Baltic Sea Portal

Release from SYKE and the Finnish Border Guard

The largest oil spill observed within the Finnish territory took place between the Åland Islands and Naantali in southwestern Finland. The major part of the oil spills not observed by the Border Guard aircraft took place near the cost. Most of them were small accidental oil spills.

The Finnish Environment Institute and the Finnish Border Guard have in 15 years cooperated to detect oil spills from ships. The number of oil spills observed during the surveillance flights was in 2009 lower than ever before. Even another significant index, the number of oil spills per flight hour, was record low. Thus we can conclude that the lower number of observed spills is not explained by the lower number of surveillance flights.  

Finland participated last year with one surveillance airplane in the SuperCEPCO Baltic Sea region spill control operation which was hosted by Sweden. During the operation, surveillance planes from six countries flew along a certain route. The total number of flight hours was 103, but only three oil spills were observed. This proves that the number of oil spills from ships has decreased in other parts of the northern Baltic Sea as well.

Oil spill control was also enhanced due to the satellite image service of the European Maritime Safety Agency EMSA. Last year Finland received some 200 satellite images through EMSA. 

The Naantali-Åland oil spill gave the largest administrative oil spill penalty fee so far

The largest oil spill observed within the Finnish sea territory in 2009 extended from the Åland Islands to Naantali. The volume of the spill was estimated to be about 5 m³. The Border Guard issued to the shipping company a 22 588 € oil spill penalty fee. The shipowners have submitted a complaint about the penalty fee to the maritime court of the Helsinki regional court. The penalty fee is the largest so far issued in Finland.

Last year the Border Guard started the examinations of four new oil spill cases for which an administrative penalty fee was suggested, In one of the cases the shipowner had to pay a warranty fee. The Border Guard completed the examinations of nine earlier cases. In five of them a penalty fee in euro was issued. The legislation behind the administrative fees entered into force in 2006. Since then, 48 decisions have been given and in 26 cases an administrative oil spill penalty fee was issued.

A new act on environmental protection in sea traffic entered into force 1 January 2010. A significant new feature is that the Border Guard may submit a further complaint if the sea court or the court of appeals has changed or annulled the decision of the Border Guard. In April 2009, a court of appeals issued for the first time a decision in an oil spill penalty fee case. The Helsinki Court of Appeals decided not to change the decision made in 2008 by a Maritime Court, according to which a decision made by the Border Guard in an oil spill penalty fee case was valid.

The Government of Åland approved in the autumn 2009 a change of the legal acts so that the Finnish regulations concerning the administrative oil spill penalty fee will be valid in the territory of Åland as well. The new regulations entered into force on 1 January 2010 and the task was transferred to the Border Guard by changing the Finnish legal act on the tasks of the Border Guard within the territory of Åland. As a consequence, the Finnish Border Guard is now responsible for the control of oil spills within the territory of Åland, and also oil spill penalty fees can be issued by the Border Guard.

New instruments for the surveillance planes

SYKE financed the new environmental surveillance instruments which were placed aboard the two Dornier planes of the Border Guard. Due to the new instruments, the technical performance of the surveillance system has considerably improved. Moreover, the system has new options like the possibility to receive AIS identification data and the satellite transfer data link. Due to the new system, it is more likely that an offender will get caught. The new system can better than before combine information from several sources .

In 2010 and 2011 the Border Guard will further develop the observation and registration capacity of the surveillance planes by introducing new radar equipment and thermographic cameras and by integrating  them with the environmental monitoring system. The objective is to construct an integrated surveillance system.

More information

Oil spill control: Ms Heli Haapasaari, Finnish Environment Institute 
phone +358 40 179 3050, firstname.lastname@ymparisto.fi

Oil spill penalty fee: Mr Tom Lundell, commander, maritime safety expert, Finnish Border Guard, phone +358 40 521 4685