Bilge dumping: The worst pollution you've never heard of

Vessels continue to pollute the world's oceans with oily wastewater. A DW investigation shows how seafarers circumvent environmental laws to save time and money, with devastating effects.
Investigation by: Naomi Conrad, Max Bernhard, Julia Bayer, Nina Werkhäuser
Video by: Christian Caurla
3D animations by: Martyna Marciniak
Supervising editors: Joanna Gottschalk, Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann, Kiyo Dörrer
Joint collaboration with Lighthouse reports and IRPI, Expresso, El Diario, BIRN, Libertatae, Trow, The Guardian & Jutarnji List
We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our channel explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world - and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.
#PlanetA #BilgeDumping #OilPollution
Read more:
DW investigation - www.dw.com/en/exclusive-cargo...
Skytruth satellite images - skytruth.org/bilge/
Environmental impact - wwf.ca/wp-content/uploads/202...
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:15 What is bilge dumping
01:56 Environmental impact
02:40 Satellite investigation
06:35 Coastguard inspection
08:39 Whistleblowers
10:23 Conclusion

[@freedomofspeech3485]

Salute to the whistleblower, the bravery, the humanity, the intelligence, he has it all.

[@Gabriel-fw2mj]

Seriously. I was just thinking about how selfless of an action it is to speak up about something like this. It really kind of ascends normal humanity.

[@hydrolifetech7911]

That is one noble person and I am a little more hopeful for us humans because of people like him. I also think they should be a way to incentivize whistle-blowers instead of letting them shoulder all the risks associated with their acts

[@Ezekiel903]

sad that nobody cares about this people, and when it comes to money, we are always able to find a found to support war effort, but when it comes to this issue, no money, no equipment and police personal available!!

[@0xsergy]

and unfortunately he'll have personal repercussions.. because of giant corporations hiding their crimes. life is fair, right?

[@daviddemeij]

Agree, we need €1M+ prizes for whistleblowers that can be provide conclusive evidence. Can be paid out of the €10 million fine we should put on these environmental crimes.

[@adr2567]

There’s always something horrible that rest of us aren’t even aware of and there will be abuses like this. Really unfortunate, thanks for bringing this forward via your investigation. Hope more focus is made on eliminating dumping.

[@joshuaoha]

We can do it! With scientists observing the horrible thing happening, journalists reporting on the horrible thing, and governments holding the perpetrators to accountable. We've done it before with the ozone hole layer, and acid rain, and leaded gas. (i'm trying to be less cynical)

[@garyp4374]

people need to stop buying this rubbish from China which all has to come via this method this is the message we need to be getting out stop buying plastic toys and unecessary items from China and the environment will fix itself on many different levels

[@TheCongra]

Couldn't the process of legally dumping bilge water once in the harbor be reviewed? So for example, the Port Harbormasters will document when a vessel is dumping bilge water. This gets uploaded online, someone monitors the vessels and their legal dumping. If they end up never dumping at a Port, something is off and they must be doing it at sea.

[@robotnikkkk001]

=LAWS OF PHYSIC DO NOT OBEY ANYONE'S WILL,DO YOU KNOW THIS,NO?????IF YES,WHERE'S THE PROBLEM?? .......THERE'S NO WAY ABOUT THESE OPERATIONS CANNOT BE DONE JUST BECAUSE OF THE NATURE OF SHIPPING ITSELF....AS IT MUST BE DONE OR EVERYTHING WILL BE BROKEN,BUT IT'S NOWHERE TO GO AS IT IS JUST AT THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE =BY THE WAY THESE DUMPINGS BEING SO HAZARDOUS DO NI=OT MEAN ABOUT SOMETHING'S WRONG,IT'S JUST NORMAL OPERATING CYCLE .............SO..........IT'S LIKE DECLARE THAT NO WAY ABOUT TO SHOOT DEATH ANYONE WHO WOULD MAKE A PISS FOR 24 HOURS.................SO........EVERYONE'S TO BE SHOT DEAD,RIGHT?????OR IF 1ST STAGE IS DONE,THEN SURVIVORS TO HOLD FOR 48 HOURS,RIGHT?????WITH THE SAME REPEATING WHEN NOBODY WILL LEFT,RIGHT????? ...............ARE YOU TO BAN ALL KINDS OF SHIPPING AT ALL,RIGHT???????.........AND DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU'LL DIE FROM HUNGER IN POVERTY AS THE RESULT OF IT???????????????AS THERE'D BE JUST A MEDIEVAL AND IT'S PRETTY MUCH DOUBTFUL THAT YOU'D SURVIVE AT THESE HARSH CONDITIONS AS RATE OF MORTALITY AT THESE TIMES WAS WAY TOO HIGH......................AND DONT FORGET ABOUT MEDICINES AS WELL..............THERE WONT BE ANY AS WELL =................SO,AS YOU SEE,THERE'S MUCH MORE COMPLICATED PROBLEM INDEED

[@mattheww.6232]

​@@TheCongra You're thinking of this in a western lens. Most of the world still just dumps oil, toxic waste, sewage, garbage, plastics, etc. into rivers and the oceans. Bilge water would be a tiny and unnoticeable part of that and ships need to be built specifically to have dry bilges.

