Finland has become the 32nd State to ratify IMO’s Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks. The treaty, which entered into force in 2015, provides the legal basis for States to remove, or have removed, shipwrecks that may threaten the safety of lives, goods and property at sea, as well as the marine environment.
The Convention was adopted in 2007 and its Contracting States currently represent just over 60% of the world’s merchant fleet tonnage. Ms. Lolan Margaretha Eriksson, Ministerial Counsellor, Ministry of Transport and Communications of Finland, met IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim to deposit the instrument of ratification.
IMO says that the number of abandoned wrecks, estimated at almost thirteen hundred worldwide, has reportedly increased and, as a result, the problems they cause to coastal States and shipping in general have, if anything, become more acute.
These problems are three-fold:
first, and depending on its location, a wreck may constitute a hazard to navigation, potentially endangering other vessels and their crews;
second, and of equal concern, depending on the nature of the cargo, is the potential for a wreck to cause substantial damage to the marine and coastal environments; and
third, in an age where goods and services are becoming increasingly expensive, is the issue of the costs involved in the marking and removal of hazardous wrecks.
The Nairobi International Convention attempts to resolve all of these and other, related, issues and covers the following articles:
- reporting and locating ships and wrecks – covering the reporting of casualties to the nearest coastal State; warnings to mariners and coastal States about the wreck; and action by the coastal State to locate the ship or wreck;
- criteria for determining the hazard posed by wrecks, including depth of water above the wreck, proximity of shipping routes, traffic density and frequency, type of traffic and vulnerability of port facilities. Environmental criteria such as damage likely to result from the release into the marine environment of cargo or oil are also included;
- measures to facilitate the removal of wrecks, including rights and obligations to remove hazardous ships and wrecks – which sets out when the shipowner is responsible for removing the wreck and when a State may intervene;
- liability of the owner for the costs of locating, marking and removing ships and wrecks – the registered shipowner is required to maintain compulsory insurance or other financial security to cover liability under the convention; and
- settlement of disputes.
Source & Image Credit: IMO
