Denmark Increases Inspections of Shadow Fleet’s “Old and Worthless” Ships

Denmark announced that it will be taking further steps to reduce the dangers from “old and worthless” ships navigating through its busy sea lanes by targeting environmental inspections at one of the key anchorages in the region. It extends Denmark’s previous efforts to monitor high-risk vessels and is part of the emerging effort across the EU to target the shadow tanker fleet.

"We know that there is a lot of traffic consisting of older ships sailing through Danish waters, and they pose a particular risk to our marine environment,” said Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke. “That is why we are now tightening controls with very basic environmental rules so that we can take more effective and consistent action against tankers and the Russian shadow fleet."

Denmark highlights that several thousand ships pass through its waters each year, and a large number of them anchor in an area known as Skagen Red, at the northern tip of Denmark, as the North Sea ends on the passage toward the Baltic. It is one of the largest and busiest anchorages in the Nordic region.

The Danish Maritime Authority, in collaboration with the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, will carry out more environmental inspections of the ships to ensure that they comply with environmental regulations. They will be looking at elements including waste management, scrapping certificates, ballast water management, discharge of scrubber water, and follow fuel requirements. 

The report that more ships will be boarded while they are in the anchorage, Environmental inspections will be carried out together with port state controls. The EU has already authorized member countries to inspect documentation and demand proof of insurance from passing vessels.

"We must put an end to Putin's war machine. This also applies to the Russian shadow fleet,” said Minister of Industry and Trade Morten Bødskov. “We are using all tools. We know from our safety checks at Skagen Red that among these ships, there are old and worn-out ships sailing around. That is why our authorities are now intensifying the controls so that we look after Denmark and Danish waters."

Another part of the effort will use the so-called “sniffer” on the Great Belt Bridge. Till en end of the year, they will be measuring sulfur content in the ship’s emissions to ensure compliance with the rules of the IMO-designated SOx (Sulphur Oxide) and NOx (Nitrogen Oxide) Emission Control Area (ECA). In the past, countries in the region worked with the European Maritime Safety Agency for enforcement using sniffer drones.

The new effort follows calls last week by France’s President Emmanuel Macron to interfere with the operations of the shadow fleet. France detained a vessel suspected of operating under a false flag, holding it for nearly a week before it was released.

Russia continues to react strongly to the efforts, calling them piracy. It began escorting tankers in the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic in response to the Baltic countries' efforts to inspect shadow fleet tankers.