Finnish Environment Institute, SYKE
Helsinki, Finland, 9 februari 2005
Kalervo Jolma, Head of Unit, M.Sc.(CIV.Eng),
Department for Expert Services
Environmental Damages Division
Environmental Emergency Response Unit
Tel +358-9-4030 0468
Mobile +358-40-044 4686
Fax +358-9-4030 0478
E-mail kalervo.jolma@environment.fi
P.O.Box 140
FIN-00251 Helsinki, Finland
Homepage http://www.environment.fi/oil

Threat of oil spill in Gulf of Finland and SYKE new
technology to deal with

Abstract
Oil transport in the Gulf of Finland is now more than five times bigger than ten
years ago (1995-2004; from 20 to 110 million tons) and may be over 190 million
tons per year already in 2010, when Russian new port projects will beaccomplished. The capabilities to response to spillages of oil and other harmful
substances, and other emergency capacities have to increase accordingly.
Within the framework of the Helsinki Convention (HELCOM) the nine Baltic Sea
states have agreed on a common policy for response to pollution incidents
threatening the marine environment. It defines among other things criteria fornational capabilities to respond to spillages of oil and other harmful substances,emergency towing, fire fighting and lightering capacities, minimization of the use ofdispersants in operations and criteria for aerial surveillance. Finland fulfils mostly
these requirements for national oil response capabilities. Also the bilateralagreements between Finland and Russia and between Finland and Estonia as wellas the Copenhagen Agreement between the Nordic Countries are important for an
efficient joint response.
Finland has thirteen Government owned ship-size vessels with an oil recovery
system fitted permanently inside vessel and two such vessels under construction
in years 2005-2006. The governmental ship-size vessels are situated along thecoast so that theoretically most of the places can be reached by one of them within
six hours from start from their homeport. Municipalities have 97 oil spill responseboats of a length of 7-20 metres and a couple of hundred smaller boats. The
municipality boats fulfil the two hour demand of HELCOM on all coastal waters in
ice free conditions. 31 of those municipal boats have an oil recovery system.
Also new precautionary measures against accidents should be fostered in the Gulf
of Finland and also in all the Baltic Sea area. These measures include among
others the requirements of double hull for oil tankers, adequate winter navigation1

requirements, VTMIS and AIS systems for vessel traffic guidance and surveillance
and also an obligation of escort towing big oil tankers in fairways.
Finland continues to develop techniques of oil recovery for adverse weather andice conditions and aims to construction of multipurpose response ships with oil
recovery, emergency towing and fire-fighting capability. This paper gives an
overview about the recent situation.
1. GENERAL
1.1 GEOGRAPHY
Finland as one of the Scandinavian countries in northern part of Europe is situatedby the Baltic Sea, the largest brackish water basin in the world. It is locatedbetween Russia and Sweden and its neighbouring countries include also Estonia
and Norway. The response area of Finland covers a significant part of the Baltic
Sea, the northern side of the Gulf of Finland, the northern part of the Baltic Properand the eastern side of the Gulf of Bothnia. The total length of the Finnish coastline
without taking into account islands, capes and bays is about 1,200 km. Due to thethousands of islands and the broken shoreline, the total length of the shoreline thatcan be affected in oil spills is about 16,000 km. The narrow fairways, which makenavigation difficult especially in wintertime and in high sea conditions, are alsosignificant to Finnish waters. About 80% of Finnish exports and imports are carriedby marine transport, and all Finnish harbours can freeze in the winter. Therefore
safe navigation routes and routines, adequate ability to respond oil and chemical
spills even in winter conditions and good cooperation with neighbouring countries
in this respect, is a necessity for Finnish authorities.
1.2 INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN
FINLAND
Finland is a signatory to five major international conventions relating to marine
pollution:
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§

§

§
§

The Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea
Area (Helsinki Convention)
The agreement on mutual assistance between Finland, Norway, Denmark,Sweden and Iceland (Copenhagen Agreement). Under the terms of thisconvention, the Nordic countries will take joint action in the event of accidental
spill in the marine environment.
The Finnish-Soviet cooperation agreement for the recovery of oil and otherhazardous chemicals in accidents affecting the Baltic Sea area. Finland andRussia have agreed bilaterally to honour this agreement in practice for thepresent.
The Finnish-Estonian agreement on the cooperation in combating against
pollution incidents at sea.
The 1990 International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response
and Co-operation (IOPRC). While this Convention outlines the same basic
duties and responsibilities as the multilateral agreements listed above, its
scope is global.

