The Marine Salvage Industry: Proven in Protecting the Marine Environment

AUTHOR Jim Elliot

Immediate Past President: American Salvage Association

Chief Operating Officer, Teichman Group, LLC

The marine salvage industry plays a vital role in protecting the marine environment. Governments, industry and the public, around the world, now place environmental protection as the driving objective, second only to the safety of life during a marine casualty response operation. The worldwide effectiveness of mechanical onwater oil recovery remains at only about 10 to 25 percent while international salvage operations prevent over million tons of pollutants from reaching the world’s oceans.

In 2020 alone, International Salvage Union (ISU) members provided 191 documented salvage services around the globe to vessels carrying a combined total of 2,538,210 tonnes of potential pollutants. More notably, between 1994 and 2020, ISU members provided casualty services to vessels carrying 36,266,570 tonnes of harmful cargo or fuel – an average of 1.4 million tonnes per year. These figures clearly demonstrate the importance of the salvor’s role in protecting the marine environment.

History of the U.S. Salvage Regulatory Framework

Salvage & Marine Firefighting Requirements in Vessel Response Plans: Recognizing the effectiveness of marine salvage industry in preventing oil pollution, the United States began implementing a series of comprehensive salvage and marine firefighting (SMFF) regulations over a decade ago in an effort to improve the nation’s environmental protection regime. Nearly 20 years after the passage of the historic Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the U.S. “amended the vessel response plan salvage and marine firefighting requirements for tank vessels carrying oil.” These new regulatory standards recognized “salvage and marine firefighting actions can save lives, property, and prevent the escalation of potential oil spills to worst case discharge scenarios” (33 CFR 155.4010). The regulations also specify planning response timeframes for SMFF services (ref. Tables 2 and 3 below), contractual requirements, and criteria