Spy in the sky might be used to track ghost ships
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The State is examining satellite technology to help it identify and track ghost ships or lost containers in Irish territorial waters.
The Irish Coast Guard is working with the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) to evaluate “satellite-based options” that can identify potential maritime risks posed by vessels like the MV Alta ghost ship in Cork, and other vessels that have stopped transmitting any electronic signature.
And while the department of transport confirmed that it plans to bring forward new legislation to help the State better deal with vessels like this which come ashore, and which are abandoned and left to rot, it did not say when that might happen.
It follows fresh criticism in the Seanad last week of the State’s efforts to address the issue.
Senator Tim Lombard said it appears as if the work to draft the required primary legislation is “dead in the water”.
He cited the case of the MFV Cismair, an abandoned trawler that has been tied up and rotting close to the old bridge crossing in Kinsale, Cork, for around 13 years, and the more recent high-profile case of the MV Alta, which was washed ashore near Ballycotton, Co Cork, in February 2020 during Storm Dennis, and which has since broken in two.
Following an investigation into the MV Alta incident, the Marine Casualty Investigation Board recommended the establishment of a working group, comprising members from the Irish Coast Guard, the Naval Service, Irish Lights, the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority, and other interested parties to explore the risks and potential costs to the State presented by derelict ships entering Irish territorial waters and coming ashore here.
It was also asked to make proposals for means to identify, monitor, track, and interdict derelict ships before they endanger other ships and seafarers in the vicinity.
The Department of Transport said the working group has “concluded its deliberations” and its report is being finalised.
But in the meantime, it said the coast guard is working with EMSA on potential satellite-based options to identify those risks.
However, the legal framework around how such wrecks are dealt with once they come ashore in Ireland still needs to be resolved.
It is governed by the 2007 ‘Nairobi Convention on the Removal of Wrecks’ which provides the legal basis for states to remove, or have removed, at the shipowner’s expense, wrecks that may have the potential to adversely affect the safety of lives, goods, and property at sea, as well as the marine environment.
But Dáil approval is required to ratify international conventions generally and Ireland has not ratified this convention yet and so it has no legal standing here.
So while shipowners are obliged to maintain insurance or provide other financial security to cover the costs of wreck removal, the owners of ghost ships and other abandoned wrecks can be difficult to trace.
The Department of Transport said primary legislation is needed in the first instance to allow the State to provide for any requirements in secondary legislation.
“Provision in primary legislation for the Nairobi Convention is on the department of transport legislative programme of work and will be progressed as part of a future International Conventions Bill,” a spokesperson said.