2

Bilateral agreements and the Copenhagen Agreement are consistent with andcomplementary to the Helsinki Convention. They are forums to handle matters ofregional importance in responding to maritime pollution incidents.
The European Community is also actively participating in international
co-operation activities. The European Community plays a central role between
Member States as a contracting party to all major regional conventions andagreements covering regional seas around Europe, such as the Helsinki
Convention.
In Finland the Ministry of the Environment (ME) has the supreme responsibility forthe management and supervision of the oil pollution response. The Finnish
Environment Institute, SYKE, operating under the Ministry, is the competent
government oil and chemical pollution response authority. It is in charge ofmeasures against pollution incidents at open waters and whenever severity of anincident so necessitates. SYKE is also the nationally appointed competentauthority, that is empowered to request and give international assistance incombating marine pollution caused by oil or other harmful substances. Other
authorities are obliged to assist oil spill response within their abilities. Eachmunicipality shall in its own area take care of oil pollution preparedness andresponse. Besides the owners of different kind of facilities handling big amounts ofoil shall have a limited oil spill response ability of their own.
Different organizations are liable to assist SYKE in pollution response actions.
These organizations include: Governmental authorities like the Finnish Maritime
Administration, Finnish Frontier Guard, Defence Forces (especially the Navy),
Institute of Marine Research and local oil spill response authorities. Privatecompanies like oil companies, ports, salvage and shipping enterprises are also
liable to assist with resources at their disposal. Special regional contingency plan ismade for each of three coastal sea areas and for one inland watercourse area. The
Ministry of Environment confirms such a plan after having heard the S YKE about it.
Among other things SYKE purchases and develops governmental oil spill
response equipment and decides which response methods are to be used.
Mechanical removal of pollution is strongly preferred and more controversial
methods like use of chemicals for oil spill response requires an advance approvalof any applicable chemical and a decision of the SYKE on case by case basis.
Locally each municipality is responsible for arranging the combatting of oil spills in
its sea and land area and shall have a plan. Such plans are subjects to theapproval of the Regional Environment Centre. In municipalities oil spill response
has normally been a task of the local fire-fighting and rescue brigade. From the
beginning of year 2004 Finland has 23 Rescue Services Districts. According to the
Rescue Act (468/2003), the Rescue Services District is responsible -among otherthings- for maintaining for all the municipalities in the district an organization tocarry out the duties of rescue services. That will partly apply to oil spill response too.
A local Response Commander leading an oil spill response action will come fromthe Rescue Services District in which the accident or dangerous situation began. A
Rescue Services District will make a joint oil contingency plan for all municipalities
in its area. That plan will replace the previous plans of the municipalities and will
also be a subject to the approval of the Regional Environment Centre.

3

Finland has national Oil Pollution Compensation Fund for purchasing of equipment
and financing oil spill response costs. The capital for the fund is raised by a 0.50 €levy on each ton of oil imported to or transported through Finland. The Customs
submits collected charges to the fund. The Fund is administrated by the Ministry of
the Environment but the fund is independent from the Ministry and has its own
Management Board making the decisions on compensations.
Municipalities have legal right to get compensation from the fund for purchases ofthe equipment that is mentioned n
i its approved contingency plan. Also thegovernmental authorities are entitled to reimbursement of equipment from the fund,but the compensation is a subject of consideration.

2

HELCOM POLICY AND NATIONAL ABILITY

2.1

POLICY

Following the HELCOM recommendation 22/2 (March 2001) on Restricted use ofchemical agents and other non-mechanical means in oil combatting operations in
the Baltic Sea area is largely based on mechanical recovery methods, since theecosystem of both the Baltic Sea and its coastal archipelago is highly sensitive.
The principal strategy is to collect the oil from the water surface as quickly andcompletely as possible, so the oil can be reused or destroyed in an appropriatemanner.
Other methods may be considered only if circumstances require; the responsible
authorities may consider options such as burning or the use of chemical
dispersants. These alternatives may be considered if weather conditions preventthe use of mechanical recovery, or if the oil spill presents an immediate threat to anarea with significant natural value. In some Baltic Sea States the use of dispersant
is not allowed or out of question in practise. Intentional sinking of oil is generally
prohibited.
2.2
NATIONAL ABILITY TO RESPOND TO SPILLAGES AND MARITIMEEMERGENCIES
Helsinki Commission has set criteria for national capabilities to combat spillages ofoil and other harmful substances. HELCOM Recommendation 11/13 (1990)
Development of national ability to respond to spillages of oil and other harmful
substances recommends among other things adequate response measures andreadiness times for them. It also encourages the Contracting Parties for researchand development activities to develop suitable techniques.
The former Combatting Committee of the Helsinki Commission (its successor is
the Response Group) worked out guidelines (1990) for applying the said
recommendation. It emphasizes some planning factors like spill spreading velocity,
realistic skimmer performance and need of booms to contain a specific amount ofoil at sea. The minimum requirements of the guidelines for capacities to recovervarious persistent oil types are :1.

