Responsibilities, duties, obligations and liabilities in respect of pollution

The Call at 0300

You are Master of a 2,400 GT superyacht, 40 miles off the French Riviera coast. Your Chief Engineer calls: the main bilge pump has been running continuously; there is a slow fuel oil leak from a fractured injector return line that has contaminated the bilge spaces. He estimates 200 litres of oily bilge water has accumulated. The 15 ppm separator is functional. He wants to know if he can discharge. You are the one who decides — and you are the one liable.

The Master's Legal Position

Pollution obligations rest on the Master personally, not the company, not the OOW, not the Chief Engineer. Under MARPOL, the ISM Code, and UK domestic law (Merchant Shipping Act 1995 and associated regulations), the Master is the competent authority on board. A decision to discharge, or a failure to prevent an unlawful discharge, can attract criminal liability, civil claims, port State detention, and flag State action against the Master's CoC.

The company's DOC and the vessel's SMC do not transfer personal criminal liability away from the Master.

MARPOL Annex I — Discharge Standards

At 2,400 GT this vessel is under 400 GT, which means:

• No oil filtering equipment is required by Regulation 14
• Regulation 15.6 applies: oily bilge water must be retained on board and discharged to reception facilities ashore
• You cannot lawfully pump bilge water overboard, even if it were below 15 ppm, because the regulation 15 en route discharge provision (15 ppm via approved equipment, outside special areas, under way, not from cargo pump-room bilges) only applies to ships fitted with the required equipment that meet the carriage threshold

You are also in, or approaching, MARPOL Annex I Special Area waters (the Mediterranean). In a Special Area, Annex I discharge is prohibited regardless of equipment status. Your answer to the Chief Engineer is: no discharge.

Obligations Flowing from That Decision

Record it. The Oil Record Book (ORB) — Part I for machinery space operations — is not required for a vessel under 400 GT, but your SMS should require operational records. Any relevant retention or transfer of oily residues must be documented in whatever record system the SMS mandates.

Notify if necessary. Any actual overboard discharge — accidental or otherwise — triggers a duty to report under MARPOL Article 8 and Protocol I, and under UK national law to the MCA via the relevant coastguard MRCC. The Master makes that report. Failure to report is itself an offence.

Manage the immediate situation. Isolate the source, increase monitoring, and plan to pump to a holding tank or arrange a port reception facility at the next port of call. Document every step in the deck and engine log.

Port State Control. PSC officers can inspect ORBs, records, and bilge spaces. Discrepancies between recorded quantities and physical evidence — pump running hours, bilge levels, tank soundings — are a primary indicator of illegal discharge and routinely result in detention and prosecution.

Duties, Obligations, Liabilities — the Examiner's Framework

The Master cannot delegate away personal liability by saying "the Chief Engineer told me it was fine." Command responsibility means the decision — and the consequences — are yours.