The world took notice and action when the oil tanker Prestige sank and leaked oil onto the coast of Spain and France. Significant resources and considerable money was allocated to locate the wreck, patch the leaks and eventually offload the remaining oil. What is not well known, is that there is a significantly larger global marine pollution threat from over 7800 sunken WWII vessels worldwide, including over 860 oil tankers, corroding for over 60 years at the bottom of the worlds oceans.Over the past three years, in conjunction with the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), a project has been completed by the author to compile data on WWII shipwrecks across the Asia/Pacific region. This regional risk assessment is probably the first and most complete of its type so far published.The Geographic Information System (GIS) database created for the Asia Pacific waters details ship type, tonnage and location of over 3,800 vessels lost in WWII. This amounts to over 13 million tons of sunken vessels in the Pacific alone ranging from aircraft carriers to battleships, and including over 330 tankers and oilers.The creation of the Asia Pacific database acted as a catalyst to the creation of the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean (AMIO) WWII shipwreck database. This new geographic database, although still in its initial development, highlights the significant number of WWII shipwrecks globally. The AMIO database details the location and ownership of over 3950 vessels, over 1000 tons, of which 529 are oil tankers.Manuscript Control Number: 93 -1 -This paper details the information contained within the AMIO WWII shipwreck database including the potential oil and non-oil sources of marine pollution from these vessels. WWII shipwrecks are unique from commercial and non-military shipwrecks due to sovereignty, jurisdictional and ownership issues and these differences will also be discussed. The paper concludes with a summary for future directions to address the many response and preparedness issues associated with WWII shipwrecks.
Expert systems are computer programs that emulate a human expert's decision-making process in a particular domain of knowledge. Over 15,000 expert systems have been developed around the world for assistance over a wide range of topics and subjects. Expert systems are seen as having a dual use as they assist in the training of individuals in a particular subject, and they also offer fast, effective on-the-spot advice in the form of easy to answer questions. Oil spill response requires highly technical training and specialized knowledge. Several expert systems have been created to assist responders in the event of an oil spill and subjects have included beach cleanup, in situ burning of oil, protecting sensitive shorelines and the use of dispersants among others. However, none of the published oil spill response expert systems to date have incorporated how to effectively sample an oil spill, and yet the sampling of an oil spill needs to adhere to strict legal, International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) protocols in order to produce accurate and defensible data. The correct assimilation of data from oil spill response ensures that the responsible party/parties can be identified and are held accountable for any environmental damage that the spill has caused. The authors have recognized the gap in sampling guidance within all the available Oil Spill Response expert systems worldwide and therefore have created the Oil Spill Sampling Advisor or (OSSA) expert system through Leeder Consulting in Australia. The OSSA expert system is the first of its kind; a unique system to train and assist responders and pollution investigators with how to successfully take samples that will produce legally defensible data before, during and after an oil spill. For many small or developing countries (or ships at sea), it is not only highly impractical but also too costly to bring in sampling experts every time a spill occurs. As a result, if the responsible party has not been identified, the costs of cleanup and the environmental burden are frequently left for governments to bear. However, the new OSSA expert system provides a cost-effective means to help find oil spill polluters so that they can be responsible for paying the costs of cleanup. The OSSA expert system assists with training people to collect defensible forensic evidence, and it also provides on-the-spot information and advice to anyone having to collect an urgent spill sample. This includes all the necessary forms to be printed and filled out in order to ensure legal defensibility of the samples and resulting analytical data. Operating from a CD-ROM or an onboard ship laptop computer, OSSA is completely portable and accessible anywhere in the world at any time. This paper covers the advantages, disadvantages and common misconceptions of expert systems in the field of oil spill response. It also addresses how expert systems can be used as teaching tools and the unique framework utilized by Leeder Consulting in the creation of the OSSA expert system.
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