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1 INTRODUCTION

This seems unbelievable considering the technological

developments of the last few decades, but it is

important to take into account the growing

importance of maritime transport globally. Every year

the number of merchant ships increases [1] and their

dimensions get bigger. According to [11] over 80% of

world merchandise trade by volume is carried by sea.

At the same time, despite the continuous

development of techniques used in maritime

transport, equipping ships with modern devices,

implementing new procedures, rules and regulations,

including crew training in accordance with new safety

standards, the number of recorded accidents in

maritime transport is continuously growing, and their

effects and consequences may be very serious. Some

accidents have had an irreversible impact on the

marine environment and have also led to the

bankruptcy of their shipowners. Therefore, it is very

important to analyze the accidents that have occurred

and to investigate their causes in order to prevent

further accidents.

There are many different causes of marine

accidents, where the intervention of the MoB MEDS

boat would be justified, e.g. collision with another

vessel, grounding, loss of control, loss of electrical

power (blackout), heavy seas, immobilization by

fishing net, human error in manoeuvring,

uncontrolled ballast water discharge, and many

others. These examples are not exhaustive, but the

common factor in each case is the request of

immediate assistance.

The boat MoB MEDS discussed in the article could

respond to this request and significantly improve the

safety level of Polish waters. The ship can be

categorized as a diving support vessel (DSV). This

group of vessels has been in continuous development

since the 1960s due to the demand for this type of

vessel in the offshore sector. DSV was intended to

support underwater works and deep-water diving.

Among the DSV we can distinguish relatively large

units (LOA>100m; draft>6,5m) which support oil

Analysis of Maritime Accidents in the Context of

Demand for MoB MEDS the Mobile Base of the Marine

Emergency Diving Service

M. Jurczyński & G. Rutkowski

Gdynia Maritime University, Gdynia, Poland

ABSTRACT: The purpose and scope of this paper is to present the demand of Polish waters for the boat MoB

MEDS the Mobile Base of the Marine Emergency Diving Service, which would enable necessary underwater

works (repairs and inspections) for ships requiring immediate assistance. The MoB MEDS boat could also

protect sensitive sea areas against potential oil and / or chemical spills from the ship, which could seriously

threaten the safety of human life, the safety of navigation and the protection of the natural environment with its

unique ecological values. Mentioned demand is supported by the analysis of selected statistical data on

maritime accidents in Polish waters and planned maritime investments.

http://www.transnav.eu

the International Journal

on Marine Navigation

and Safety of Sea Transportation

Volume 15

Number 1

March 2021

DOI: 10.12716/1001.15.01.22

210

platforms and wind farms; medium-sized units

(LOA~30m, draft~3m) which also are capable of long-

term operation in the open sea; small units (LOA≈

10M, draft≈1m) which operate mainly in internal and

coastal waters. The boat MoB MEDS discussed in the

article belongs to the last group and is intended to

operate in the Gulf of Gdańsk, the Vistula Lagoon and

nearby navigable canals leading from the sea port of

Gdańsk to the sea port of Elbląg.

All the ships listed above are distinguished by

good mobility and high speed in operation. Most of

them undertake various underwater activities within

nearby harbours and anchorages. Due to the main

assumption of the vessel (possibility of providing

immediate assistance), the owners of described boats

operate mainly in a well-defined area and they rarely

provide services to other countries or ports. Services

which they provide include: inspection and repair of

underwater structures (e.g. berths, piers, docks),

underwater welding and cutting, recovery of the lost

equipment, metal thickness measurements, hull

inspections for classification societies and propeller

maintenance.

Currently, very few units of this type are equipped

with devices to combat oil pollution, but such

solutions also exist, e.g. the German company Baltic

Taucherei und Bergungsbetrieb Rostock GmbH has

several boats equipped with oil spill containment

barriers, pumps and oily water tanks. They can

effectively support the activities of German Search

and Rescue (SAR) units by increasing the fleet of

pollution removal vessels. However, the operating

areas of such ships are usually limited to nearby

internal waters, e.g. within the port of Hamburg.

