EMSA is providing Lithuania with Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) services to assist in monitoring ship emissions, protect the marine environment and improve maritime safety.
This response came after a request from the Environmental Protection Department of Lithuania’s Ministry of the Environment,
The services which began on 23 March will run for three months and will see EMSA RPAS being used to calculate the sulphur content of the fuel being used by the passing ships.
Sensors on board the RPAS will measure the emissions from the exhaust plumes of vessels travelling in the main shipping lanes and when at anchorage around the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda. The sulphur content of marine fuel in this Sulphur Emission Control Area (SECA) should be no greater than 0.1%.
The Environmental Protection Department will also be working in collaboration with other Lithuanian authorities – including the Navy, MRCC and fisheries control services – to conduct other types of maritime surveillance missions.
All the information is transmitted in real-time to trained users through EMSA’s RPAS Data Centre. Records of the emission measurements are encoded automatically into the THETIS-EU information sharing system. This system is operated by EMSA to assist in the enforcement of the EU sulphur directive as well as to support port inspectors when targeting vessels to be inspected.