2000 metres high sea booms

4

2.

3.
4.

2,5 square kilometres of sweeping performance per day. The calculatedarea is based on a working speed of 1-2 knots of the sweeping or
skimming vessels. A sweeping area of 4,5 square kilometres has to be
fulfilled by those countries, which mainly use autonomous driven
skimmer ships.
6 high performance sea skimmers
sufficient storage tank capacity at sea for continuous operations

2.3 FINNISH APPROACH AND PREPAREDNESSMETHODS
Especially Finland's northern geographical location places special requirements onrecovery and clean-up methods. Development efforts have focussed on improving
operational efficiency at low temperatures and in icy conditions. In practice, theability to recover high-viscosity oil is a basic requirement. Cleanup operations often
take place in temperatures that are below the point at which oil becomes a solid. In
these cases, conventional surface skimming equipment designed for the recovery
of light oil is inadequate.
Brush technology is a very good oil clean-up method at low temperatures and forheavy oil. In this method, oil-laden water is running through rotating brush units
and oil is swept up by brushes. Floating oil and tar balls adhere to the brushes,
which are scraped clean. The oil is then pumped into the vessel's holding tanks.
Besides its high capacity for mechanical recovery, this method collects only small
quantities of water, normally less than 5%, which is an important advantage. There
are various mounting options: the recovery units can either be fitted permanently
inside the vessel or installed at the front or on both sides of the vessel using hookattachments. Even if permanently mounted, these units take up relatively little
space, so that the vessel can be in normal use when it is not needed for clean-up
operations or oil spill response exercises.
A rotating brush with a pump inside of a bucket has been developed to be used inicy conditions and for cleaning up oiled shores. The Oil Recovery Bucket is
operated by a crane of a vessel or by a typical excavator. There are also otherdevices developed in Finland to be used by ice strengthened oil recovery vessels
for recovery of oil in ice conditions.
MATERIAL AND TEMPORAL PREPAREDNESSHELCOM Recommendation 11/13 (1990) Development of national ability torespond to spillages of oil and other harmful substances recommends among otherthings the adequate response measures and readiness times for them. The
Contracting Parties should be able to respond to spillages of oil and other harmful
substances
"(i)
(ii)

to keep a readiness permitting the first response unit to start fromits base within two hours after having been alerted;
to reach within six hours from start any place of a spillage that may
occur in the response region of the respective country; to ensure5

well organized adequate and substantial response actions on thesite of the spill as soon as possible, normally within a time notexceeding 12 hours,"
The first responders in Finland for open sea incidents are the out guardian vesselsof the Finnish Frontier Guard. There is normally an out guardian vessel patrolling at
each sea area. These vessels are able to start measures needed to secure acasualty against further harms like sinking, leaks or fire and can also make the firstbooming around it. One of the out guardian vessels, MERIKARHU is also an oil
recovery vessel and is able to take some measures needed in case of a chemical
spill, too.
In coastal waters and in ice-free conditions the first response ability is based on
resources of municipalities. They have 97 oil spill response boats of a length of
7-20 metres and a couple of hundreds smaller boats, whose readiness fulfils twohours demand. Their main task is to restrict spreading of oil with oil booms in order
to win time for ship-size oil recovery vessels, so that the polluted area would be as
small as possible when the ship-size recovery vessels arrive. In many areas theboats can start also oil collection. 31 of those boats have an advancing type ofstiff-brush oil collecting system and in 17 of those boats the system is fitted
permanently inside vessel. However, their recovery capacities are relatively small,when compared to capacities of oil recovery ships and thus the boats apply betterto collecting smaller amounts of oil drifting towards shore.
Class
F-class
F-class
E-class
E-class
D-class
TOTAL

