Oil Pollution in and Around the Waters of Belgium

Oil Pollution In and Around the Waters of Belgium Ronny Schallier and Ward Van Roy Abstract Although the waters of Belgium only form a minor part of the North Sea, they contain some of the busiest shipping routes in the world with the Dover Strait and some of the biggest European ports in the immediate vicinity. It is therefore recognized as a key maritime risk area, also in terms of ship-source oil pollution. This chapter first discusses the significant, stepwise decrease of illegal oil discharges from ships in and around the waters of Belgium based on national aerial surveillance data since 1991 but also gives indications as to why the ecological quality objectives have not yet been met despite this decline. It further gives an overview of the accidental oil pollution incidents in this key risk area over the last 30 years and reflects on the high level of accidental marine pollution risk. Finally, the various measures are discussed that have been and will be undertaken in terms of oil pollution prevention, enforcement, preparedness and response with the aim to (further) reduce the oil pollution pressure in this environmentally sensitive area. Keywords Aerial surveillance, Decrease in illegal oil discharges from ships, Ecological and socioeconomic importance, Key risk area, Oil pollution prevention, Preparedness and response, Shipping accidents, Southern North Sea, Waters of Belgium R. Schallier (*) and W. Van Roy Management Unit of North Sea Mathematical Models, OD Nature, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Gulledelle 100, 1200 Brussels, Belgium e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] A. Carpenter (ed.), Oil Pollution in the North Sea, 93 Hdb Env Chem (2016) 41: 93–116, DOI 10.1007/698_2014_330, © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014, Published online: 5 February 2015 94 R. Schallier and W. Van Roy Contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................. 94 1.1 Ecological Importance of Belgian Waters and Shores ............................... 94 1.2 Socioeconomic Importance of Belgian Waters and Shores ......................... 96 1.3 A Key Risk Area for Ship-Source Pollution ......................................... 97 2 Illegal Oil Discharges from Ships .......................................................... 97 2.1 Aerial Surveillance as Method for Monitoring Oil Pollution In and Around the Waters of Belgium ................................................................ 97 2.2 Significant Decrease in Chronic Oil Pollution Pressure ... .......................... 98 3 Accidental Marine Pollution ................................................................ 104 3.1 Historical Overview of Shipping Accidents with (Risk for) Accidental Oil Pollution 104 3.2 Outcome of Recent Risk Assessment Studies ........................................ 108 3.3 Oil Pollution Prevention, Preparedness and Response ............................... 109 4 Conclusions .................................................................................. 111 References ....................................................................................... 111 1 Introduction 1.1 Ecological Importance of Belgian Waters and Shores Of all North Sea coastal States, Belgium has by far the shortest coastline (ca. 65 km). The waters of Belgium, or Belgian marine areas, can be subdivided into the territorial sea (12 nautical miles) and the exclusive economic zone. They contain a total surface of nearly 3,500 km2 [1] which is merely 0.5% of the entire North Sea area. Nevertheless this small Belgian part is considered very important from both an ecological and a socioeconomic point of view [2]. The waters of Belgium consist of a very shallow part of the southern bight of the North Sea, with a sea floor that gradually decreases towards the northwest up to a water depth of 40–45 m, and which is characterized by the presence of a complex system of trenches and elongated, shallow sandbanks. The strong semidiurnal tidal currents in the area, with tidal amplitudes between 3 and 4.6 m and currents of more than 1.2 m sÀ1 and the low fresh water discharge of the river Scheldt, result in well- mixed nearshore waters [3, 4]. This dynamic marine environment contains very diverse and abundant benthic populations, such as, amongst others, the highly diverse coastal sand mason (Lanice conchilega) beds and offshore gravel beds, which make them important feeding and nursery areas for higher trophic levels such as fish and birds [5–7]. As such, Belgian coastal waters are very important spawning grounds and nursery areas for a.o. sole. They also form a nursery area for other commercial fish species such as plaice and cod [4]. The waters of Belgium form an important wintering and foraging