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The total number of surveillance flight hours in the Baltic Sea dropped again in 2014 according to the annual Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) report on aerial surveillance entitled 'Annual report on Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission Discharges observed during aerial surveillance in the Baltic Sea 2014'. Compared to the average total number of flight hours in 2000-2013, the decrease is 20 percent.

According to HELCOM, there is a risk that the declined amount of time in the air of surveillance planes impairs the reliability of information on detected spills from ships in the Baltic, compiled by HELCOM since 1988.

The number of mineral oil spills in 2014 was the lowest ever recorded in the Baltic Sea at 117 spills, indicating a continuous decreasing trend in oil spills. The focus of the recent report is on detected illegal spills of mineral oil, as HELCOM helps to monitor any violations on the existing regulations on prevention of pollution from ships. However, for the first time in 2014, the HELCOM Member States also reported spills of other detected substances as included in the report. Oil but also many other substances released from ships are a potential threat to the marine environment.

The size of the spills has also decreased in the past 15 years. In 2014, out of all the 117 mineral oil discharges detected in 2014, 109 (93 percent) were smaller than 1 cubic metre (cbm), and of these oil spills as many as 94 were even smaller than 0.1 cbm (100 litres).

In a vast majority of cases of detected discharges, in 2014 and in previous years, polluters remain unknown.

HELCOM has collected information since 1988 from all the Baltic coastal countries on aerial surveillance to detect spills of oil and other harmful substances.

Further information on the detections can be found in the latest report, for instance, about the location, type, size, annual changes in the Pollution per Flight Hour (PF) Index as well as satellite detections.

A link to the report has been provided below.

Annual report on Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission Discharges observed during aerial surveillance in the Baltic Sea 2014.