HELSINKI, Jul 24, BNS – According to US expert Richard Steiner the likelihood of an oil disaster in the Gulf of Finland is very high, the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat reported.
“Be prepared for errors of the crew,” said Steiner, professor at the University of Alaska in Ancorage, who achieved international fame by assessing the environmental impact of the Exxon Valdez catastrophy of 1989.
Steiner said the risk of an accident was very high due to the heavy maritime traffic in the Gulf of Finland.
“Running on a reef, collision with another ship or fire means that tens of thousands of tons of crude or fuel will flow into the Gulf of Finland,” he said.
The expert said the questuion was not whether the accident would happen but when it would happen.
According to Antia Makinen, a maritime expert of the World Wildlife Fund, about 20-30 loaded tankers daily travel in the Gulf of Finland.
This year, they will carry about 150 million tons of oil in the Gulf of Finland and the forecast for 2015 is 250 million tons.
Steiner underlined that oil slick control was particularly difficult with the water iced over during the winter.
In his opinion Finland should demand that all the tankers travelling in the gulf should have competent crews and no ships in poor condition and crews inexperienced for travelling through ice should not permitted into the region.
Steiner added that as human error was always possible and technolgiy could fail, it was a normal requirement to demand use of double-hull tankers alone.
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