[@ThingEngineer]

My whole life I’ve always cringed at even the thought of throwing a gum wrapper out the car window. This practice is so disrespectful and makes me sick to even think about it.

[@Diana1000Smiles]

Me, too. I go a little crazy watching others dump their fastfood garbage on the roads, too.

[@laraynaa8456]

YES!!! I thought i was the only one!

[@elanlynn5973]

But, when “throwing out a gum wrapper” can save you thousands of dollars, you may think twice. Money is always at play.

[@ThingEngineer]

@@elanlynn5973 Depends on your values.

[@ThingEngineer]

@@laraynaa8456 Nope, it's just not a "cool" popular ideal so no one admits it.

[@AuthenticArtworks]

It is horrifying to see our planet to get worse, even after all these years of water pollution. We haven't seem to learn anything from it and still keep going like there is a Planet B. Thanks for building awareness on this topic. Without the ocean there is no us.

[@GreenDolphinProject]

Honestly, it's amazing there's any life left in the ocean after everything that we do to it.

[@NurdRage777]

Money moves mountains.. Toxic profits...

[@richardmccann4815]

Reactor 4 at Fukushima. And reactor 3 was running MOX fuel, illegal in the US and Canada! The pacific ocean I'd 95% dead, due to radioactive pollution from the reactors and decades of spent fuel lost in the explosions and meltdowns. I am reminded of Revelations, the 4th horseman has poured his vial. Sayonara!

[@AuthenticArtworks]

@@bryannonya9769 I am working with organizations on a daily basis (filmmaking & graphics design). I create content for foundations to promote ongoing campaings that help people in need, restore our planet, protect animals like orangutans and much more. Yes there is lots of false information going around the internet and therefore it is recommended to not just trust something on the internet right away, always check sources and get different opinions. DW meanwhile provides you with realistic and authentic information. It is one of the best broadcast producer beside many others in Germany. There is a huge difference between "news" that are just meant to go viral and news that actually speak the truth like this video does for example. Sometimes the truth is so painful that not all of the footage is for the public eye. I saw things when editing that made me cry. So you really want to make a change to all of this. If you see it from first hands, there is no better Source then. Have a great day!

[@jon_s]

Welcome to Western Civilization. But you don't see the part you play in the mess when you walk in a supermarket and pick up a product that was shipped from 10,000 miles away

[@nkanyisoinnocentkhwane3752]

This is an excellent investigation. It never ceases to shock me how deplorable companies behave out of sheer greed to save money 💰

[@ThomasBomb45]

It's what corporations are made for. That's why workers and communities need to stand up to them

[@PG-3462]

@@ThomasBomb45 The only thing companies do, is produce what consumers want to purchase. There is in reality a duality: quantity or quality. As we speak, people unfortunately prefer quantity over quality. In order to produce more, the economy has to spend less resources in other areas; and this is what leads to massive pollution. How could companies protect the environment, while at the same time people want some cheap stuff delivered right infront of their house as quickly as possible? People are purchasing SUVs always bigger, homes always bigger, people take the airplane always more often, eat always more industrially produced food, Amazon's sales are increasing, and the list can go on. We all need to make efforts for pollution to be reduced. You can start by consuming more intelligently and by encouraging smaller businesses in your area.

[@stuartd9741]

@@PG-3462 I partially agree. I do think it's unfair to wholeheartedly blame consumers for inefficient & polluting practices of a corporation - the buying public have no control over them processes. I agree these corporations are producing supply to a demand. Yet I for one do not want cheap cerape coming form eastern asia that lasts literally 5 minutes then falls apart....useless. ... Consumer products must have a minimum 20 year lifecycle or have parts that can be interchangeable & used elsewhere. I blame the onset of the i phone in 2008, & Amazon creating instant (purchasing) gratification. .. With the regard to the latter. The Amazon business model is not necessarily a bad thing if the goods dispatched are of good quality & recyclable. Yet alot of Amazon sellers are out to make a quick buck and sell cheap cerape - that is useless. The answer as stated above, is for a minimum quality & lifecycle of goods/products. One may argue people wouldn't be able to afford such goods. Then that would suggest consumer taxes are too high - which is a conversation for another day.....