Oil recovery equipmentwith oil recovery equipmentno oil recovery equipmentwith oil recovery equipmentno oil recovery equipmentno oil recovery equipment

lenght13-20 m13-15 m11-14 m
10-18 m7-10 mnumber
27
11
4
29
26
97

Table 1. Finnish municipal oil recovery boats in size range from 7 to 20 metres
Further the Baltic Sea countries should respond to major oil spillages"(iii)

within a period of time normally not exceeding two days of
combatting the pollution with mechanical pick-up devices at sea;"

In Finland there are thirteen Government owned ship-size vessels. The vessels
are situated along the coast so that theoretically almost all of the places can bereached by one of them within six hours from start from their homeport. That
geographically coverage will be still better in 2005 and 2006, when two additionaloil recovery vessels are taken into use. Then one of the most important
shortcomings will be the lack of one heavy-duty multipurpose vessel for
emergency towing, fire-fighting and and oil recovery ability even in ice conditionsin the Gulf of Finland.

6Because of long distances it takes three days before all of those vessels could beon the same place anywhere in the Finland’s response region. Before that, within
12 hours one of those vessels will quite likely start response measures in the Gulf
of Finland, in the Archipelago Sea or in the Gulf of Bothnia. Then, in general it isquite likely that there is at least one vessel within 24 hours and two vessels within
48 hours in use anywhere on the Finland's response region. Finally, after threedays the total sweeping performance of government owned oil recovery vessels
would be about 7,6 km²/day (1 knot velocity during 12 hours) and exceeds well therequirement of HELCOM guidelines (4,5 sqkm/day). Total sweeping capacity willrise up to 9 km²/day in 2006, when two additional recovery vessels (Tursas andUisko) will be in use.
VESSEL`S
NAME

OWNER

LENGHT[m]

BREADTH[m]SWEEPING
BREADTH[m]

TANK
VOLUME[m³]

SWEEPING
AREA
2[km / 12h]

RECOVERYCAPACITY[m³/h]Halli
Hylje
Merikarhu
Tursas*Uisko*
Oili I
Oili II
Oili III
Oili IV
Kummeli
Sektori
Linja
Letto
Seili
Svärtan
TOTAL

NAVY
NAVY
FFG
FFG
FFG
SE
SE
SE
SE
SE,Saimaa
SE
SE
SE
SE
ÅG

60
54
58
61,3
61,3
24
24
24
19
28
33
35
43
50,5
24

12,5
12,5
11
10,2
10,2
6,6
6,6
6,6
6,5
7,9
7,9
9
12,2
12,2
6,6

40
35
32
30
30
21
21
21
19
24,9
24,9
23
30
30
21

1400
800
40
100
100
80
80
80
30
70
108
77
43
196
52
3256

0,9
0,8
0,7
0,7
0,7
0,5
0,5
0,5
0,4
0,6
0,6
0,5
0,7
0,7
0,5
9,0

74
65
59
56
56
39
39
39
35
46
46
43
56
56
39
746

MAX LIFTINGCAPACITY OF
BRUSHES[m³/h]
450
400
378
300
300
250
250
250
250
250
250
278
306
300
250
4461

* RENOVATION TO OIL RECOVERY VESSELS IN 2005 ja 2006
NAVY= NAVAL FORCES, FG=FRONTIER GUARD, SE=SHIPPING ENTERPRISE (OF THE STATE), ÅG=ÅLAND´s GOVERNMENTTABLE 2. Finnish Government's vessels with a permanently fitted brush oil
recovery system. Sweeping area has been calculated with one-knot velocity of thevessel and recovery capacity with an oil layer thickness of one millimetre.

7

PICTURE 1. Theoretical operation radius of six hours for the Finnish ship-size oilrecovery vessels. Kummeli (in Saimaa Lake area) is excluded from the picture.

