북서 태평양지역에서 유류유출 위험, 대비 및 대응

Abstract

In today’s world, oil spill is a major environmental problem. In total, millions of tones of oil have been spilled into the world’s oceans, resulting in enormous impacts on fisheries, wildlife and their habitats, coastal industries and tourism and even on political and social aspects, etc. Especially, the sea area of the far-eastern Asian countries was regarded as the area facing the highest risk of oil spill in the world. In fact, 16 cases for major oil spills (greater than 1,000 tons), 115 cases for intermediate spills (50 ~ 1,000 tons), and innumerous small spills (less than 50 tons) have been occurred in the area during 1990-2002. In responding to the risk of oil spill, the region has tried to develop systematic and effective national and/or regional systems on oil spill preparedness and response. Regionally, the four countries bordering the Northwest Pacific have developed effective measures for regional cooperation in marine pollution preparedness and response within the framework of the Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP) agreed in 1994 by the China, Japan, R. Korea and Russia. They have developed the NOWPAP Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan and its Memorandum of Understanding, which will be a firm foundation in our strong partnership among NOWPAP Members in the relevant field. The present paper also introduces current activities of MERRAC as a new regional initiative on marine pollution preparedness and response in the NOWPAP region, together with analysis of oil spill risk in the region and regional preparedness and response system to oil spill.