Ship Casualty and Pollution Response

The Primary Role of the Irish Coast Guard in relation to ship casualty and pollution is to develop and co-ordinate an effective regime in relation to preparedness and response to spills of oil and hazardous and noxious substances (HNS) within the [internal-link and to provide effective response to marine casualty incidents.

The Pollution and Salvage Branch is responsible for Marine Pollution and Ship Casualty Response. All marine pollution incidents are co-ordinated through the National Maritime Operations Centre (NMOC) based in the Coast Guard Headquarters in Dublin.

Contact MRCC Dublin +353 (0) 1 6620922

The strategic objective in relation to marine pollution is to develop and co-ordinate an effective regime for preparedness and response to spills of oil and HNS from vessels and offshore platforms within the EEZ, to provide an efficient and effective response to marine casualty incidents and to monitor/intervene in marine salvage operations.

In practice this means that the Coast Guard responsibilities include;

• the provision of an efficient and effective marine pollution and salvage notification, monitoring and response system to deal with marine pollution and salvage incidents in the Irish EEZ
• the establishment and maintenance of a National Contingency Plan, preparedness and response
• the approval and oversight of Local Authority Oil Spill Contingency Plans (OSCPs)
• the approval and oversight of Harbour/Port OSCPs
• the approval and oversight of offshore installation OSCPs
• the prevention of pollution through casualty intervention and salvage control
• the taking of direct action, under statutory powers, on casualty intervention

Chapter 5, SOLAS deals with Safety to Navigation. Vessels are required to report any dangers to navigation to the Maritime Authority and are also required to keep a record of incidents occurring on board that may lead to such dangers. Containers clearly come under this heading. SOLAS and MARPOL specifically include the necessity to report the loss of containers containing hazardous materials.

IMO Resolution A.851 (20) includes guidelines for ship reporting requirements, for example, in the case of hazardous cargo incidents.

EU Directive 2002/59/EC as amended by Directive 2009/17/EC, was implemented into Irish law by the European Communities (Vessel Traffic Monitoring and Information System) Regulations 2010- S.I. 573/2010.

Under the heading ‘Reporting of incidents and accidents at sea’ the Coast Guard are obliged to be notified of any incident affecting the safety of the ship including shifting of cargo, and there is also a requirement to report any container seen drifting at sea.