8

Finland fulfils also other minimum requirements of the guidelines for
Recommendation 11/13 for capacities to recover various persistent oil types. For
instance it has 7200 metres high sea booms and 24 high performance sea
skimmers and those vessels have together 3056 m 3 storage tank capacity (will riseto 3256 m 3 in 2005-2006).
Finland’s ability to respond to spillages of harmful substances other than oil baseson two specialized vessels, MERIKARHU and TELKKÄ and on the chemical spills
response capabilities of municipal fire brigades, mainly. There is urgent need of avessel with some liquid chemical cargo lightering capacity and some special
equipment containers. Underwater technology has been an item of research anddevelopment activities, and some technical readiness exists to recover sunken
chemicals from the sea bottom.
Finland continues development and improvement of the response capability,
taking into account special factors especially the length and configuration of thecoastline, ice conditions, vulnerable ecological areas, probability of adverse
weather conditions etc. One priority in recent R&D projects has been to develop
better methods for oil recovery in icy conditions. As a result the first device, the “Icebow” was taken into use in 1991. Later two different kinds of special devices for oil
recovery in ice conditions, “Oil Recovery Bucket” and “Oil-Ice separator” weredeveloped and are in operational use in recovery vessels.
Mechanical collection of oil and handling of oil on the accident site has traditionallybeen facilitated by means of various absorbing materials. At the present, bulk
absorbing materials are being replaced by the use of mats and other objects, which
are easier to handle. Use of absorbing materials as such increases the amount ofoily waste. In the open sea, it is not allowed to use any sinking materials, andmostly only absorbing booms to remove thin oil films are allowed.
For ensuring adequate national emergency capacity a lot of work has to be done.
In Finland there is enough capacity available for emergency towing in winter only,
when icebreakers are in work. Two new escort tugs of an oil company madesituation better. Appropriate fire-fighting ability is still missing. Lightering capacity isbased on availability of tankers mostly. The current government aims in its
program to delivery of a multipurpose icebreaker with oil recovery, emergency
towing and fire-fighting ability.
MULTIPURPOSE ICE BREAKER
The Finnish Maritime Administration and Finnish Environment Institute, SYKE
together have in January 2005 notified the shipping industry, via the EU Official
Journal, that they it wish to contract on “Services of an ice-breaking oil andchemical spill recovery vessel” by this year. Tendering documents are for applying
from the The Finnish Maritime Administration. Deadline for offers is April 25, 2005.
The orderers, The Finnish Maritime Administration requires the services of an ice
breaker during the winter season and Finnish Environment Institute requires a
year-round service for the recovery of oil and chemical spills.

9DEVELOPING METHODSAll development is based on a general principle, that prevention of environmental
accidents at sea is successful when no harmful materials end into the sea.
Success is halfway when such material is collected from the sea. If the material
remains in the nature or if it is collected from the shore, the operation can beconsidered nearly as a failure.
Enormous amount of manpower and manual work is still needed in clean up of oil
polluted shoreline. To address this problem SYKE has developed an a self
propelled amphibian excavator that was modified and equipped with a rotatingbrush to collect oil at shoreline or in difficult attainable wetland (“Oil Recovery
Bucket”). Also a remote operated vehicle originally build for forest industry has
been modified and can be used to clean up oiled shorelines.
In practice, the know-how has been applied in many incidents like
§
§
§

§
§

§

§

§
§

Localization of waste barrels thrown into sea over decade ago and covered bybottom mud (Dragsfjärd barrels 1993), and lifting them without leakages (1994)
with a special box-corer device.
Collection of oil from an oil tanker lying on the ground (MT "Kihnu" in the
Estonian coast 1993): 1,070 tons of heavy and light fuel oil was transferredashore by means of a hose carried by a helicopter.
Pumping of oil out from broken bottom tanks of a dry cargo carrier lying on the
ground (MS "Pamisos" in the open sea north of Åland 1992, carrying 23,000
tons of fertilizers): 320 tons of heavy fuel oil were preheated and removed by
vacuum suction through the air pipes. Later similar cases of MS "Fin Master"and MS "Oihonna" in Kotka 1995: heavy fuel oil was removed from broken
bottom tanks before docking.
Divers assis ted removing of heavy fuel oil from a wreck: altogether 410 m 3 of oil
was pumped in several stages during years 1994-2000 from the 1947 sunk S/S"Park Victory".
Remote controlled oil removal using underwater robots in 1996 from the wreckof 1994 sunken passenger ferry "Estonia": 230 m 3 of light and heavy oils were
removed from 15 tanks. Two of the tanks were behind two walls. All walls were
penetrated by the "hot tap" method, doing connections in a closed way. The
wreck was laying deeper than 60 metres.
Preventing the casualty from sinking by using an emergency pump system
carried on board by a helicopter (MS "Transgermania" in Utö 1990 was saved
from sinking: leakage from MS "APJ Karan" north of Åland 1991 was undercontrol).
Collection of oil from the water in the open sea (MT "Volgoneft" outside
Karlskrona, Sweden, 1990): nearly all leaked waste oil was collected from thesea, over 80% of the total of 1,000 tons by using Finnish made “brush oil
recovery systems”. The oil recovery vessel “Halli” which arrived last to thecasualty collected most of the oil, 240 tons.
Collection of oil from the water on the coast (the lighter system "Finn- Pusku"
capsized and was later turned around in Hanko 1991): two oil recovery vessels
collected heavy fuel oil leaked into the sea.
Oil recovery in ice conditions (the container carrier “Janra” capsized 1999 andwas turned around in Åland 2000 inside heavy open sea booming, oil among
ice was recovered from sea. On Spring 2003 oiled ice area was cleaned near