[@PG-3462]

@@stuartd9741 You must not forget that behind every business, there are normal humans just like you and me who are taking all decisions and developping all products. What we can say is that the way corporations act reflects how the majority of people think. Unfortunately, there still is a major share of the population who still denies climate change and all the pollution problems we have, and there is another massive share of the population which agrees there are problems, but don't want to make any single effort to change their lifestyle. The increase of the sales of big 4x4 SUVs, of Amazon's sales and of the number of flight tickets sold are a proof of this. If everyone actually wanted to take care of the environment, then problems like the one in this video would never happen, because corporations' decision makers would technically want to take care of the environment as well, but that's not where we are unfortunately 😂 If many modern cheap products fall appart quickly, it's because consumers aren't willing to sacrifice the quantity of what they consume. As a result, companies use cheaper materials and faster production methods which cause more defects. In the end, pollution can only be reduced if two things happen: 1) Consumers agree to change their lifestyle 2) Existing businesses and new businesses created by normal people just like you and me develop alternatives which will help the average person to live while having a smaller impact on the environment. Blaming the government or the economic system won't solve any problem, as the government is way too big to find actual solutions to all the problems we have. The government also can't do anything if people aren't willing to change.

[@FlyingDwarfman]

@@PG-3462 There is another factor in that companies can directly and indirectly influence what consumers *are able* to purchase. They are not merely capable of acquiescing to consumer demands. If the only homes being built are bigger on smaller plots (because home area compared to plot area most greatly increases the profit margin on sales), the market for smaller homes disappears. If real estate agencies advertise those properties that yield the highest margin the most, consumers either A) don't realize the smaller homes exist, B) become convinced that they want the bigger homes or C) some of both. If the real estate companies lobby the government to cut regulations on new home laws (those setting percentage of subsidized homes, their max cost and minimum quality, plus borrower-friendly loans), consumer power, and with it the free market, dissolves. The auto industry has been following a very similar path with the tech for mass-produced, consumer-level EVs having been around for nearly 30 years, but with the companies having the power to choose what to give the consumers -- even when the consumers want something different. Planes? The biggest issue there is the absence of rail infrastructure. That travelling plane is cheaper, faster and more convenient than rail for US domestic trips when the opposite is true for comparable -- *and greater* -- distances elsewhere in the world is... embarrassing... What's the biggest reason for the lack of rail infrastructure in North America? The air travel industry's lobbying efforts. This is far beyond an issue of individual responsibility implied by "You can start by consuming more intelligently..." People haven't been allowed to consume more intelligently. We need to collectivize citizen power beyond that of being individual consumers.

[@gregdekkers2667]

In my 15 years at sea I never worked on a single ship where we performed illegal discharge of bilges. It seems a more common practice with questionable companies. I'm a Chief Engineer now and anyone illegally pumping bilges overboard can expected to be fired on the spot. If a company would pressure me into these practices I'd resign.

[@patrickghostwolf]

Glad you're one of the good ones, Greg. Seems like this is a massive systemic problem that affects the whole industry. Any ideas how they could stop it from happening on a large scale?

[@ma61king]

Yeah but we all know which major country is the chief offender here, and English isn't their official language

[@seastate1277]

but do you know what your engineering watchkeepers are doing on the backwatch? A lot goes on while while the chief is in his rack

[@helpyourself2123]

What a great shameless lier you are. I’m a former mariner and I know how things work in reality.

[@dudeonbike800]

But you admit your ship burned bunker fuel, right? The dirtiest, filthiest fuel there is! And they STILL burn this garbage, unabated by the billions of gallons every year. So even if you were running a "tight ship," you were still contributing to endless pollution and petroleum consumption. And then there's the economic destruction of the US economy that's involved in globalization. Americans have decided that trading economic prosperity for its citizens is worth cheap consumer goods. The homeless shitting on your street are the result of globalization and then social Darwinism and the "free market" decimating people. We COULD have addressed the problem, but the right wing thinks bootstraps are the solution. The shipping industry only enabled this disaster, economically and environmentally.

[@mithunnair8587]

Didn't knew such a thing existed in the first place, thank you for making people aware ❤️

[@QueTheSacred]

Very grateful there are even just a few people with courage in their hearts too look out for the voiceless, you are appreciated

[@SaveMoneySavethePlanet]

I work in manufacturing in California and I can assure you that companies only care about the environment when they’re forced to. Our EHS guy regularly tells people “you can’t do this again because an auditor might see you and we would get shut down!” It’s not about doing the right thing; it’s about continuing to make money. So activities like this are incredibly important! Thanks for keeping them honest and keeping our oceans clean!

[@kasimirb5155]

The same everywhere. It's not: "Hey, don't do this. It's bad for the environment and for all of us." It's: "Hey, don't do this! We could get caught!" As long as people don't understand and experience the consequences of their behavior, they won't change it.

[@vanessali1365]

What's the chance of being caught? Company/shipowners will always take the risk of being caught because it still pays after fines. We need legislation to deregister repeating offenders. Globalization of trading was never a good idea in the first place.