The analysis of such DSV market carried out

within Poland [9] has shown that on most of the

navigable waters there is la ack of specialized vessels

with low draft, which could undertake the required

action (divers service and oil/chemical spills

combating) in a short period of time. There are a

relatively large number of companies providing

underwater services, however, the vast majority of

them do not have their own vessels, or they have the

vessels which does not comply with a number of legal

requirements to perform underwater works.

Specialized oil-combating vessels are mostly owned

by the government (Polish Navy, SAR Service,

training/research vessels of the Maritime Institute

etc.), but by definition, they cannot perform

commercial work.

2 METHODOLOGY FOR ANALYSIS OF MARINE

ACCIDENTS

State Marine Accident Investigation Commission

(SMAIC) is an independent organization, which

carries out safety investigations based on maritime

accident researches in Poland. It is crucial to be aware

of the legal regulations (especially the act dated 31

August 2012, Journal of Laws item 1068, 2012, with

further amendments), which limit the number of

investigated cases. Some of these limitations are

presented below.

Data on accidents at sea cover ships of either

Polish or non-Polish nationality when the incident or

accident at sea occurred in Polish internal waters or

Polish territorial sea. Passenger ro-ro ferries or

highspeed passenger ships are also included when the

incident or accident occurred outside the internal

waters or territorial sea of the EU member state

provided that the last port of call of that ship was a

Polish Republic's seaport. Besides, these statistics

cover ships of gross tonnage below 50, i.e. fishing

boats, yachts or tugs.

Maritime chambers adjudicate cases on marine

accidents only at the request of the parties concerned

or a maritime administration body. Marine accident

should be considered as an occurrence or several

consecutive occurrences linked directly to the ship's

operations, resulting in:

− any loss of life, major serious injury to a person or

loss of a person onboard the ship;

− the sinking of the ship, loss of the ship in another

way, or damage to the ship seriously affecting its

structure, manoeuvrability or operability so that an

in-depth repair is required;

− ship's grounding, or any ship's hull contact with

the sea bottom, an impact of the ship into a subsea

obstacle;

− laying-up or collision of the vessel;

− fire, explosion;

− an impact into a port facility, installation Offshore,

hitting a surface or underwater obstacle;

− cargo dislocation;

− damages due to unfavourable weather conditions,

damages by ice;

− crack of the hull or suspected damage to the hull,

− damage by the ship to a port's infrastructure, or to

facilities providing access to ports, harbours,

installations or offshore structures causing a

serious risk to safety of the ships, other ships or

persons, or a damage to the natural environment

or posing a risk thereof.

The SMAIC is obliged to investigate every ‘severe’

or ‘very severe’ marine accident. The Commission

does not deal with marine accidents or incidents

participated exclusively by vessels of the Naval

Forces, Border Guard or Police, 15 meters long fishing

boats, leisure yachts–except for very serious accidents;

or accidents not participated by maritime ships, at

offshore drilling units.

In accordance with Art. 40(1). 2 of the Law on

SMAIC, the reports of this organization cannot

constitute evidence in criminal proceedings, they do

not establish fault or responsibility for causing the

accident. They only determine the circumstances and

causes of its occurrence to prevent future maritime

accidents and incidents. SMAIC has been operating in

Poland since 2013, so despite the above described

limitations of undertaking research and selected types

of accidents (which require underwater work or oil

spill prevention), accidents described below are

relatively numerous.

However, in practice not all marine casualties are

reported (minor marine casualties and incidents are

usually concealed to avoid certain legal,

administrative and financial consequences) and those

that are reported are not always subjected to a

211

detailed analysis of the effects and causes of the event.

