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_55._ About 1.2 million seafarers are presently employed in the international ocean transport industry. A previously unimaginable situation has developed whereby the global supply of seafaring personnel has contracted sharply. The number of new annual job entrants in the traditional maritime nations has declined. A study commissioned by the International Chamber of Shipping in 1991 found that the gap between demand for and supply of seafaring personnel may widen significantly before the end of the current decade. Major efforts will be required to correct this situation because even in the populous developing countries with substantial unemploymen **t** here has been little interest in seafaring as a source of income. Governments in these countries have usually given little attention to the employment potential of international ocean transport, in spite of prospective considerable foreign exchange income through remittances. If developing countries are to be counted on as the principal source of future supply of seafaring personnel, then there will have to be much more emphasis on improving training arrangements. The Philippines are currently providing 16 percent of the crews in the world merchant fleet, but a recent investigation revealed that a very high portion of Filipino seafarers did not possess required qualifications.

# C. Ocean Transport as a Threat to the Environment

56. The grounding of the tanker 'Exxon Valdez' in Alaskan coastal waters caused a substantial oil spill with devastating impacts on flora and fauna. Tanker accidents happen all the time, and the total of the associated oil spills worldwide exceeds that of the accident in Alaska manifold. But extensive media coverage and the ensuing public outrage caused the 'Exxon Valdez' case to become the starting point for new standards that apply to tanker design, operation, and their owners' liability. Following this event, the U.S. Government passed a law--the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990--which holds tanker operators fully liable for any damage their vessels may cause. OPA requires also that any tanker which will operate in U.S. territorial waters from the mid-1990s onwards has to be double-hulled. In the meantime, Canada has adopted similar legislation, and other countries are expected to follow. The oil tanker accidents offshore northern Spain and the Shetlands in late 1992 can be expected to generate more reaction along these lines. The EC is taking steps to regulate technical standards and to rigorously police the operation of tankers in European coastal waters. However, much of the debate over these issues lacks objectivity. Double hulls are no guarantee for preventing oil spills. It is rather vessel condition and operating practices. The Shetland accident was essentially due to error of judgement, poorly trained crew, and unjustifiably premature abandoning the tanker 'Braer'. Even if this tanker would have been doublehulled, the accident would have happened under such circumstances.

57. The present international tanker fleet includes very few units with double hulls or which are built according to an equally acceptable standard, the mid-deck design. Tankers built to this design standard are equipped with a horizontal separator of cargo holds that extends from bow to stern. In the case of hull damage the ambient water pressure exceeds the pressure of oil in the tanks and thus prevents spillage to occur. However since the U.S. market is the principal attractor of world oil trades, a shortage of OPA-standard tankers will curtail the movement of oil, and thus render many non-conforming tankers with henceforth limited trading prospects.

58. Mandating the double hull design for all tankers will necessarily result in the introduction of void spaces on a massive scale. Double hull configurations will require almost triple the steel surface to be coated to protect against corrosion. Routine inspection by crew members to guard against coating breakdown and corrosion, and related maintenance will be infinitely more complex and time consuming. It is ironic that while the future outlook for seafaring personnel has actually induced vessel designs that