[@Moses_VII]

@@vanessali1365 Problem is that the economy of food and consumer goods relies on overseas imports nowadays. Even in the Middle Ages, wheat was transported on ships. That's how companies get away. Only hydrogen fuel ships could be a solution.

[@vanessali1365]

@@Moses_VII I do understand certain goods/foods have to be imported simply because availability .... but globalization of trading treat everything the same .... I do agree with you that we do urgently have to look at our fuel source as how to power our houses, cars, ships...

[@SaveMoneySavethePlanet]

@@vanessali1365 yup I definitely agree. Like the video says, we need to make the satellite imagery enough to convict as well. Otherwise the fines simply become “the cost of doing business.”

[@JohnJaggerJack]

The worst part about this situation is that there is no "whistle-blower" protection, you come forth and out some company, not only you get fired you also get blacklisted in the job-market.

[@Hate_wagon]

Money needs to be offered to them as incentive and compensation... See greenpeace do that instead of another pointless marketing campaign

[@puppeli]

Have the fines be big enough that you can easily pay the whistleblowers enough to retire completely.

[@eromod]

No, that's not the worst part because that's compelled labour. It's like not having the seperation of powers in government.

[@Linkoid]

Not true. There are cases where whistleblowers get something in return. See the case of Carnival Corp where they were found guilty for such practice and the whistleblower got rewarded with over 1 million dollars.

[@PlaySA]

Exactly. Bounties must be paid and they should have the ability to sue if they are discriminated against in hiring. Either that or they should be able to give their statement with their identity known only to the court.

[@mathijsvermeij4152]

I sailed on cruiseships, we had strict rules and bilge pumps were locked and every possible way out of the ship was also locked. Multiple persons were needed to unlock. Intensify inspection helps hopefully

[@mathijsvermeij4152]

The data from the separators is also recorded and can not be changed by personnel

[@fredericoamigo]

Fantastic journalism! Brilliant vid! Keep up the good work!

[@whanethewhip]

When I was in the Navy, this happened all the time. I told everyone I knew during my enlistment and for years after. The navy is permitted to dump bilge waste at sea, provided they are 50 miles away from shoreline, or at least that's what the law was back then. However, the Navy often dumps bilge waste within 50 miles of the shoreline and often times even when pier side. It's all due to pure laziness and *visual* inspection standards... there isn't supposed to be a build up of bilge waste and when a Chief or Senior Chief sees it, they tell someone within their division to "handle" it. This gets passed down the ranks until you have some E3 or E4 on the engineering midwatch and then he simply turns on the bilge pump in the middle of the night and lets it run for an hour or two. Essentially, the oceans and ports are getting polluted by the USN because someone wants to look good in the eyes of their commanding officers for having clean bilges.

[@jacoblima2242]

I wouldn't be surprised if the USCG does the same from my experience with them as a merchant mariner.

[@denisl2760]

Same experience. Machinist's Mate for 5 years. That was the worst part of the job to be honest. The illegal orders where they don't literally tell you to do anything illegal, but you're expected to read between the lines and "take care of it". And do it discreetly because if you get caught, its on you, the higher ups will let you take the fall and wash their hands clean of you. Not just dumping bilge, also dumping trash, gundecking logs and maintenance, being asleep on watch, etc.

[@ryangale8736]

Idk my experience with the USN was different. No one pumped overboard ever while in port. Bilge tanks would overflow all the time and they closed the heads to avoid overfilling the sanitary tanks but no one pumped into a port. It got to the point where the toilets said “if it’s yellow let it mellow if it’s brown flush it down” that’s how much they hated pumping. That was the sub fleet tho idk what the surface fleet does.

[@denisl2760]

@@ryangale8736 Depends on the individual ship really. I've been on ships where everything is by the book, and ships (usually older ships) where cutting corners was common and expected.

[@RDKirbyN]

The US military is by far the largest polluter of the planet

[@shazam6926]

It is despicable how these companies do this with no regard to oceanic life. This also harms the planet and our future generations.

[@christianhorner001]

The biggest culprit is China unfortunately. And the world is too weak to stand up to its abuses.

[@ducky8088]

It’s not as simple as you think. If you’ve ever manned an engineering space on a ship you’d understand,

[@nu-world]

@@ducky8088 responsible ships can manage their waste systems, why can't others?

[@venturevlogz]

Money greed forsaken the moral

[@ducky8088]

@@nu-world join the navy and find out why. It’s a complex discussion that can’t be held through text and reach any meaningful understanding.

[@he3004]

I love how all ships have a built in oily water seperator, a simple pump coming out from the bottom of the ship can easily dump just the oily part at the ground where it can be stored somewhere it wouldn't cause much harm

[@qbasic16]

07:34

[@Ninjaeule97]

That's already what they are doing. Unfortunately it costs them time to empty that tank that's why they are illegally circumventing that system. Didn't you watch the video?

