Vessels

Online surveillance - Confronting the problem

Operational pollution from vessels to ocean ecosystems has long been considered the main threat to the marine environment. The pollution is especially seen as a result of routine tanker operations and from the discharge of oily wastes. Both short and long term effects of this oil pollution have been assessed, resulting in the general consensus that oil spills must be reduced from their present level.

This problem is addressed by a sensor system providing 24hours a-day surveillance against oil spills from vessels operating within sensitive marine areas. This application continuously monitors individual vessels for oil spills and provides the users with objective spill data to link the oil spill to the polluter. The appllication is illustrated below.

To combat the problem, the sensor system is available in two versions, either a manual or automated system.

• The manual system provides the user with a tool to monitor, track and quantify any emission of oil from the vessel. This is useful for self monitoring to secure compliance with emission standards.
  
• The automated system enables users onshore to be continuously updated with sensor measurements from vessel operations. In case of an oil spill, the estimated contamination area and the spill volume is automatically reported to the onshore user. Target groups have access to info screens via a traditional web interface to the OSIS Central Server.

The OSIS vessel application is designed to interface with the Universal Automatic Identification System (UAIS) which in accordance with IMO Resolution MSC.74 (69) annex 3 is mandatory by the end of 2004 on all commercial Vessels above 300 GRT. Interfacing the OSIS sensor system to the UAIS transponder facilitate the integration of environmental data with static-, dynamic- and voyage’ related information for each individual vessel. This provides unambiguous identification of the polluter.