Experts from China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Russia, and representatives from international organizations and research institutes met online, exploring the cooperation in identifying pollution sources through oil fingerprinting and addressing illegal discharge of pollutants from ships on 5 and 6 July 2021.
The oil fingerprinting analysis could help identify sources of oil spills in the marine environment by comparing the chemical compositions of samples from spills with those of suspected sources.
On 5 July 2021, experts in the meeting introduced oil fingerprinting-related laws, regulations, standards, institutions, technics in the Northwest Pacific region. They have also discussed the forensic methodology and laboratory procedure for identifying oil spillage.
It was suggested: 1) building up a network of experts and institutions on oil fingerprinting in the region, 2) facilitating information exchange among the Members States and identifying opportunities of regional cooperation on oil fingerprinting matter including cross-validation activities, 3) exploring the possibility of establishing harmonized procedures/guidelines on oil fingerprinting in the region.
On 6 July 2021, the meeting introduced the international and national regulations and penalties related to the illegal discharge of pollutants from ships of NOWPAP Member states. Monitoring of illegal discharge by satellite and detection by aircraft were also discussed in the meeting. The participants have shared statistics of marine pollution accidents in the NOWPAP region in the meeting. The meeting agreed to develop a project proposal on this issue.
The expert group meetings were organized by the Marine Environmental Emergency Preparedness and Response Regional Activity Centre (MERRAC) of NOWPAP.