[@RigidRecords69]

I went on a cruise ship once and was shocked at the amount of oily wastewater was trailing behind the ship.

[@zakosist]

If you see that again, make sure to report it. Record it so you have evidence

[@hoale811]

Dont go on cruise ships! Its the worth.

[@zakosist]

@@hoale811 Get your point but realistically people just won't stop going there on large enough scale. Its best if someone who either way goes there keeps and eye on the crew committing possible crimes and actually record and report it. That could make more changes in total than that one person dropping to go there all together, while lots of other people still do

[@mattboney6284]

I very much doubt a cruise line would deliberately take such a risk with several thousands potential whistleblowers onboard... The few stupid ones which tried something like that were caught and had to manage a PR shitstorm which is the last thing they want. That said there are some liquid wastes offload that are perfectly legal at some distance from the shore (grey waters, ballasts, food wastes...), which can be mistaken for illegal offloads. Then there is as well the propellers effect in shallow waters which shake the sand and create a brownish trail behind the vessel, often mistaken as well for an offload. Newer cruise ships are build very expensive state of the art water treatment facilities onboard and would have no interest in not using them...

[@AppleiReviewer]

Here’s a simplistic idea… charge a fee for the service automatically upon leaving port so that the ship is incentivized to use what they’ve paid for when they arrive. If it’s also a time thing, then allow them to get a rebate once the service is performed at the destination port, or if it’s just laziness, charge them a fee for not performing the service because they would’ve dumped in the ocean. Also seems like a great business to have a company that does “mobile” cleaning so it doesn’t slow down their trip or layover at port.

[@callumbmx9763]

You sir are one very smart son of a b*tch.

[@drinductor8150]

That's the only realistic idea I've seen in this thread. +1

[@Esablaka]

The Bilge tanks do not have to be emptied every time a ship docks at a port. Especially more modern and well maintained vehicles produce way less of this spill waste as it's usually a result of poor maintenance and then leaks from the engines, pipes etc.. Charging the ships for emptying their bilge tanks and disposal of theoretical waste seems kind of weird if a ship might not have full bilge tank at all.

[@AppleiReviewer]

@@Esablaka That’s good to know! Maybe an adjustment can be made, so when you reach port and if everything looks in good shape you can be on your way and get a refund for services not rendered? Full disclosure I know nothing about bilge tanks aside from the information found in this video, so my suggestions may not address the full scope of the issue.

[@MegaJuniorJones]

Yup that’s one approach that wouldnwork

[@Parker07ification]

I used to work as a seafarer and it came to my suprise when I found out that they do this frequently like it's a normal thing. I worked on the bridge but sometimes I do deck duties and one time our chief mate ordered us to throw the garbages into the ocean because they're gonna have a problem with the amount of garbage that we're gonna unload on port so they decided to throw it into the ocean, just wow. Like the whistle-blower said "it is expected that everyone will participate in it". They threw a lot that I could not imagine how much more ships are doing the same thing. Not to mention they also burned plastics on board. One time we threw spoiled food at the ocean so I tried to separate the food from the plastic packaging, I did it successfully however one of my mates saw the plastics piled up, he picked it up and threw it in the ocean. The 1st captain tolerated it, the 2nd captain was strict about it so they did it behind his back. The Marine Pollution subject that we studied and trained for was all for formality, including the certificates on board.

[@tmarritt]

Yeah I got asked to throw buckets of oily rags over board as a cadet, I just laughed in the blokes face and said "no way" I had a decent education and knew the consequences not just for the environment but the criminal prosecution I could face. About an hour later I find one of the Indian oilers dumping them straight over.

[@pairojeans]

Don't know where you worked but 33 years experience, and I have never made any illegal discharge from any ship I have been on. You have bad officers and employers my friend.

[@arthurl8007]

Hello reading the comments, I noticed that some of you are from the marine environment. If this is your case you can surely help me& I am currently thinking about my future studies and it might be in the merchant navy. I have a few questions that I can't find answers to like. Is it possible to have a family life? How long do we usually leave? What are the career developments? (reconversions / possibilities ashore in particular) How long do we come back to dry land afterwards? Are there bonuses given that we are not at home? What do you think of the job? How is life on board, isn't it too monotonous? Etc Thanks very much

[@MegaJuniorJones]

What’s the benefit of throwing it overboard and not at port?

[@tmarritt]

@@MegaJuniorJones it costs to get rid of it at port, you also get a fine if its on board. You can burn it if you are outside boarders or protected areas, but often you can be sailing through those areas for days, or perhaps someone was just forgetful or lazy.

