By Alec Taylor, Marine Policy Officer
I’ve just popped out of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO)’s meeting of its environmental subcommittee. I say committee, but it’s more like a UN General Assembly, with hundreds of delegates from all over the globe and interpretation into at least five languages!
It would be a future meeting of this group that would discuss and ultimately decide whether polyisobutene (PIB), the substance responsible for over 4,000 slow, lingering seabird deaths so far this year, should be reclassified under international shipping regulations to prevent its discharge at sea altogether.
In connection with this week’s meeting, the RSPB, along with other wildlife NGOs, have joined forces with the UK Chamber of Shipping (supported by the wider industry association MaritimeUK) to make a ground-breaking collective call on the UK Government to press ahead with an urgent review of PIB’s discharge status. Currently, it is legal to discharge PIB based on certain conditions, but all sides feel that this should be urgently reviewed, regardless of the outcome of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s investigations into this year’s tragic seabird deaths.
PIB has no place in our precious oceans and seas, and now it’s not just us saying that but the shipping and ports industries themselves, who represent over £30 billion to the UK economy, support over half a million jobs and provide £8.5bn in tax receipts to the UK Treasury. We’ll be united when we say to the UK government that we think the full risks of PIB are not properly known, and that we need the UK to step up to lead a review, and then present it to a future meeting of the IMO.
Visit this blog for updates of how we get on – you can sign up to get new posts straight in to your inbox on the right - and thanks to everyone for your support so far. It may be a small change to ensure all PIB is removed from tanks while in port, but in the global world of shipping, it could make a real difference to seabirds and would be one less pressure on our marine environment in general.
You can read the joint statement here – and remember you can show your support to ban this seabird killer by signing the online petitions at 38 degrees and Avaaz”
Thanks,
Alec