With the aim of reducing ship collisions with whales, and at the proposal of Spain, France, Italy and Monaco, the Northwestern Mediterranean region has been declared a Particularly Sensitive Marine Area (ZMES) by the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations agency in charge of regulating maritime transport.
The designation of this PSSA is accompanied by an explicit recognition, by the IMO, that ship strikes are the main cause of induced death for fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) and sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in this part of the world. Mediterranean. It is advisable to reduce the speed of ships, but this measure is not mandatory.
The movement of ships in this area is very high, around 220,000 a year, with average speeds of between 14 and 20 knots in the case of merchant ships or even up to 35 knots -about 65 km/h- in the case of high speed boats.
“IMO has taken a significant first step in the right direction by finally approving the designation of a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area in these waters of high environmental value, but the ship speed reduction measure included in its proposal should have been made mandatory to ensure their effectiveness in reducing the risk of fatal collisions with large whales," said Nicolas Entrup, Director of International Relations for marine protection organization OceanCare.
Scientific knowledge about the distribution and habitat use of these large cetaceans have concluded that in this part of the Mediterranean it is still difficult to predict the areas in which these mammals are present at any given time, so the option that ships divert their routes to avoid colliding with them is not feasible in this case. The only proven measure to reduce the risk of fatal collisions is therefore to reduce the speed of ships.
In November 2021, the Scientific Committee of the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Contiguous Atlantic Area (Accobams) adopted a recommendation stressing that "when it is not possible to establish routes to keep separate to whales from ships, the only measure shown to reduce fatal collisions with most large whales is speed reduction"; and at its 2022 meeting, the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) came to the same conclusion.
In December of that same year, all the States of the Mediterranean basin agreed at an Accobams meeting "to promote the application of reductions in speed of ships (for example, slow navigation) as an operational measure that results in multiple environmental benefits, including the reduction of underwater noise and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the risk of collision with ships, and promote such measures in the context of the proposal for a Particularly Sensitive Maritime Area in the North-Western Mediterranean".
The impact of ship strikes is internationally recognized as a significant threat to cetaceans, especially as shipping traffic, vessel size and speed continue to increase. Collisions involve a wide variety of vessels, and the risk of collision increases with the speed of the vessel, as does the severity of injury to the animal; the probability of a collision having a lethal effect on a whale is very low when the ship's speed does not exceed 10 knots.
The regulations state that "navigators must navigate with special caution within the ZMES of the northwestern Mediterranean, in areas where the presence of large and medium-sized cetaceans are detected or reported, and reduce their speed to between 10 and 13 knots as a voluntary reduction." speed). However, a safe speed must be maintained so that appropriate and effective measures can be taken to avoid collision and any possible negative impact on the ship's maneuverability.
This gives the protection measure a recommendatory nature, but Carlos Bravo, representative of OceanCare in Spain, who attends the IMO MEPC meeting in London, affirms that "only by adopting a mandatory speed reduction measure of the ships would effectively protect the great whales while creating a level playing field for all shipping companies".
The IMO's own resolution for the designation of the ZMES recognizes that "the whale population has suffered collisions with ships in the region and therefore the cetacean population is at risk". Without associated protection measures to mitigate the risk of collision within the perimeter of the ZMES, a decrease in the populations of medium and large cetaceans is to be expected."The application of a speed reduction strategy will allow a significant reduction in the probability of collision and fatal injuries related to fauna ”.
The representative of OceanCare concludes, for this newspaper, with the following reflection: "Now, Spain and other proponent countries of the ZMES must work intensively to create a joint framework of work, in the short and medium term, that will make it possible to ensure that the deaths of Whales from collisions in this area will decrease significantly in the coming years."
To this end, Bravo considers that it would be important to generate incentives for all shipping companies to adopt the protection measures included in the ZMES proposal, as well as advance in the implementation of a legally binding measure to reduce the speed of ships in the scope of the ZMES; and argues in favor of it that "it is the most effective solution, as shown by science".