As a result, ‘Marine Accidents’ and ‘Incidents’ or even

less ‘Severe Accidents’, including those that required

underwater diver intervention, are not always

reported or they are less frequently presented, even

though they represent a significant group in the

events recorded by the SMAIC. It is also crucial to be

aware that describing mentioned cases is not the duty

of the SMAIC. As an example, Table 1. presents data

on cases reported to the SMAIC [10] by the type of

marine accident. Almost half of the reported accidents

(and even 73% in 2017) are not described, mainly due

to the previously indicated legal limitations of the

organization. A significant number of undertaken

studies are terminated without issuing a report,

because they resulted from renounced investigations.

Investigations carried out by SMAIC are very

extensive and insightful, sometimes they require large

financial outlays (e. g. recovery of the wreck to

determine the damage or the cause of sinking)

therefore in many cases they also take a long time. The

number of studies undertaken by the commission

does not stand out in comparison with other

countries.

Table 1. Number of reported marine accidents by

consideration

_______________________________________________

Specification 2016 2017 2018 2019

_______________________________________________

Number of notifications 90 114 110 144

Investigations not started, 61 83 44 71

investigations renounced or

another reason

Proceedings initiated 29 31 66 73

Investigations completed 16 21 53 49

Number of abandoned 15 19 53 49

Investigations

_______________________________________________

Source: Statistical Yearbook of Maritime Economy 2020,

Data by the State Maritime Accident Investigation

Commission, December 2020.

According to [2] in the 2014-2019 period the

number of 19418 marine casualties and incidents in

Europe was reported and only in 833 cases, an

investigation has been launched. The data collected by

the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has its

methodological limitations - their publication contains

statistics on marine casualties and incidents which

involve ships flying a flag of one of the EU Member

State or occur within EU Member States’ territorial sea

or internal waters or involve other substantial

interests of EU Member States.

Table 2. Accidents by location

_______________________________________________

Location of accident 2016 2017 2018 2019

_______________________________________________

Total 90 114 66 73

Ports (total) 29 45 35 38

Gdańsk 5 5 4 12

Gdynia 6 10 11 6

Szczecin 4 8 12 5

Świnoujście 2 6 5 8

Other ports 12 16 3 7

Open sea 23 28 16 17

Bays and lagoons 28 32 5 -

Rivers 3 5 - -

Others (canals, straits, ports road 7 4 10 18

steads etc.)

_______________________________________________

Source: Statistical Yearbook of Maritime Economy 2020,

Data by the State Maritime Accident Investigation

Commission, December 2020.

Table 2. summarizes marine accidents by location

in the 2016-2019 period [10]. Specified categories, such

as ports, bays and lagoons, rivers, canals, strait ports,

etc. mostly represent shallow waters. Each year they

are the vast majority of an accident in all. Neither

Vistula Lagoon nor Szczecin Lagoon is specified

separately, but they are probably included in the ‘Bays

and lagoons’, where during four years as many as 65

sea accidents were registered.

Figure 1. Distribution of voyage segments and location of

occurrences. Source: European Maritime Safety Agency,

Annual Overview of Marine Casualties and Incidents 2020

The concept of MoB MEDS the Mobile Base of

Maritime Emergency Diving Services is to operate in

such areas (especially those inaccessible to other

rescue vessels with greater draft). Figure 1. shows that

in Europe more than a half of the maritime accidents

occur in internal waters, and even 27.4% of them

occur in the territorial sea (belt of coastal waters

extending at most 12 nautical miles from the baseline

of a coastal state [12]).

The subcategory of port and coastal waters

accounts for 46% of cases (summing up departures,

arrivals and anchored or alongside vessels). As many

as 43% of accidents occur in route, so assistance often

doesn’t reach the ship on time.

Table 3. Cause of accident

_______________________________________________

Location of accident 2016 2017 2018 2019

_______________________________________________

Error in navigation or manoeuvring 90 114 66 73

Loss of control 29 45 35 38

Damages of appliances 5 5 4 12

Short circuit, fire, setting fire by 6 10 11 6

accidents

Bad weather conditions 4 8 12 5

Hull leakage 2 6 5 8

Mechanical defects 12 16 3 7

Immobilization by fishing net 23 28 16 17

_______________________________________________

Source: Statistical Yearbook of Maritime Economy 2020,

Data by the State Maritime Accident Investigation

Commission, December 2020.

