An Investigation to Quantify the Applicability of MARPOL Rules in the Northern Ports of Cyprus

The northern coasts of Cyprus island in the Eastern Mediterranean, are polluted by activities such as growing maritime transportation, recreational usage and tourism activities, conseutively deteriorating marine habitats and disturbing ecosystems. With the enforcement of MARPOL Convention in 1983, a reduction of marine pollution has been observed in all seas and ports of the countries that have accepted it. However, due to the increasing number of ships and growing maritime trade, number of negligences grew, so there was an increase in marine pollution again. Prevention of marine pollution is one of the most important goals of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) which is the enforcing body of MARPOL. The aim of this paper is to investigate and quantify the preventions and precautions practiced in the northern coasts of the Cyprus island. Rules and regulations on marine pollution related subjects, which the ships are held responsible are studied and a questionnaire which covers all relevant and correspondent MARPOL rules is applied to all ships using the northern ports. Results revealed that despite most of the ship practices are satisfactory; many improvements can still be made.