West Sea Coast Guard Cheong Promotes Prevention and Management of Marine Pollution from Long-Term Moored Vessels

Long-Term Mooring Vessel Management Card Preparation and Residual Oil Collection to Prevent Marine Pollution

Long-term moored vessel (Photo by Seohae Coast Guard)

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Seo Young-seo] The West Sea Regional Maritime Police Agency (Chief Kim Byung-ro) announced on the 18th that it will actively engage in preventive management this year as well, following last year, to prevent marine pollution caused by long-term moored vessels.

Long-term moored vessels refer to ships that have been built a long time ago and have deteriorated hulls, abandoned vessels that have not been operated for a long time, vessels under preservation, and vessels reported for mooring.

These long-term moored vessels pose potential risks for marine pollution accidents at any time because they have not been operated for a long time and have not been properly managed.

The West Sea Regional Maritime Police Agency made efforts to prevent marine pollution last year by collecting about 76 tons of residual oil from 12 long-term moored vessels, but related accidents have continued to occur, so they stated they will do their best to prevent and manage marine pollution from long-term moored vessels this year as well.

Accordingly, the West Sea Regional Maritime Police Agency will identify the status of long-term moored vessels, owners and management conditions, and the status of remaining fuel oil within the vessels by May 31, and will create management cards for each vessel.

Based on this, they plan to guide the owners or managers of the target vessels on how to handle pollutants such as remaining fuel oil and bilge water in the vessels.

In addition, if it is difficult for the managers to handle directly, they will support moving the pollutants to a safe location on land in cooperation with the Korea Marine Environment Management Corporation or promote disposal as waste oil.

Through such management, it is expected that marine pollution can be reduced when long-term moored vessels are flooded, sunk, or suffer damage such as hull breaches.

A representative of the West Sea Regional Maritime Police Agency said, “While managing long-term moored vessels is important to prevent marine pollution accidents, it is also important to safely handle the oil remaining in the vessels in advance,” and added, “We will continue to actively manage long-term moored vessels.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.