A letter from our founder, John Amos
The trends aren’t encouraging: Industrialization, urban development, deforestation, overfishing, mining and pollution are accelerating the rate of global warming and damaging ecosystems around the world. The pace of environmental destruction has never been as great as it is today. Despite this grim assessment, I believe there’s reason to be hopeful for a brighter future.
This is the third entry in a multi-part series revealing the significance of bilge dumping globally. You can read parts one and two on SkyTruth’s blog.
Today, ninety percent of international trade relies on global shipping. From commercial to passenger vessels the world’s global fleet exceeds 95,402 ships plus around 2.8 million fishing vessels. With all this ocean traffic occurring every day, SkyTruth has been monitoring the oceans for bilge dumping; the illegal discharge of oily wastewater at sea. In this post, we explore regulations governing bilge dumping and consider why this practice is so widespread, despite these regulations.
Bilge dumping in Southeast Asia continues in 2020
/in Bilge Dumping, See it, Change it /by Matthew IbarraSoutheast Asia appears to be a hotspot for bilge dumping.
SkyTruth continues to find frequent instances of apparent bilge dumping in the waters of Southeast Asia. On March 23, Sentinel-1 imagery captured three likely bilge slicks off the coast of Madura Island in Indonesia.