At their meeting the ISU also reaffirmed their commitment to the drive for the introduction of Environmental Awards, to recognise the salvage industry’s role in preventing pollution and so saving ship owners and their liability insurers billions of dollars.

Addressing delegates representing the ISU’s global membership, Arnold Witte said, 'ISU salvors provide vital pollution prevention services to the benefit of coastal states, ship owners and insurers. This emergency response cover cannot be allowed to degrade in the coming years. We now stand at a crossroads. The principle that ‘the polluter pays’ is accepted throughout the world. There is no reason why shipping should continue as an exception. Why should the salvors’ income depend entirely on the recovery of property, with the much more significant environmental benefit virtually ignored?

'There are those who argue that this benefit cannot be measured, as the act of salvage prevents damage which might or might not have occurred. However, there is one tangible way of measuring benefit and that involves a hard look at what owners and their P&I Clubs actually pay out in respect of pollution claims. I have no doubt whatsoever that they pay out far too much and that this heavy cost can be greatly reduced by the introduction of Environmental Salvage Awards and even closer cooperation between salvor and P&I Club.'

In the 1994-2006 period ISU salvors recovered over 13 million tons of pollutants from more than 2,000 ship casualties. This included more than 10 million tons of cargo oil. By comparison, the oil lost in shipping accidents over this period totalled 520,000 tons. ISU members prevented the loss of around 20 times that amount in this period. They saved ship owners and their insurers billions of dollars.

In 2004-05 alone the actual cost of pollution claims exceeding $500,000 was over $300m.

Arnold Witte added, 'in preventing spills, our members also prevent further damage to the shipping industry’s public and political image. We now want this benefit to be better recognised and we will press our case with all possible vigour.'

The ISU has proposed that Environmental Salvage Awards should be introduced to reward pollution prevention, in a system sitting alongside the traditional Salvage Awards which reward the recovery of property. These proposals are now being considered by the joint industry Lloyd’s Salvage Group’s newly formed Environmental Salvage Subcommittee. The ISU will continue to work for progress on this important issue at the Subcommittee’s next meeting in the first quarter of the New Year.

During the ISU’s General Meeting delegates elected Peter Lee of SEMCO, Singapore, as vice president. The Cape Town meeting welcomed two new ISU members: Resolve Salvage Inc of the USA and Mammoet Salvage of The Netherlands. Todd Busch, of US based salvor Titan, was appointed a member of the ISU’s Executive Committee.