Results

After 15 years of effort and presence in the field, what results did this programme yield?

— On 6 th of June, 2006, our airborne surveillance team had undertaken almost 4,800 flying hours, of which almost 3,500 were above the sea. It has made 2,783 flights, 12% of which were carried out at night or at the weekend, that is outside normal working hours, not to mention the daytime flights that finish late...

Number of flying hours per year

— It has intervened in 23 navigation accidents. The most recent of these was the Tricolor, which mobilised the French and Belgian services for over a year.

— It has detected 13 cases of ship discharge authorised by international law - because they involved non-toxic vegetable oils - and 611 cases of unauthorised discharge, 572 of which were identified as oil residue and 39 as chemical substances or substances of unknown origin.

— It has drawn up 31 dossiers against vessels. Twelve of these reports were sent to the public prosecutor to enable him to trigger legal proceedings in Belgium, while the other 19 were sent to the authorities in other countries, either the state in which the incriminated vessel was registered or the state of the port of destination. Thirty-one reports out of 611 cases detected represent just 5%! Unfortunately, this means that in 95% of cases, the vessel committing the offence was already far away when the aircraft detected the spillage.

— However, we have every reason to believe that these procedures do act as a deterrent on potential polluters. In fact, the number of spills observed is going down. Whereas in the 1990s, around 50 cases of oil spillage were observed a year (that is on average 0.23 cases detected per flying hour or one case every four and a half hours), since the year 2000 only around thirty cases have been observed a year (that is on average 0.11 cases detected per flying hour, or one every nine flying hours). The total volume of wastes discharged is also decreasing.

Localisation of all spills recorded by the aircraft between 1991 en 2005.
3 categories (in m³): green from 0 to 1, orange from 1 to 10, red from 10 to 100

Number of cases detected per flying hour

Estimated annual volume of operational oilspills according to colour code (blue). The volume showed in red represents the volume probably influenced by the Tricolor incident. 1991 and 2005 are each transition years towards a new aerial surveillance program

In 1999, stricter regulations came into force on all aspects of illegal pollution of the sea by ships. The international standards on operational dumping in the North Sea in particular were tightened up. At national level, the "marine environment" laws (MMM legislation) and the law on the “exclusive economic zone” provide a framework within which to prosecute vessels throughout the area of the sea under Belgian management.

Number of operational spills per area of one km² recorded between 1991 and 2005
White 0, Pink 1, Fuschia 2, Brown 3

Number of operational spills per area of one km² recorded between 1991 and 1998
White 0, Pink 1, Fuschia 2, Brown 3

Number of operational spills per area of one km² recorded between 1999 and 2005
White 0, Pink 1, Fuschia 2, Brown 3

In addition, these results should be compared with international statistics. In the year 2000, all the European surveillance aircraft together recorded 1,233 cases of dumping in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea , while by 2004 this figure had fallen to just 771. This corresponds to a 37% reduction in four years. Clearly, the general effort being made, backed up by international agreements, is bearing fruit.

The initial aims of the aerial surveillance programme were to protect our marine resources against operational dumping by ships and to counter the effects of accidental dumping. Over the years, the aircraft has proved to be an irreplaceable observation tool able to provide scientists at the Institute with a fast and overall view of the natural events that occur at sea.

 Legal actions