Environmental surveillance in practice
Environmental surveillance at sea is mainly carried out with aerial resources. The Management Unit of the Mathematical Model of the North Sea and the Scheldt estuary (MUMM) and the Marine Environment Service are the two competent authorities for the detection of environmental violations at sea by means of aerial surveillance.
MUMM operates out of an aircraft specially equipped with a radar system that can detect illegal discharges by the ships. The Marine Environment Service uses a helicopter equipped for rapid interventions to detect environmental violations at sea. There is a cooperation agreement with the Defence for the use of unmanned military aircraft for detecting and documenting the violations against the environmental legislation. Finally, the satellite pictures from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) are used to detect any possible pollution.
The aerial surveillance at sea has a clear deterrent effect: since the start of the aerial surveillance program in 1991, there is a drastic drop in the number of oil pollution incidences observed at sea.
Control of the environmental regulation
The control of the marine environmental regulation is at least as important as its issue.
The Marine Environment Act of July 20, 2012 provides for the obligation to inform the government in certain cases, for example, when an incident can lead to an environmental damage or when one plans an activity with a possible environmental risk.
The control can take place both pro-actively and actively at sea.
• Preference for dialogue with the citizen
A simple explanation about, for example, the environmental licensing procedure can readily help the citizens on their way to apply the regulation without it having to be enforced immediately.
• Targeted campaigns and instructions
The role of the competent authority increases when a real or an imminent environmental damage may occur. In that case, the Marine Environment Service can organise targeted campaigns or give instructions that the citizens should follow to prevent or to limit the environmental damage.
• Control at sea
The officials of the Marine Environment service can also check at sea. In cooperation with the Waterway Police, specific checks are performed aboard the ships. In this way, it is verified whether the ship crew complies with the regulations both administratively and technically. At first it is checked whether the ship's garbage is properly managed and that the garbage is not dumped into the sea. The controls also offer the opportunity to sensibilize the ship's crew to the environmental objectives and provide them with the best practical examples.
Prosecution
Violations of the marine environmental legislation (the Marine Environment Act and the MARPOL convention) established by the Marine Environment Service may lead to prosecution including imprisonment and fines. It must be said that the criminal aspect constitutes the exception in the enforcement of the Marine Environment Act. The emphasis lies on prevention and on sensibilization.
In order to optimize the enforcement, a collaboration between the different competent government services is organized both nationally and internationally. At the national level, that happens, for example, within the Coast guard structure and the MARPOL network. The MARPOL network is an informal network of federal and Flemish authorities who are competent for the prevention of pollution by the ships. At the international level, the cooperation within the framework of the Bonn Agreement and the cooperation between the investigating and the prosecuting authorities (North Sea Network - NSN) certainly deserve a mention.