Table 3. provides different causes of accidents.

Between 2016 and 2019 in Poland there were 343

accidents caused by an error in navigation or

manoeuvring, 147 losses of control, 84 cases of

immobilization by the fishing net and 21 hull leakage.

It may be assumed that a significant part of the

reported marine accidents analysed here could

require underwater inspection by specialized divers.

Almost every case of those listed in Table 3. can

develop into series of consecutive events: loss of

control of the vessel, contact with the bottom, and

eventually hull and propeller damage. Some of these

212

scenarios also end with oil spillage and ship loss.

Detailed reports of SMAIC provide such examples.

Table 4. shows data on oil pollution clean-up

operations in particular years by the Polish Maritime

Search and Rescue Service. SAR vessels, similarly to

the ambulance service, are dedicated to saving lives,

but not necessarily to salvage property. There is

nothing more valuable than human life, but very often

those abandoned, damaged ships sink with their fuel

or dangerous cargo onboard and they became a

serious threat to the environment. In many cases, an

immediate repair could prevent further, larger spills,

which leads directly to significant reductions of

further environmental protection costs.

Outlays may exceed several thousands of dollars

per ton of spill clean-up. In estimating such cost, it is

important to take into account independent variables

(spill size, season, oil type, time for a spill to reach

shore), which may significantly increase it [3, 5].

Figure 2. Natura 2000 areas in the Pomerania. Source:

National Marine Fisheries Research Institute MIR, 2017.

The Mobile Base of the Marine Emergency Diving

Service MoB MEDS in addition to underwater work

can also deal with oil spill prevention. After

preventing the area from further spread of the spill,

specialized divers would be able to repair the hull. In

the case of a spill, there is often the matter of dealing

with huge amounts of oil – one of the largest was as

much as 287 thousand tonnes of oil spilled into the sea

about 18 Nm from the coast of Tobago, after the

‘Atlantic Empress’ collision in 1979. Despite the

relative increase of the safety level, the list of major oil

spills [4] also includes accident from 2018 – oil tanker

‘Sanchi’ collision led to a 113,000 tonnes oil spill.

Even though there were no accidents on such scale

in Polish waters, the possibility of their occurrence in

the future should not be dismissed. In cases of such

massive spills, most countries are not prepared to

react appropriately to mitigate the consequences. It is

also worth taking into account the fact that a

significant part of Polish coastal waters is under the

special legal protection of Natura 2000. Every marine

accident potentially means an oil spill that can cause

serious consequences to the ecosystem of the ‘marine

environment. Such areas include the Vistula Lagoon,

the Gulf of Gdańsk, the Vistula estuary, Orłowo Cliffs

and rock reefs, the Bay of Puck, the Słupsk Lagoon,

the Szczecin Lagoon, the Oder estuary and coastal

waters of the Baltic Sea.

3 ANALYSIS OF TRAFFIC AND PLANNED

MARITIME INVESTMENTS IN THE CONTEXT

OF SAFETY LEVEL

The intensity of coastal traffic directly affects the

safety of navigation. Busy ports such as Singapore or

Rotterdam need to have highly developed

navigational infrastructure (numerous fairways,

emergency anchorages, VTS support, TSS) and

logistics that enable efficient and safe transhipment

operations. As shown earlier, a significant number of

accidents occur in port waters, so the readiness of

specialized rescue units is also an important aspect.

The number of arriving ships and transhipped

cargo in Poland is continuously growing. Among

20800 vessels that arrived in 2019, 2468 of them were

tankers, which should be considered as a potential

risk of massive oil/chemical spill [10].