area for seabirds [8, 9]. During winter months, the Belgian coastal waters regularly harbour internationally important numbers (i.e. more than 1% of biogeographical popula- tion) of great crested grebes (Podiceps cristatus) and the great black-backed gull (Larus marinus), together with important numbers of the red-throated diver Oil Pollution In and Around the Waters of Belgium 95 (Gavia stellata) and the common scoter (Melanitta nigra). In spring and summer months, the coastal zone forms an important foraging area for internationally important numbers of terns (sandwich tern Sterna sandvicensis, common tern Sterna hirundo, and little tern Sternula albifrons) which mainly breed in the port of Zeebruges [10]. Finally, the Belgian part of the North Sea functions as important migratory corridor used by more than a million seabirds during the migration period [11]. In order to sustainably preserve the most valuable marine habitats and seabird areas, a series of marine-protected areas have been designated: a Special Area for Conservation or SAC called ‘Trapegeer-Stroombank’ area (EC Habitat Directive area) containing a Ramsar Zone and three Special Protection Areas or SPAs (EC Birds Directive areas) have been created in the Belgian coastal waters (Fig. 1). Finally, a large additional Habitat Directive area called the ‘extended Fig. 1 Overview map of Belgian surveillance area. The black squares are the ‘waypoints’ used for flight routing and reporting. The horizontal red lines reflect the Quadripartite Zone for Joint Responsibility (QZJR). The black lines correspond to the Belgian maritime boundaries, which consist of the territorial sea and the EEZ. The purple lines reflect the shipping routes, with the solid lines corresponding to the primary shipping routes (NHTSS and WHTSS) and the dotted lines corresponding to the secondary shipping routes. The green lines and areas correspond to the various marine protected areas in the waters of Belgium. The blue line reflects the Belgian offshore wind farm area with indication of the current wind turbines (blue dots) 96 R. Schallier and W. Van Roy Trapegeer-Stroombank’ area has recently been announced to the EC and is therefore recognized as a Site of Community Interest [10]. The Belgian coastline mainly consists of fine sandy beaches and dunes. It also contains three important intertidal nature reserves consisting of sheltered coastal salt marshes and mudflats [1]: the ‘Zwin’, the ‘IJzermonding’ and the ‘Baai van Heist’ – a reserve which has both a coastal and a marine part. 1.2 Socioeconomic Importance of Belgian Waters and Shores With its gently sloping sandy beaches, the Belgian coastline attracts plenty of tourists, mainly in the summer season. With an average of 15 million commercial overnight stays per year and around 19 million of annual day tourists, the coastal tourism is a crucial touristic sector in Belgium in the summer period [12, 13]. The waters of Belgium also contain important fishing grounds. Beam trawl fishery is the dominant type of fishing activity in the area, with both flatfish beam trawl fisheries and, in coastal waters, shrimp beam trawl fisheries [14]. Both the Belgian and Dutch southern fishing fleet are active in the area. Industrial activities at sea have for years been mainly limited to sand and gravel extraction activities, since there are no offshore oil and gas installations on the Belgian continental shelf. But a very recent and growingly important industrial activity is the construction and exploitation of offshore wind farms (Fig. 1), driven by demands for increased renewable energy [15]. By the end of 2013, three offshore wind farms have been constructed in the Belgian EEZ consisting of 135 wind turbines with total installed offshore wind energy capacity of 571 MW, which placed Belgium in the third place in Europe in 2013 – only preceded by Denmark and the United Kingdom [16]. And plans exist for the construction, in the next few years, of four additional offshore wind farms in the designated offshore energy zone in the Belgian EEZ. Maritime transport and shipping however remains the most important economic activity in and around the waters of Belgium. The Belgian part of the North Sea is situated just northeast of the Dover Strait and in the immediate vicinity of the two biggest ports of Europe, Rotterdam and Antwerp. They contain some of the busiest shipping routes in the world, with more than 150,000 ship movements per year – or 400 ship movements a day – in the central Traffic Separation Scheme that goes through the Dover Strait [17] and almost 60,000 ship movements in other maritime traffic routes in the Belgian waters [18]. Although most ships are merely in transit through Belgian waters, being en route towards the wider North Sea

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