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Malaysian
shipowners have been urged to take
note of the entry of International
Maritime Organisation’s ban on
anti-fouling paints under the
Control of Harmful Anti-Fouling
System for Ships from January 1,
2003.
The
new convention which is will be
discussed at the Diplomatic
Conference to be held at IMO’s
headquarters in London 1-5 October
2001, is expected to be adopted by
member countries banning new
applications of the anti-foulants
from January 1 2003 and banning
their exposure to the marine
environment altogether from
January 1, 2008.
To
be adopted, IMO conventions are
often required to attract 15
ratifying nations, including flags
controlling 50 per cent of the
world’s shipping fleet. However,
in pursuit of certainty, industry
bodies like the International
Chamber of Shipping, Bimco,
Intercargo, Intertanko, Oil
Companies International Marine
Forum and Society of International
Gas Tankers and Terminal Operators
have jointly submitted a paper
proposing that the 50 per cent
tonnage requirement be dropped.
The
legal instrument is important to
regulate the use of shipboard
anti-fouling systems, in
particular to phase out those
containing organisms such as
tributyltin (TBT) said the marine
manager of International Coatings
Sdn Bhd, Shaker Doraisamy.
According
to Shaker the proposed
anti-fouling convention comes in
response to Assembly resolution
A.895 (21) Anti-fouling systems
used on ships, adopted by IMO in
November 1999, which called on
IMO’s Marine Environment
Protection Committee (MEPC)
to develop an instrument, legally
binding throughout the world, to
address the harmful effects of
anti-fouling systems used on
ships.
The
resolution calls for a global
prohibition on the application of
organotin compounds which act as
biocides in anti-fouling systems
on ships by 1 January 2003, and a
complete prohibition on the
presence of organotin compounds
which act as biocides in
anti-fouling systems on ships by 1
January 2008.
Japan
has already banned TBT in
anti-fouling paint for most ships.
This has been followed by some of
developed countries.
In
the case of Malaysia, Fisheries
Department and the Royal Malaysian
Navy have begun to take initial
step towards complying with the
anti-fouling system.
However,
the most commercial lines are
waiting for the official outcome
of the anti-fouling system
convention, said Shaker.
Antifouling
paints are used to coat the
bottoms of ships to prevent
sea-life such as algae from
attaching themselves to the hull -
thereby slowing down the ship and
increasing fuel consumption.
The
antifouling paints using metallic
compounds slowly "leach”
into the sea water, killing
barnacles and other marine life
that have attached to the ship -
but studies have shown that these
compounds persist in the water,
killing sealife, harming the
environment and possibly entering
the food chain. One of the most
effective antifouling paints,
developed in the 1960s, contains
the tributyltin (TBT), which has
been proven to cause deformations
in oysters and sex changes in
whelks.
The
harmful environmental effects of
TBT compounds were recognized by
IMO in 1990, when the Marine
Environment Protection Committee
MEPC adopted a resolution which
recommended that Governments adopt
measures to eliminate the use of
antifouling paint containing TBT
on non-aluminium hulled vessels of
less than 25 metres in length and
eliminate the use of antifouling
paints with a leaching rate of
more than 4 microgrammes of TBT
per day.
Alternatives
to TBT paint include copper-based
coatings and silicon-based paints,
which make the surface of the ship
slippery so that sealife will be
easily washed off as the ship
moves through water. Further
development of alternative
anti-fouling systems is being
carried out. Underwater cleaning
systems avoid the ship having to
be put into dry dock for ridding
the hull of sealife, while
ultrasonic or electrolytic devices
may also work to rid the ship of
foulants.
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