Researchers assess the extent of marine pollution caused by container ship accidents. The study looks into the risks they pose, the current policies and strategies in place, and the regulations governing reporting and cleanup. They discovered that, despite the existence of international protocols, risks are frequently overlooked, and existing maritime cargo regulations have significant flaws.
An estimated 80% of the world’s cargo is transported via ship-borne containers, a method that has grown in popularity in the decades since World War II. With the globalization of trade, the efficient, cost-effective method of packaging and transporting goods across the world’s oceans boomed, with container tonnage nearly doubling in the last 40 years. In 1980, an estimated 100 million tons were shipped by container. In 2020, that number has reached a staggering 1.85 billion tons.
However, not all of this cargo is sold. Containers can spill overboard and sink to ocean floors due to fires, collisions, groundings, and other seaborne accidents.
We found that there is very little research into the issue of lost containers, because there is no obligation for ship owners to report them if there are no harmful substances inside.
Shuyan Wan
A group of Concordia researchers led by Chunjiang A review the state of marine pollution caused by container ship accidents in a new paper published in the Journal of Cleaner Production. The study looks into the dangers they pose, as well as the current policies and strategies in place, as well as the regulations that govern reporting and cleanup. They discovered that, despite the existence of international protocols, risks are frequently overlooked, and existing maritime cargo regulations are severely deficient.
“We found that there is very little research into the issue of lost containers because there is no obligation for ship owners to report them if there are no harmful substances inside,” says the paper’s lead author, Ph.D. student Shuyan Wan. “However, they can contain products that are not listed as harmful, such as plastics, that when exposed to seawater can release substances that damage the marine environment.”
Little cooperation, weak regulations
As the researchers point out, existing regulations and oversight for container ship cargo are relatively lax. According to Wan, there is little international supervision of marine pollution beyond national jurisdictions, and the list of harmful substances named by MARPOL, the primary governing convention of maritime pollution prevention, is in desperate need of updating.
To make matters worse, the sheer volume of maritime containers in use makes thorough inspection difficult, allowing shippers to mislabel a container’s contents with relative impunity. The researchers cite the findings of a 2008 inspections program, which discovered that 34% of inspected units had some sort of flaw.
This lack of rigor does not just negatively impact safety: it also affects the validity of scientific research into the issue. A lack of data makes the adoption of new regulations more difficult. “It creates a vicious circle that makes things worse and worse,” Wan says.
Off the boat, into the food chain
An draws a sharp contrast between the little-studied field of container-borne pollution and the more mature field of oil spill prevention and cleanup.
“There are many regulations around oil spills, even for responders,” says An, associate professor and Concordia University Research Chair in Spill Response and Remediation. However, there is little such expertise to deal with other sources of pollution, such as the 1,680 tons of plastic needles that washed up on the Sri Lankan coast last year after the container ship X-Press Pearl caught fire and sank. Experts at the recent International Oil Spill Science Conference also expressed concern about such container ship accidents.
“People were at a loss for words. And the nurdles that did not reach the shoreline remained in the ocean, where they could eventually enter the food chain.”
According to the researchers, there is an urgent need to raise awareness about the risks posed by the emerging threat of container-based pollution, particularly in the maritime industry but also among the general public. They believe that a better understanding of the risks will result in improvements in industry standards, international cooperation, spill management, and high-quality scientific research.