[@bagybachi]

Thanks for sharing this. Awareness is the first step to stop these self damaging habits. Five times the equivalent of the Exxon spill…. And it is a recurrent thing. Unbelievable. We have to compute the penalties into the cost of shipping. This has a cost. Someone has to pay for it.

[@tannerscott9740]

This is true investigative journalism! Great job!

[@archangel3237]

Put a sensor in the bilge tanks that detects the level at all times, and have the data in a black box only accessible to the authorities at ports. If the data shows the bilge tank went down significantly or at all during transit you know they dumped. Not perfect, but would help I think

[@TheLaXandro]

Or just make them sign paperwork about bilge safely discharged at harbor.

[@tomporter8849]

Not sure that would work given that proper procedure is to dump the bilge water at sea but after filtration. You need a device that caches samples of the bilge outlet to check the cleanliness.

[@absoluteterritory4601]

@@tomporter8849 it's called "oily water separator"

[@Bash0rz]

@@TheLaXandro you have to write pretty much everything to do with fuel, sludge and bilge in the oil record book already.

[@KubaJ100]

All pumps, electric eq and other machinery on the ships are run using computer interface with permanent log of any actions. Starting/stopping of pumps, oil-water separators etc. are all logged. I think regular (yearly?) audit should be enough to strongly discourage any monkey business.

[@-zorkaz-5493]

Something I find particularly worrying about this kind of report is this: the practice was outlawed 50 years ago and companies are still doing it. It will still be however many more years until we're actually able halt the practice with new technology, by which time there will be however many more ships, and surely more technology at their disposal to conceal it. What they showed here was a low estimate for Europe, in the most regulated (but far from the largest) waters on Earth. What about South East Asia? Or other, more remote waters? This practice was outlawed fifty years ago and we are still struggling with it. What about practices that we are still fighting to outlaw today? If we successfully manage to ban fracking altogether this year, how many years will it take to enforce it? A non-systemic "transition" is going to be insufficient to avoid catastrophe - at best it will just reduce its severity. But that is considering that companies actually follow the law. What hope do we have if it takes more than half a century to insure that they do?

[@vanessali1365]

It doesn't seem to be a priority perhaps, it isn't bad enough? We human always fire-fighting!

[@amzarnacht6710]

Fraking, once it's outlawed, will be very easy to control - the material can only go in at well heads and the seismic signature is unmistakable. And it's easy to catch because the frakers must be on site and active. But nothing is said about the tens of thousands of abandoned well heads in the USA - no one is going after the companies that leave leaking, unsealed oil wells because the company went 'bankrupt' (i.e. sold their equipment to a shell company at pennies on the dollar, then put the violating company out of business and started up the shell company to continue the practice - rinse, repeat). That leaves better than two thirds of well heads sitting exposed until taxpayer money can be found to seal them. Sure, oil companies are charged an escrow whenever they open a well head that is supposed to go into the sealing once the well is played out but that money is less than 25% of the cost to seal a well and, often enough, simply disappears. And that's just in the USA. I can only imagine, in horror, what China does all over the globe, or Japan, or pretty much the entire continent of Africa...

[@vanessali1365]

@@amzarnacht6710 I fear the same but we have to wait see bf pointing fingers

[@einfachnurleo7099]

It's quite sad yes. We the humans have to understand the importance and do something but also force companies to do something. It's just too easy for them to dump builge water. Tracking and finding them is hard. Imagine they'd fill it into canisters and just sink those. Then we'd know even less and couldn't even pick it up with radar anymore. A solution could be to simply force them to pay for an average amount a ship of that kind would produce from the last harbor to the next. That way they already paid for the disposal and not using it would be pointless.

[@Wyatt125]

Nationalize the shipping industry

[@amberchavez6423]

I feel so aware. Thanks for sharing!

[@TheFreshPrince.]

As someone who never took climate change seriously this made me change my mind. We gotta stop that immediately

[@TheRedstar91]

Protecting the environment is actually sometimes very much different from saving the climate. Even though both goals are noble, they are not the same. In this case, the climate couldn't care less about oil in the oceans, it's "just" environmental protection.

[@matijabauer2802]

So they talk bad about Greta Thumgerg, I mean, we dont have to do all she says, but we should take that in mind, think and change so... We have to think about our children. What we can do is to start from our own household. Reduce food waste, recycle, and even more important stop buying so much clothes which pollute enormous amount of water.

[@jacksoncole6672]

When I worked on tugboats I cleaned my bilge everyday with oil absorbent pads. In fact the coast guard did a surprise inspection they concluded they had never seen a cleaner bilge.

[@raritica8409]

You're a boss! I work with many tug crews, but from the shore side. Nice to hear

[@jacksoncole6672]

@@raritica8409 I'm a conservative Republican. I do not believe in climate change. We all need to do our part in sustaining the world's oceans though.

[@raritica8409]

@@jacksoncole6672 agree!

