Pollution in paradise.

Once again, the TV cameras of the world have been focused on a tanker pollution nightmare. What has been particularly distressing about the spill from the elderly single-hulled Ecuadorian tanker Jessica has not been its scale, but where it happened, threatening the Galapagos Islands.

Slapping the captain in the slammer after a maritime accident has now become almost a knee-jerk reaction by many authorities. It's significant that the recent session of the Joint Maritime Commission of the ILO expressed "deep concern" about this trend (see p.8).

In fact, the Jessica incident raises several issues. One is the question of where nasty old ships go when they have been squeezed out of first world trades by legislation such as OPA '90 and by effective Port State Control. The fact is that they are more likely to go to the less affluent parts of the world than to the scrapyard--and some of the world's most sensitive environmental sanctuaries are in poorer countries. In Ecuador, for example, half the population is below the poverty line and the economy has lately been in a mess.

If we want to see the Galapagos Islands served by modern tonnage, it's pretty meaningless to expect the necessary ships to be paid for from Ecuadorean resources. The U.S. is Ecuador's largest trading partner. It would be in the enlightened self-interest of U.S. shipbuilders to suggest to their friends in Congress that aid should be provided to help Ecuador acquire some environmentally-friendly, double hulled tankers from U.S. yards.

Of course, double hulls alone aren't the answer to everything. (In the case of the Ievoli Sun sinking last year, it's been suggested that the ship's double hull construction may have worsened matters).

Human error is a major factor in most collisions and groundings. A primary focus of the Maritime Operations: The Human Element conference in Washington on April 24 & 25 this year will be how to avoid the onboard circumstances and conditions that lead to errors being made. Clearly, crew training is a big part of the answer. And crew training is another area where the U.S. could offer aid to its neighbors in this hemisphere.

Nicholas Blenke