Recommendations

In chapter 3: Type of accidents of this manual, a list of incidents regarding ships in distress was analyzed. Conclusions from this analysis were:

More cases of distress situations with bulk goods were recorded than cases of packaged goods. Proportionally, distress situations with substances in bulk, more often lead to a release of the substance into the marine environment.

Fire/explosion is the most common cause of distress.

Collisions, groundings and fire/explosions are the most common causes of distress leading to a substance to be released into the marine environment.

The most occurring cause of spill for these cases was a leak or sinking of the ship.

Most of the HNS substances released into the marine environment were intended for industrial use. However agricultural and food products also accounted for a substantial portion of the cases.

Most substances that were spilled were classified as Evaporators, Gasses or Dissolvers.

Most accidents with bulk goods happened with substances listed in the Top 100 most frequently transported harmful chemicals in the European ports and coasts (chapter 2). As expected, more accidents happened with substances ranked high in the list.

From the recorded cases of packaged goods being lost into the marine environment, loss overboard is the most common reason and storm is the most common distress situation.

A relatively large number of cases are marked as ‘distress because of cargo’.