There was a slight upturn in the first half of 2007, with 51 Lloyd's Forms reported, yet the LOF workload is still running at significantly less than 50 per cent of the level of 25 years ago.

Archie Bishop then looked at the salvors’ performance in terms of pollution prevention. He referred to the latest statistics from the International Tanker Owners’ Pollution Federation. According to ITOPF, a total of 520,000 tons of oil was lost from ship casualties in the 1994-2006 period. The cost in clean-up and compensation is measured in billions. Over the same period ISU salvors recovered over 20 times that amount. They salved more than 10 million tons of cargo oil from tankers in difficulty, together with a very large volume of bunkers.

Setting these statistics into context, the ISU legal adviser said that member salvors had recovered 566,000 tons of pollutants in 2006 alone, more than the total amount of oil spilt in the past 13 years.

Against this background, Archie Bishop told the Environmental Salvage Subcommittee that spill prevention is now such a crucial service to the international community that greater financial commitment to the service providers is now essential.

The meeting concluded with a decision to convene again this month (October). Meanwhile, the ISU is preparing more detailed statistical information in relation to the current state of the salvage industry in comparison to earlier years, for the Subcommittee’s consideration.

In a related move, the ISU has also called on the Comité Maritime International (CMI) to include the drafting of a new Salvage Convention on its forward work programme. Once again, the ISU has proposed the inclusion of Environmental Salvage Awards.

Meanwhile, plans are being prepared to mark the centenary of Lloyd’s Standard Form of Salvage Agreement, which was first introduced in January 1908. After 100 years of use, Lloyd's Form remains the world’s most frequently used salvage contract. In the 1978-2005 period, ISU members performed 5,135 salvage operations, 52% of which were undertaken under LOF contracts.