10

§
§
§

§
§
§

Kalbodagrund. Both works were done with a special equipment “Oil Recovery
Bucket”, that has been developed in SYKE ).
1999 a rail tanker with Russian crude oil cargo derailed at Vainikkala. An
excavator with an “Oil Recovery Bucket” recovered spilled oil.
Collection of oil from the water at the bay and in the port of Muuga in Estonia
2000. Finnish oil recovery vessel "Oili 1" recovered heavy fuel oil, which leakedout from M/T "Alambra".
Since March 1987, oil pollution protection safeguarding in connection with sea
salvage operations of altogether 80 casualties none of which resulted in big
amounts of oil waste to be collected from the shore. (1 March 1987 - 29
December 2004).
Material assistance in the oil spill response operations in Alaska (MT "Exxon
Valdez" 1989), i n the Persian Gulf (war l991), in France (MT “Erika” 1999-2000)
and in Spain (MT “Prestige” 2002-2003).
Register of dangerous wrecks (about 500 wrecks registered in 1996), a risk
classification of the wrecks in the register (1998) and investigation of wrecks
posing an environmental risk.
Two Dornier Do 228 surveillance airplanes with modern remote sensing
equipment for control of illegal oil discharges and mapping oil spills. The planes
have, besides routine control duty, participated regularly joint international
surveillance operations (so called CEPCO flights) and also in oil mapping afterthe "Prestige" case at the Bay of Biskaja in France 2003.

TRAINING ACTIVITIESAn international conference on oil pollution response in ice conditions took place inFinland in the end of 1992 and another one seminar “Combatting Marine Oil Spillsin Ice and Cold/Arctic Conditions” on November 2001.
A practical "Oil in Ice" exercise for Baltic Sea countries was arranged in Oulu inearly spring 1994. In September 2003 Finland arranged the annual HELCOM oil
response exercise, so called BALEX DELTA in the Gulf of Finland outside Helsinki.
Total of 16 response vessels from five different countries participated in theexercise and besides them, about the same number of municipalities boats
participated the exercise.
Besides the HELCOM Balex Delta exercise, Finland participates annually joint
Finnish-Estonian-Russian trilateral and Finnish-Swedish bilateral equipment
exercises.

3

APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY TO USE

3.1 ASSESSING RISKSHELCOM project “Updated Assessment of the Risk for Oil Spills in the Baltic Sea
Area" aimed to a harmonized method to assess the oil spill probabilities within theBaltic Sea area and their impacts, by use of risk zones at sea and on coastlines,
including a scaling of the impacts. Valuable information can be obtained to define
high-risk areas to be used when assessing the adequacy of existing oil spill
contingency planning and the need to address further maritime safety issues. As a11

result of the project a GIS data bank called “MARIS” (Maritime Accident Response
Information System) has been compiled by SYKE in 2003.
MARIS is a tool used to map oil spill risk caused by oil transport as well as othership traffic and the readiness for oil spill response in the Baltic Sea and Kattegat
area. Mapping is done by compiling together among others the following datasets,
many of which had already been collected by HELCOM, Baltic Sea Countries andNordic Countries:
1.

Present and estimated amounts of tanker and other maritime traffic in theBaltic (VTT 2001-2002).

2.

Geographical distribution of statistical risk of oil spills corresponding
distribution of the oil transport and other ship traffic (based on the SSPA´searlier works and the updated data on ship movements).

3.

Oil spill drifting analyses in the routes of main oil transport (in different partsof the Baltic and in different meteorological and hydrological conditions,based on Professor Ovsienkos analyses).

4.

Areas especially sensitive to oil spills (HELCOM, Cowi, Bird Life etc.,
protected areas).