Table 5. Cargo traffic in seaports by category (loaded and

unloaded cargo in thousand tons)

_______________________________________________

Year Liquefied Crude Oil Other liquid

gas oil products bulk

_______________________________________________

2016 1010,7 9986,5 775,5 1327,4

2017 1650,5 11186,7 7131,5 1381,8

2018 2414,0 13085,3 7019,4 1280,4

2019 3050,3 15660,5 6447,6 1672,8

_______________________________________________

Source: Statistical Yearbook of Maritime Economy 2020.

Table 4. Hazardous incidents and pollution fought by the maritime search and rescue service SAR

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Year Port Number of Pollutant Amount of

incidents with chemicals removed,

pollutants in tonnes m

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

2016 Gdynia 1 petroleum – derived substances -

Krynica Morska 1 petroleum – derived substances -

Świnoujście 3 petroleum – derived substances 14,5

2017 Gdynia 1 oil-like substances 37,0

Świnoujście 2 oil-like substances 2,0

2018 Darłowo 1 oily waters -

Gdynia 1 oily waters -

Świnoujście 1 oily waters 0,2

2019 Kamień Pomorski 1 spill from a ship -

Łeba 1 oily spill -

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Source: Statistical Yearbook of Maritime Economy 2020, Data of the Polish Maritime Search and Rescue Service, Gdynia,

December 2020.

213

Transshipment of liquefied gases has increased 3

times, crude oil 1,5 times in 2016-2019 period. Cargo

traffic is increasing and will continue to increase -

further planned investments will develop the

maritime economy. These include, but are not limited

to:

− Central Port in Gdańsk – the project of the

development of the next deep-water part of the

port in the direction of the Gdańsk Bay including

the construction of several different terminals: ro-

ro, chemical, LNG, cereal, passenger and cruise

terminals (approximately 410 ha). The first

terminals may be ready as soon as 2029. [6]

− Outer Port in Gdynia – the project involves the

construction of a new port pier that will include a

container terminal, the new quays will be able to

handle the largest vessels that can enter the Baltic

Sea (LOA ≈ 400m and draft up to 16m). The

estimated annual handling capacity of the

terminal is 2.5 million TEU. Planned completion of

construction and equipping of the Outer Port is

2028 [7]

− Świnoujście LNG terminal expansion – the

terminal has been in operation since 2016, but the

owner already has further development plans

including: additional regasification installation,

third LNG process storage tank, LNG-to-Rail

transshipment installation and the second jetty for

loading/unloading of LNG carriers and bunker

vessels.

− FSRU terminal at the Port of Gdańsk – in

September 2020 representatives of GAZ-SYSTEM,

the Port of Gdańsk and the Maritime Office in

Gdynia signed a letter of intent regarding

cooperation in the construction of a floating

storage and regasification unit. This project will

undoubtedly have an impact on the development

of this cargo traffic in the region.

− Offshore wind farms – in January 2021 the concept

already received legal support – President of

Poland has signed the Offshore Act into law,

which regulates the development of 10.9 GW wind

farms in the Baltic Sea. The investment will be

operational or under development by 2027.

− Crosscut of the Vistula Spit – due to the specifics

of the basin and justifiable demand for using the

discussed boat in the lagoon, the investment is

discussed below in more detail.

− Investment of crosscutting the Vistula Spit has

started in 2019, but this idea has been considered

for a long time in terms of various economic and

environmental aspects.

The project includes the construction of a

sheltering harbour on the side of the Gulf of Gdańsk,

construction of a channel with locks, a new road

system with movable steel bridges with a vertical axis

of rotation, which will allow passage over the channel

in front of the lock and behind the lock; construction

of an artificial island on the Vistula Lagoon.

The investment seems to be important for many

reasons. One of the most significant is that it will

shorten the water route to inland ports such as Elbląg,

Tolkmicko, Frombork and it will separate the

economic aspects from the political one [8, 9].

Planned and currently conducted crosscut and

dredging of the fairways will make it possible to

increase the economic activity of the communes, in

particular the development of trade and tourism. It

will enable vessels with draft up to 4m, length 100m

and width 20m to enter the port of Elbląg.

