Shipping: Improving practices and standards

WWF has worked within the International Maritime Organization for many years on a number of issues involving shipping practices and standards.

• Better management of ballast waster: WWF worked within the IMO for a number of years on the Convention on Ballast Water Management, which was adopted in 2004. We are now working on its ratification and implementation.
  
  
• Elimination of single-hull oil tankers: WWF was influential in a 2003 decision by the IMO to accelerate the phase out of single-hull oil tankers, which are more likely to rupture than double-hull vessels. All single-hull tankers will now be phased out worldwide by 2010, five years earlier than previously decided, while the largest single-hull oil tankers were eliminated by 2005.
  
  
• Elimination of toxic anti-fouling paints: WWF campaigned for 10 years for the Convention on the Control of Harmful Anti-fouling Systems on Ships, which was finally adopted in 2001. We are now working on its ratification and implementation, as well as on other measures to eliminate all organotin-based anti-fouling paints.
  
  
• Reductions to bilge oil discharges: WWF is pushing for international adoption of a resolution of the Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) for the control of bilge oil discharges. WWF is also encouraging national legislation to enforce the ban on the dumping of bilge oil, and helped lobby the UK and the Canadian governments to pass new laws against this in the 1990s and in 2005, respectively.
  
  
• Changing shipping lanes to protect north Atlantic right whales: WWF was instrumental in a 2003 change to shipping lanes in Canada’s Bay of Fundy to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) from collisions with ships. This is the first time that shipping lanes have been altered to protect an endangered species. Over the last decade, ship collisions have been responsible for nearly half of all known North Atlantic right whale deaths.
  

• Auditing procedures to ensure that all vessels are applying regulations to an adequate standard

• Full responsibility taken by all sectors of industry involved in transporting oil and toxic cargoes at sea, demonstrated through their policies, procedures, and actions
  
  
• Action to ensure that improved regional standards do not result in sub-standard vessels moving to areas of the world even less able to respond to major shipping accidents such as oil spills.

Goodbye to toxic anti-fouling paints

For many decades, organotins - including TBT, considered by many to be the most toxic chemical knowingly released into the marine environment - have been used in anti-fouling paints on ships.

WWF has been lobbying IMO member states and the shipping and paint industries for 10 years to stop the use of these harmful chemicals, which have contaminated marine life around the world and can cause severe damage to reproduction and immune systems.

In 2001, the IMO finally adopted the International Convention on the Control of Harmful Anti-fouling Systems on Ships to phase out dangerous anti-fouling chemicals, including organotins. WWF is now encouraging its immediate ratification and implementation.

WWF is also working with the shipping and paint industries to stop the use of organotins.

For example, we initiated several trials of biocide-free anti-fouling paints, including non-toxic, non-stick coatings to prevent marine plants and animals from attaching to ship hulls. Many of these environmentally sound paints are promising alternatives to organotin.

In addition, in 2001 we launched a "2003 Group" - a voluntary organotin-free buyers group, whose members committed their operations to being organotin-free by 31 December 2002, ahead of the global deadline. Members included shipping lines such as Hamburg Süd (containers) and Hapag Lloyd Cruises, from Germany, and Wallenius Lines and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines, from Scandinavia.