Mongabay · Climate & nature

Satellite Data Reveals Widespread Ocean Oil Pollution

Satellite imagery and machine learning have revealed that oil slicks from ships and offshore platforms cover nearly 1.6 million square kilometers of the ocean surface annually, an area larger than Mongolia.

A report by the nonprofit Skytruth, using data from 2023-2025, indicates that this pollution was largely undetectable before advanced satellite tracking.

Much of the pollution stems from bilge waste, a mixture of oil and water from ship operations, and sometimes from cargo hold washouts. These discharges are often illegal under the MARPOL treaty, which limits oil content in discharged bilge water.

Vessels are responsible for 81% of the slick area, primarily cargo ships and tankers, while oil infrastructure accounts for 18%.

Indonesian waters showed the highest number of verified slicks, followed by Malaysia, likely due to heavy shipping traffic in the Strait of Malacca.

Identifying ownership of repeat polluter vessels proved difficult, with ownership records found for only 9 out of 20 flagged ships. Companies mentioned include PT Waruna Nusa Sentana (Indonesia) and Sea Transport Services Nigeria Ltd.

The global estimate is likely an underestimate, as discharging waste at sea is often cheaper than diverting to ports with proper disposal facilities, despite the associated costs of a day at sea.

AI-samenvatting op basis van de bron.