The Turkish Administration has rearranged the fines for environmental pollution. Some readers may remember, that fines used to be undifferentiated and thus for small vessels extremely stiff and actually deterring them from visiting Turkish waters.

New information announced by the Ministry for Forestry and Environment differentiates according to the type of pollution and according to the gross tonnage of the vessel. Also, should the pollutant clear the pollution by their own means the fine is reduced significantly, encouraging vessels to clean up inadvertent pollution?

As an example, a large yacht, say a 90 feet sailing vessel with 73 gross tons, can be fined up to a maximum of 730 Euros by the new regulations.

According to the Ministry’s official Circular:

“In sea areas under national sovereignty, and in areas under national jurisdiction, and in waters interconnected with these, in natural and manmade lakes and dams and rivers … Ships and other vessels, discarding mineral oil derivatives (bilge, sludge, slop, fuel, oil contaminated waste etc.) or dirty ballast to be fined:

• 20 YTL per gross tonnage for vessels up to 1000 gross tons inclusive

Tankers, ships and other sea vessels discharging solid waste or household waste to be fined:

• 10 YTL per gross tonnage for vessels up to 1000 gross tons inclusive

If determined that the ship or sea vessel having caused the pollution has removed the pollution by her own means, the fine will be applied by 1/3 only.”

The payment of fines has to be, however, on the spot:

“Vessels will be handed over to the nearest Harbour Authority and will be banned from navigation, should the fine not be paid immediately and in a single installment or if no security can be provided. A letter of credit by a bank or by the club insurer of the ship will be honored.”

Important: The information above has been put together with care. However, yachtWORKS and the author will not assume any responsibility arising from inaccuracies in this information, which, by its very nature may also get outdated within time. Interested parties are strongly advised to seek up to date information prior to any action.

Yusuf Civelekoglu

yachtWORKS

http://www.yachtworks.info