which carry a huge variety of potentially hazardous and polluting products. It includes plastic nurdles (tiny pellets) which, if spilled to the ocean, are both devastating and extremely hard to deal with including in beach clean-up operations.
And containerships are difficult to deal with as casualties. In the largest classes the sheer scale is overwhelming, and the challenge for salvors is great. The recently published 2023 ISU Annual Review sets out the results of the association’s annual pollution prevention survey. It shows that ISU members – professional, commercial salvors from around the world – provided services to boxships carrying nearly half a million tonnes of cargo.
The same survey also identifies the threat from bunker fuel, with our members handling casualties with nearly 100,000 tonnes of bunkers which included a number of cases where the individual vessel had more than 2000 tonnes of fuel on board. The case of the wrecked Capesize bulker Wakashio is a clear
demonstration of the very real risk - she spilled about 1,000 tonnes of fuel when she grounded off Mauritius in 2020 causing an environmental disaster. The intervention of salvors prevented the rest of the fuel - at least another 2,000 tonnes - from spilling.
In most situations it is only the professional salvors that stand between a casualty and an environmental catastrophe. Typically, our members provide services each year to vessels carrying more than one and a half million tonnes of potential pollutants. In an era where, rightly, one tonne of bunkers over the side is unacceptable this is a huge contribution to environmental protection, to say nothing of the huge costs and reputational damage that might otherwise be incurred.
And this reinforces the key priority of the ISU which is to ensure that the industry remains adequately funded. The ISU position is that salvage awards under Article 13 of the Salvage Convention (based on the success of the operation, the values preserved and with additional encouragement) must remain the
cornerstone of the industry to fund the investment in people, training and equipment that is needed to continue to provide professional services around the world. At the same time, we recognize that our members are free to contract how they wish and many services are provided, for example, under variants of BIMCO wreck contracts, towage contracts and on commercial terms.
We know that our key stakeholders— shipowners, property and liability insurers—recognize the importance of the salvage industry because they say so publicly and all of us agree that the salvage industry needs to be sustainable economically. When there are tensions around the cost of salvage, we ask that, when considering awards, owners and insurers celebrate the value preserved by our services and do not focus on the cost.
In concluding, I think we can be very proud of our industry and the services that it provides and I never find it difficult to make the case for the professional salvor.
THE REPORT | DEC 2024 | ISSUE 110 | 93
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