distress to move away from Danish waters, thereby resulting in requests from foreign shipowners or governments for places of refuge for ships in distress. RISK ASSESSMENT The risk of pollution of the Danish coastline as a result of a shipping accident has been present for a long time. As early as 1979, there were a couple of tanker groundings and, in 1985, a tanker ruptured its tanks following a collision with a lighthouse in a fairway causing only minor pollution damage. These incidents, however, served as a warning to Danes of what could happen if larger ships were involved. One incident in the North Sea, in October 1998, also gave the Danes a hint of what could happen in the future. The Bahamian-registered ‘Pallas’, with a full load of timber cargo, had a fire on board about 60 nautical miles from Esbjerg, which is the largest Danish port on the west coast of Jutland facing the North Sea. Due to the heavy seas and wind, and without tugs with sufficient bollard pull to handle the ‘Pallas’, it was not possible to take the ship in tow to Esbjerg. German and Danish helicopters picked up the entire crew and, much to the relief of the Danes, the ship drifted towards German waters and eventually ran aground there. In addition to the risk of pollution from ships in the North Sea trading to and from the Baltic and Scandinavian countries, Denmark also has to consider the activities at the oil fields in the North Sea. Several of the oil fields are within the Danish exclusive economic zone (EEZ) (see Figure 1), but that is a different issue.3 Copenhagen Treaty of 1857. The present legal regime of the Danish straits will therefore remain unchanged’. 2 The Danish territorial Sea has been established by Act No. 200 of 7th April 1999 with a maximum of 12 nautical miles and reduced in some areas between Sweden and Germany in order to secure corridors of non-territorial waters. (See Figure 1.) 3 The Danish EEZ is established by Act No. 411 of 22nd May 1996. .
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