Over the past year, however, the International Salvage Union (ISU) has proposed the launch of a new project, designed to widen these guidelines to cover all aspects of marine casualty management. ISU President Hans van Rooij said, 'In many cases, timely access to a place of refuge is vital to a successful outcome and the prevention of pollution. However, some cases can be resolved without recourse to a safe haven and we believe that it is dangerous to focus on any one factor, no matter how important, at the expense of everything else.

'We hope that the IMO will build on the valuable Places of Refuge Guidelines and develop much broader-based Casualty Management Guidelines, to include measures to facilitate fast response, place more emphasis on salvage considerations in casualty risk assessment and offer clear guidance on the crucial matter of command and control.'

The ISU President is concerned at recent regulatory responses to the Erika and Prestige spills. He added, 'The French and Spanish governments, for example, have responded by providing for the criminalisation of those caught up in accident events. There are now powers to impose astronomic fines and new moves to undermine limitation of liability. When future casualties occur, a laden tanker is unlikely to find shelter along the Spanish coast.

'I would hope that governments can find the vision to grasp that the best way of preventing another Prestige is to develop closer links with the salvage community. The IMO, however, also needs to appreciate that the next Prestige might not result from refusal of a safe haven, but some other, avoidable factor that acts as a barrier to successful salvage. This is why it is important for the IMO to develop broader-based Casualty Management Guidelines. It is a fact that guidelines do not have the legal authority of Convention requirements.

Yet IMO guidelines can be introduced very quickly and they provide a useful international model for best practice.

'Our members have direct experience of response to thousands of ship casualties.

We believe that new Casualty Management Guidelines from the IMO would have a real impact on the efficiency of emergency response. Experience clearly demonstrates that casualty management strategies need to be based on the Best Environmental Option in the given circumstances. The difficulty, of course, is to rapidly identify the Best Environmental Option and, at the same time, prevent politics getting in the way of acting on that option. In this area, new IMO Casualty Management Guidelines would make a major contribution to the wider adoption of best practice.'

MJ Information No: 20429