3/4/2014 Torrey Canyon and Amoco Cadiz: a lesson from history?

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Torrey Canyon and Amoco Cadiz: a lesson from
history?
This week has marked a double anniversary of Torrey Canyon and Amoco Cadiz accidents, the events that still
mark the global sea navigation.
Forty six years after the tragedy, long-passed oil spill off the [Gruensey island shores] still have an impact on the
environment. The Torrey Canyon spill of 1967 entered history as the first major oil spill in the world, the most
devastating one to have happened in the British waters to date. Approximately 120,000 of oil, 190 km of Cornish
80 km of French coastline affected by the accident Failed attempts to bomb the stricken ship, unsuccessful
attempts to set the oil ablaze and dissolve it by using chemicals. Back in 1967 the effects of the tragedy were
slow to sink in, yet even these days the Gruensey oil quarry still bears a reminder of the Torrey Canoyn accident.
Some of the oil that was salvaged from the surface was dumped in a quarry on the island, to this day it attracts
birds, who, confused by the still surface of the substance, land in a deadly trap and perish
Torrey Canyon was the first devastating link in the chain of accidents that followed. It led to the creation of the
Civil Liability Convention two years later, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships,
yet the lesson wasnt learned the hard way. In 1978 the tanker Amoco Cadiz ran into the Portsall rocks in severe
weather conditions. Splitting in two, the vessel sank off the coast of Britany, France, spilling 223,000 tones of
Iranian and Saudi Arabian crude. Strong winds, heavy seas and ineffective coordination of the recovery operation
resulted in 320 km off affected beaches, stretching out all the way to the Chanel islands.
Torrey Canyon and Cadiz were two grand precursors of accidents that followed with an alarming frequency. In an
attempt to overturn the tide, Maritime Passive Safety came up with salvage-friendly solutions, able to help stop
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18 March 1967 Amoco Cadiz Gilles Longuve Guernesey Island ISU maritime passive saf ety Mike Lacey
Torrey Canyon
English
leakages from the tanks, keep the pollutants inside the ship, and facilitate the recovery and evacuation of these
pollutants by salvors. Together with ISU former General Secretary and Salvage expert Mike Lacey, Gilles
Longuve, President of the Maritime Passive Safety, gave an inspiring speech before the delegates from the IMO,
urging the attendees to support the measures that would make a would make the oil cease to be a fatality and
make a definitive turning point in international oil spill prevention. The introduction of salvage-friendly measures
would perfectly-comply with the long awaited Polar Code and help avoid a potential oil spill in the Arctic, and be a
sure way to avoid disasters of the scale of Torrey Canyon and Amoco Cadiz . In cooperation with the International
Maritime Organization, the MPS can make a great step towards safer navigation on the seas.
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