[@RandomRandomnessKCMO]

@@jacksoncole6672 you don’t believe in climate change ?? So the scientists are just kooks to you?

[@SMega]

@@jacksoncole6672 half way there at least!

[@robsengahay5614]

The chances of getting caught are tiny and I suspect that the fines are so trivial they are not a deterrent. If an offence literally put the company out of business and gave the company directors a custodial sentence the practice would end.

[@SaveMoneySavethePlanet]

True. The fines are almost never big enough to act as a true deterrent.

[@stuartd9741]

@@SaveMoneySavethePlanet so where is the climate emergency then? Should these polluter be fined millions to save the planet...?

[@KhooTengKwang]

@@stuartd9741 This practice doesn't have anything to do with climate, but it has a lot to do with pollution. And yes, they should be fined millions to save the planet. In the first place, they broke the rules that had been implemented. There should be significant consequences for doing this.

[@SaveMoneySavethePlanet]

@@stuartd9741 yes they should be fined enough that breaking the laws in place actually threaten their ability to operate their business.

[@Rodrigo_Vega]

It seems to me they are caught just fine. There's probably a lot of economic and political interest in looking the other way and imposing laughably soft consequences. How do you explain all of these ships being perfectly tracked by satelite in their passing at the time and the location of the spill and not having it be admisible in court? "Nah, that spill is just miles of fish oil from all the fishing our crew did recreatively from the deck while transporting TVs to Senegal" ??? The ammount of heads that would have to roll, the ammount of trade routes that'd have to be changed, the extra salaries payed if the law was followed and the environment protected are not considered worth it by anyone in power. They can lobby, and brive and dodge till the cows come home or till the consequence become too obvious and the PR too dissastrous. This issue doesn't even have a wikipedia article, smh.

[@jamesaustralian9829]

Bilge pumps are used to pump out water in the event of a hill breach and the vessel takes on water. A bilge pump in the bottom level on a floor, does exactly that. It has to be inside a tank of fluid, to pump fluid out....

[@shaquillebodden1117]

I live on Roatán where tourism is the main income for many when the Carnival cruise ships arrive, but recently they've been bilge dumping more than ever and it's causing serious damage to the marine life here, including the reef. It's getting very worrying now.

[@lemily1705]

Props to that whistle blower, what he's doing is amazing work✊

[@TomGD]

honestly, this is one of the nastiest things in the planet. Like they can fill the toxic waste into barrels and yeet it on some landfill or basically burn the substance off, but dumping it into the ocean. That's really bad.

[@chadgibbs3341]

Yea they could maybe send it into an oil refinary to turn it back into usable oil

[@NathanTarantlawriter]

It would only seep into groundwater in a land fill. Burning (assuming evaporation, etc) just puts the foul stuff in the atmosphere. Evaporate and proper disposal costs a lot of money. A LOT of money. Can't have oil companies spending money to protect the environment. Someone will accuse them of being groomers.

[@klusher5556]

@@NathanTarantlawriter Thank you!

[@glennross85]

Used oil can be recycled into cleaning products.

[@gregdekkers2667]

In my 15 years at sea I never worked on a single ship where we performed illegal discharge of bilges. It seems a more common practice with questionable companies. I'm a Chief Engineer now and anyone illegally pumping bilges overboard can expected to be fired on the spot. If a company would pressure me into these practices I'd resign.

[@tryharderttvs8275]

Thank for taking your time saving our environment

[@atomspalter2090]

I hope this video raises awareness. Greetings from germany. Thank you!

[@gavgene371]

The world needs greater fines and more action against ship owners

[@vanessali1365]

I'm afraid the goods onboard the ship will still pay the shipowners handsomely after fines. Company will continue to take the risk of being caught.

[@Lonewolf_rider]

The people need to hang those who are guilty of this!

[@jmanakajosh9354]

Fines are stupid. When you get atraffic violation you don't just get a fine we need several layers of consequences including criminal ones.

[@pepe-zw4de]

Fines are just a cost of doing business for the 1%. Seize their assets and imprison them

[@crazy808ish]

The cost of those fines will only be passed onto the consumers. We need something better than that.

[@repletereplete8002]

I've known about this awful practice since the 1980's as my family ran a bird sanctuary and every few months without fail we'd get a huge influx of bilge oil covered seabirds that we'd have to scrub for hours to clean them up and then weeks/months of rehabilitation to release them. Many would not survive as they'd have ingested the oil and would have a long protracted painful death. I'd say I'm surprised that it is still a depressingly normal occurrence but I'm not as companies will find ways to cut corners if they think they stand a good chance of getting away with it.

[@gregdekkers2667]

@O'Brien, Devon To clear the name of me and my collogues who don't participate in these practices.

[@gregdekkers2667]

@Andreas Becker I'm just sharing my experience, up to you to believe it.