5.

Locations and amounts of national oil combating resources (HELCOM
Manual, Strike teams, oil recovery vessels, sea booms) and emergency
towing vessels (Sweden, HELCOM SEA 3/2001, etc.).

6.

The records of shipping accidents in the Baltic Sea area (Latvia, HELCOM
SEA 2/2001, 3.1/6).

7.

Necessary base maps for these datasets (coastline, administrative
boundaries and zones, drainage etc.).

The material is in digital format so that different datasets can be viewed andcombined upon each other on a digital map. MARIS became an official HELCOM
tool for assessing and visualizing oil spill risks and response capabilities and its isavailable in internet in HELCOM website: www.helcom.fi/maris.html
3.2 EVALUATION OF ACCIDENT SITUATION AND CONTROL MEASURESAt sea, planning the oil spill response operation requires follow-up and forecastingof the spreading of oil. Close-range tracking is done by vessels and helicopters,
and the more extensive surveying can most effectively be done from a special
surveillance aeroplane. Very large scale overview can be obtained from satellite
images.
The spreading of oil can be forecasted by using different computerized
mathematical models. There is for instance in Internet a program for forecasts andpresentation of the spreading of oil, chemicals and substances in water in theBaltic Sea, so called “Seatrack Web”. It has access to current fields of the
3-dimensional HIROMB model. HIROMB gives new 48 hours forecast every
morning. The grid is 3 nautical miles and the model covers the whole Baltic Sea out
to the North Sea. The model is maintained by SMHI (Svenska Metereologiska och
Hydrologiska Institutet). There are also national local models with smaller grids.

12In order to salvage the casualty and her cargo and to prevent environmental
damage caused by the accident, it is vitally important to find out what exactly are
the damages of the casualty and in what condition the cargo is, to understand theireffect on the behaviour of the casualty and on the leakages, and to select and takeappropriate measures. All cases are different but there are certain common
features and needs.
If the casualty lies on the rock, she has to be refloated without being capsized or
sunk and without oil leakages. When afloat, leakages into the casualty have to becontrolled to stabilize the casualty and to prevent oil leakages duringtransportation.
The casualty's damages can initially be judged on board of the casualty mainly bysounding the tanks and by surveying accessible spaces. Next, divers can inspect
the breaches and indents in the bottom. If the casualty is grounded, the inspection
under the water can be done only for those parts where the bottom can be seen.
Movements of the casualty (effect of swell, changes in the casualty's position) may
restrict diving surveys as the safety aspect has to be considered. More detailed
survey of the bottom is possible when the casualty is afloat but, even then,pumping may expose the divers to the risk of being stuck.
Most of oil leakages take place immediately after the accident. The casualty's own
fuel tanks, which are wholly under the water line, leak into the casualty if broken.
Major outward leakages are caused by large cuts in the bottom tanks, verticaltanks reaching over the water line and seldom to the bottom, or by leaking cargotanks of tankers. In case of grounding, the situation usually becomes stable so fast,
normally within one hour, that it cannot be influenced by any means. As soon as
the tanks are in balance, no considerable leakages out take place, except if theposition of the casualty changes, water level is lowered, or heavy sea rises. The
only task is to prevent these leakages as the casualty is re-floated and transported
to a safe place.
Not only oil but also other cargo may cause a risk of environmental damage andcomplicate the salvage of the casualty.
Sometimes it is possible to survey systematically and exactly enough the brokentanks of a casualty, which is floating free. For necessary strength calculations, theinsurance companies and classification societies require that the bottom surveys
are done in an adequate manner by a diver approved by the classification societies.
If permitted by the circumstances, the broken bottom tanks are temporarily
patched before transportation. Wooden wedges are traditionally used for small
holes and durable carpets sheets or even different underwater hardening materials.
Patching of big tears requires welding cover plates over holes and dented areas
surrounding tears. If this is not possible, the casualty is towed to a safe harbour
with minimal speed.
A sunken wreck may require urgent measures because of oil leakages or someother reasons, too. Then similar technic as used for oil removal in groundings isapplicable there too. Besides equipment and method for penetrating walls andother obstacles for pipe connections are needed ("PARK VICTORY", 1994-2000
tanks were emptied through "hot tap" connections. In the "ESTONIA" case, 1996,
two deep heavy fuel tanks on the tank top were connected through the bottom
plate and through double bottom by aid of so called "double bottom tools").