Figure 3. Map from project documentation of connecting

Vistula Lagoon with Gdańsk Bay and Elbląg Canal. Source:

Maritime Office in Gdynia, Internal materials

In the Vistula Delta and on the Vistula Lagoon the

main obstacle to navigation is depth limitation, air

draft under obstacles (bridges, power lines) and for

larger vessels also width of the fairway [Rutkowski,

2010 & 2020]. Despite planned dredging of the

fairway to the port of Elbląg, the remaining part of

the lagoon will still be inaccessible for vessels with a

draught of over 4 m. After the completion of the

investment, the traffic is expected to increase,

however, many rescue vessels that secure underwater

works and prevent from oil spills will not be able to

enter the Lagoon due to mentioned limitations.

Figure 4. Work in progress in October 2020. Source: NDI

Group (one of the contractors of the investment) report,

October 2020

The greatest threats associated with oil and

chemical spills always affect the fishing industry,

tourism, water resources used for both industrial and

sanitary purposes and as a source of drinking water.

It is also worth mentioning that the Vistula Lagoon is

under the legal protection of ‘Natura 2000’. The best

way to combat hazards, including those caused by oil

and chemical spills, is to prevent them.

Effective measures which should be taken may

include improving maritime pilotage techniques,

training ships' crews and shore-based personnel

involved in transshipment operations, stricter

enforcement of regulations on pollution of the marine

214

environment, and also above all - preparing for

possible spills through regular drills and presence of

specialist vessels. Such units undoubtedly include

SAR maritime rescue vessels, but also commercial

units such as the Mobile Base of the Marine

Emergency Diving Service Mob MEDS.

Taking into consideration the expected significant

increase in cargo transportation in the coming years it

seems reasonable to have such boats, which would

enable divers to quickly reach ships in case of

emergency situation.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The statistics on maritime accidents described earlier

may be disturbing. In the vicinity of the Polish waters

there are already large plants or dangerous areas such

as the Gdańsk Refinery, the Oil Port in Gdańsk,

Świnoujście LNG terminal and numerous smaller

bunker stations located in different harbours. Traffic

intensity, as shown earlier, is constantly increasing

and will probably increase even more after

completing investments or plans such as crosscut of

the Vistula Spit, a new waterway connecting the Gulf

of Gdańsk with a port of Elbląg, Central Port

expansion, an outer seaport in Gdynia, FSRU

terminal, offshore wind farms and Świnoujście LNG

terminal expansion. Therefore, it can be assumed that

the occurrence of any maritime accident involving a

ship carrying petroleum products, liquified gases or

dangerous cargo in containers may be incalculable in

its consequences and long-term effects.

Conducted research also showed that many of the

analysed accidents could have been avoided or

reduced in effects if required assistance had arrived

earlier. It is also worth mentioning that regardless of

the region of the world, from where information on

accidents were collected, a significant number of

them took place in internal and coastal waters limited

by the depth and width of the area, where larger

vessels, including specialist SAR Maritime Search &

Rescue units could not reach or where reaching them

required a long sea voyage from another area.

Many ships have to stay for a long time waiting

for assistance or have to be towed to the place where

they can get such assistance. It always leads to a

significant increase in the risk of such operations,

deterioration of the ship's emergency situation and

the possibility of an uncontrolled spill of fuel or other

toxic substances. From this point of view, the need for

other specialized vessels such as MoB MEDS, which

is the Mobile Base of Marine Emergency Diving

Service, operating in shallow coastal and inland

waters also seems justified.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Scientific Underwater Research Association SeaQuest

was reactivated in December 2020. From the very

beginning (since December 2020) the SeaQuest members

via Gdynia Maritime University in cooperation with PC

Divers have been actively involved in research activities

participating in conceptual research and development

studies on market analysis for MoB MEDS boat being the

Mobile Base of Marine Emergency Diving Service.

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