Pollution Prevention, Response and Compensation - Prevention of Pollution of the Marine Environment from Vessels - page 41

Chapter 3
Pollution Prevention, Response
and Compensation

3.1 Introduction

A large number of international legal instruments have been adopted under the
auspices of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in the six decades since
its inception in 1958. In this chapter, IMO legal instruments relating to pollution
prevention, response and compensation will be covered. As observed in Chap. 1 ,
the most important of these legal instruments is the International Convention for the
Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL 73/78 Convention) 1 ; and it is this
Convention which will be the main focus for this chapter. A brief description of the
IMO liability and compensation conventions will be provided, while a brief over-
view of Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSA) and IMO legal instruments related
to oil pollution preparedness, response, co-operation and intervention will also be
presented. Emerging issues like vessel antifouling, ballast water, reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions from ships and recycling of ships will be covered in
the subsequent chapters.
Regulations covering the various sources of ship-generated pollution are
contained in the six Annexes of MARPOL and are updated regularly. Annexes I
and II, governing oil and chemicals, are compulsory but Annexes III-VI on
packaged materials, sewage, garbage and air pollution are optional. 2 The Annexes
of the MARPOL 73/78 Convention can be amended through the

tacit acceptance

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