Denmark seeks mandatory pilots for shipping in Baltic straits

The Danish Maritime Authority was to meet with representatives of the Baltic Commission on Monday to discuss making it mandatory for all large oil tankers sailing through the Oeresund and Great Belt straits to take on a pilot to steer them through the narrow, shallow passages. The International Maritime Organization has long recommended the use of pilots for ships displacing more that seven metres in the Oeresund and 13 metres in the Great Belt.

But the Danish government had said that it could not legally impose mandatory piloting in declared international waters, such as the Baltic straits. Denmark proposed mandatory pilots in 1995 but the Baltic Commission, which represents countries facing the Baltic Sea, rejected the idea. "Denmark tried earlier to put forward the proposal without success, but since the accident the situation is obviously different, Baltic Commission Secretary Anne Christine Bruschendorff was quoted as saying. Meanwhile, the main clean-up of 2,700 tons of heavy fuel oil spilled by the tanker Baltic Carrier after it collided with the freighter Tern off Denmark's south coast on 29 March was nearing completion. All that remained was to remove the last oil slicks from Bogoe, Faroe, Moen and Falster islands, and clean the beaches. The authorities in charge of the huge clean-up operation estimated that 3,500 seabird, including ducks, gulls and swans, had died as a result of the spill.

(dpa)