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Oil removal from sunken wrecks is feasible to do with divers down to 60 metres
depth. Deeper than that special, so-called saturation diving technique is needed.
Divers are pressurized for a working stage, for instance one week's time. Becauseof big pressure chambers, diving bells or submarines and a special base ship,
system is very expensive. Then an alternative is to use remote control technic foroil removal ("ESTONIA" 1996).

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4.1

FUTURE PROSPECTS
METHODS

There are plenty of weak points in the oil spill response technology, still. Darkness,adverse weather conditions, ice, oil's tendency to spread rapidly at water surface
and to stick fast to rigid materials are main challenges, perhaps. Work still needs tobe done to develop methods to be used in submersible renovation work, oil spills infast ice field conditions, oil transfer pumping at sea and bioremediation.
For many reasons, it is quite likely that an oil spill occurred at sea will become adisaster ashore. Therefore we should now look at possibilities to develop cleaning
methods for shorelines too. If there would be such mechanical devices, which
would recollect efficiently enough main amount of oil on various types of shoreline
types without harming the environment, a remarkable amount of handwork andmoney would be saved.
The outstanding development of computer and communication technology offers
many applications to oil spill response too. Satellite based positioning andcommunications, computer aided navigation, wireless image transfer and different
remote sensing techniques give possibility to have real time positions of strike
teams and even of oil and displaying them on one screen.
Although the mechanical recovery of spilled oil is the method, that is mostunanimously accepted, it is not always feasible. All other methods may be more
controversial, but they can often fulfil the caps, outside of the reach of mechanicalcollection methods. For instance a bioremediation is always the final cure by
nature to the environment. In what extent that or other controversial methods like
dispersing or burning shall be applied, varies case to case, inevitably. Therefore,
little by little we will have more knowledge from research to be able to selectoptimal tools to overcome oil pollution.
4.2
KEEPING CASUALTY FIGURES LOW
With the fast growth of sea traffic also the probability of oil spills may increase
likewise, if the level of precautionary measures against accidents stays as it has
been. However, it very difficult to estimate how often oil spills will occur, really. If
the occurrence of oil spills in the Gulf of Finland would be the same as it wasestimated in a HELCOM study in 1995 and 1997 for the Baltic (0,35 spills/1000
journeys), it means that after the year 2004 there might be annually average 14
accidents causing oil spills in the Gulf of Finland. Main amount of those spills would
be some tens of tons of bunker oil of any type of vessel. Maximum size of thosebunker oil spills would be 100-200 tons. Probability of a cargo oil spill would be 1-2
per year. Size of cargo oil spills would vary from some hundreds of tons tothousands of tons of oil.

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Other kind maritime pollution incidents would be quite rare when compared with oil
spills. A chemical cargo leak from a tanker could occur once per six year in the Gulf
of Finland. Chemicals in packages would go over board about twice per year, but aserious accident of a ship carrying such a cargo would happen once per two years
only.
The said estimations seem very high when compared with the near pastoccurrence of pollution incidents in the Gulf of Finland or in Finland. In the reality oil
spills of magnitude over 30-40 tons occurred in Finland one such an oil spill every
39 months - four oil spills in Finland during 13 years. HELCOM studies were basedon an old statistic from era before nineties, when spills were of a higher occurrence
than later in the Baltic Sea.
Why the spill occurrence in the Baltic Sea and especially in Finland has been solittle? Broken and shallow coastal zone in the northern and western coasts andsometimes difficult weather conditions require a comparatively high level ofmaritime safety. Long fairways through the archipelago are well build and marked.
Land based radar network covers the coast and use of the pilotage service isobligatory. Merchant vessels are quite new and with a modern navigationequipment. Tankers are mostly at least with double bottom. In spite of all thatcasualties like groundings occur frequently, but consequences of them have notusually been very bad. Because of the generality of casualties the authorities andprivate companies get often practise and keep trained to overcome practicaldifficulties. Salvage and pollution response are initiated promptly and in order toprevent all leakages during refloating.
Maritime conditions for some of new planned ports are quite challenging ones. The
growth of transport emphasizes need of precautionary safety as well as an efficient
preparedness for salvage and pollution response. Escort service for big tankers infairways and emergency towing and fire-fighting capacities are some importantways to keep casualty and spill figures low in the Gulf of Finland in the future, too.
Additional information can be found from Internet:
http://www.environment.fi/oil

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