ISU renews call for places of refuge

He said: “As salvors we often need to take a casualty vessel to a sheltered place where we can undertake repairs and cargo transfer. It may be a port but it doesn’t have to be. It carries some risk of pollution to the nearby coastline if the condition of the vessel gets worse but that risk is even greater on the open sea or at a more dangerous coastal location.

“The problem is that too many states refuse to accept their obligations and refuse to grant a place of refuge. Our members have frequently had to battle the authorities to find a safe place to bring a casualty.”

He cited recent examples, such as the incident last year when the containership MSC Flaminia suffered severe fire damage in the eastern Atlantic. Salvors stabilised the situation but had great difficulty bringing the vessel into a European port. The chemical tanker Stolt Valor, also a victim of fire damage, was refused entry to many Middle Eastern ports.

“The frustration is that there is already a helpful framework of international and regional regulations that effectively require states to offer a place of refuge to a casualty. We know it is politically difficult to voluntarily allow a damaged ship into home waters but the alternative, as seen with the Prestige, can be serious pollution over a much wider area.”