Spatial and temporal assessment of oil spills in the Mediterranean Sea

Ship-generated oil pollution is a significant threat to the Mediterranean Sea. We present a geostatistical analysis of oil spills using three databases for the Mediterranean Sea: REMPEC (1977-2000) with 385 spills (17/year), ITOPF (1970-2018) with 167 spills (3.5/year) and EMSA (2015-2017) with 2066 detections (688/year). It was found that 88% of spills reported by REMPEC occurred near coastline areas, while 65% of the spills detected by EMSA occurred within a range of 22-100 km from the coastline. At the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) level, EMSA oil spills densities were positively correlated with shipping and port activity. We conclude that there is a need to develop an open-access database of oil spills that will be based on both reports and remote sensing acquisition methods. Such a database will facilitate more efficient enforcement of international conventions in offshore areas and will increase the likelihood of effective response.

Automated summary

Ship-generated oil pollution poses a significant threat to the Mediterranean Sea. An analysis of oil spills using three different databases revealed variations in spill densities. At the Exclusive Economic Zone level, oil spill densities were found to be positively correlated with shipping and port activity. Therefore, there is a need to develop an integrated database for more efficient prevention and response to oil spills.