Oil Pollution in the Dutch Sector of the North Sea

Chapter
First Online:
Part of the The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry book series (HEC, volume 41)

Abstract

Oil pollution is a serious issue in the Netherlands ever since merchant and military vessels with diesel engines gradually replaced vessels operating sails and steam engines in the early twentieth century. Arguably, the southern North Sea became one of the most heavily oil-polluted sea areas in the world as a result of chronic oil pollution. Major shipping incidents resulting in massive oil spills have, however, been rather rare within the area. In the early twenty-first century, the number of detected oil spills has markedly declined and levels of chronic oil pollution are currently rather low. Most detections of oil slicks are still concentrated around the major shipping lanes and off major ports such as Rotterdam and IJmuiden (leading to Amsterdam).

Keywords

Aerial surveillance Bonn Agreement Chronic oil pollution Historical overview Major oil spills North Sea Oil pollution Recent trends Remote sensing Shipping accidents 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank John Huisman for comments on a draft version of the present chapter.

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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Marine Ecology DepartmentRoyal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ)TexelThe Netherlands
  2. 2.Department of Economics, Tilburg School of Economics and Management (TISEM)Tilburg UniversityTilburgThe Netherlands

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