10 
Global Trends in Ship-Sourced Marine Pollution 
GLOBAL TRENDS IN SHIP-SOURCED MARINE POLLUTION 
Dr Henk Renken 
ITOPF, 1 Oliver’s Yard, 55 City Road 
London EC1Y 1HQ, United Kingdom 
henkrenken@itopf.com 
Abstract 
ITOPF is a not for profit organisation, established and funded by the world’s ship owners to advise on and 
promote an effective response to spills of oil and hazardous and noxious substances (HNS) worldwide. 
ITOPF has collected data on oil spills over the past 40 years. Statistics based on this data shows that the 
number of large spills from tankers (> 700 MT) has significantly declined since the 1970’s from an average 
of 25 per year to just over three incidents in the last few years, even though the volume of oil transported 
around the world continues to increase. However, the average number of incidents attended by ITOPF 
remains largely the same (around 20-25 incidents per year from both tankers and non tankers). In terms of 
the total volume of oil spilled on a yearly basis, one or two incidents can contribute significantly, for example 
the ABT SUMMER spill in 1991, resulted in a release of 260,000 MT of the total 700,000 MT spilled that year. 
For larger tanker spills > 700 MT the main causes are groundings and collisions, whilst small spills (< 7MT) 
are usually the result of operational problems occurring during bunkering and loading/discharging. A review 
of the trends over the past 10 years shows that Asia and Europe are the regions where ITOPF attended oil 
spills most often. China in particular is a hot spot, being the country in which ITOPF has attended oil spills 
most frequently in the past 10 years. This is likely a reflection of the recent economic growth, resulting in in 
creased import and export activities. Although there has been a significant reduction in large ship-sourced 
spills, accidents will and do occur. Prevention of spills should have the highest priority, however there clear 
ly remains a need to develop preparedness and in particular contingency plans. Spill response prepared 
ness and regular exercises are indeed the best strategies to maintain readiness to respond efficiently when 
an incident occurs. 
Introduction 
The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) is a not for profit organisation established on 
behalf of the world’s ship owners to advise on and promote an effective response to spills of oil and hazar 
dous and noxious substances (HNS) in the marine environment, worldwide. During ITOPF’s 43 year history, 
its staff has responded to approximately 700 incidents in 99 countries, including high profile incidents such 
as EXXON VALDEZ (1989), ERIKA (1999), PRESTIGE (2002), and HEBEI SPIRIT (2007). 
Response to incidents is ITOPF’s core activity. In addition, ITOPF provides other services such as advice 
on contingency planning, spill response exercises, damage assessments and claims analysis. ITOPF has 
also observer status at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and participates in technical working 
groups on spill response matters. ITOPF has a comprehensive in house library and maintains various data 
bases in order to provide information on all aspects of spill response and potential environmental impacts of 
oil and HNS. 
As part of our information service, ITOPF has collected data on oil spills over the past 40 years. The 
statistics are collated from various published sources such as the shipping press and other specialist