[@mrsterling333]

In the video at 7:50 they say regulations require the dumping of the "bad liquid" at the next harbor. Use sensors to measure the dump concentration and volume. Compare that to the estimated amount of pollutants expected from the vessel. Fine anyone not participating in the dump or not meeting a threshold. Even better, do not allow them to unload their cargo. Change happens when the ideal practice is the easiest or most profitable one.

[@GreenDolphinProject]

I'm reading The Outlaw Ocean and it has been so eye opening!

[@camadams9149]

I feel like this would be an easy problem: Monitor bilge quantities being legally disposed of. Each ship will produce a certain quantity per mile traveled. If that amount isn't being disposed of legally; it's being disposed of somewhere

[@deinpxdoxd8490]

While this might sound like a easy solution, it would probably take another decade for it to be implemented.

[@stuartd9741]

Closed loop bilge system?

[@davidb5219]

All ships have an oily waste book that logs this exact info, the problem is tampering with it

[@aaronpilkington1604]

This would pose a safety risk. Often the bilge pump can also be used in emergency to dump flood water, should the Hull be breached. I volunteer aboard a almost 90 year old tug boat. Everything goes overboard. That's how they were built way back. On modern ships though. I do agree, they do need to clean up their act.

[@denisl2760]

There isn't a predictable amount of bilge water produced. Every ship, even of the same exact class with all the same equipment will behave differently. The ships will all have different leak points.

[@einfachnurleo7099]

I've worked on a cruise ship before and we all had to learn about this so that it doesn't happen. One of course could argue that not every waiter or reception worker who's never seen the ship's engine before needs to know this but it is part of our health safety and security training. This also includes not dumping anything into the ocean that could harm it and reporting everything that goes overboard how small it might be (e.g. a ping pong ball). It's quite sad yes. We the humans have to understand the importance and do something but also force companies to do something. It's just too easy for them to dump builge water. Tracking and finding them is hard. Imagine they'd fill it into canisters and just sink those. Then we'd know even less and couldn't even pick it up with radar anymore. A solution could be to simply force them to pay for an average amount a ship of that kind would produce from the last harbor to the next. That way they already paid for the disposal and not using it would be pointless.

[@NathanTarantlawriter]

Don't cruise ships dump garbage in the middle of the ocean when they're not being watched?

[@0xsergy]

@@NathanTarantlawriter wonder where that atlantic garbage patch came from. weird how nature do dat.

[@einfachnurleo7099]

@@NathanTarantlawriter lot's of things have changed in the past decade. I can only tell for recent events. I think we are allowed to dump pulp which is basically any soft food mushed really thin. However they basically dive through it first and make sure that it really is just organic waste that gets pulped and currently they aren't even dumping it in the sea but in Port. Each cruise line has it's own policy on that. There are regulations that do get checked regularly through international and external audits. We have almost purely western european guests with a relatively high standard for the environment meaning that they at least try to do good... It's still a cruise ship after all though 😉

[@TheBeaker59]

@@0xsergy Basically all plastic waste in the sea comes from the third world where garbage is basically thrown into rivers. Only way to solve that issue is to find ways to give it economic value. Burning it as fuel for power stations is a great way to do that but there are others.

[@ummmbye1228]

@@NathanTarantlawriter no they don’t even though they dump the least toxic waste they can, they do try and be clean and well tbh they are the cleanest type of ships since they are always updated

[@PsylentSir]

*As a seafarer that works in the Engine Department. When I'm on a vacation I didn't go to beaches but on rivers to swim because I know what we dump into the sea and the magic pipes to bypass the OWS (Oily Water Separator) and direct some Bilge water into the sea. We can't say it's all clean because some of my engineers know how to manipulate the system btw the acceptable discharge of oil into the SEA in 15PPM*

[@fastinradfordable]

Um there’s just as bad stuff in rivers Sorry.

[@SrikanthIyerTheMariner]

Lol -- Even we called them "Magic Pipes' when I was a seafarer about 20 years ago

[@whitecrane9433]

Dude if you don't do something, your part of the problem.

[@Maarwaarom]

I think it would be nice to add that MARPOL does allow filtered bilge water to be dumped when the water doesn't contain more than 15 ppm of oil. There's a ppm device that measures this and controls the flow of the bilge water. But of course, it's possible that there's being messed with this device (although that's becoming gradually more difficult to do so)

[@OfficiallySnek]

Mad respect to the whistleblowers!

[@demporaya4852]

That whistleblower's voice definitely shows that he's an Indian

[@bum36901]

@@demporaya4852 someone will recognise that persons voice lol

[@deezboyeed6764]

@@bum36901 unless thats someone reading out what he said

[@wavesofzen5383]

I'm glad there are people that care enough to try to stop this.

[@rorybellamy2533]

very good eye opening report, first I've heard of this

[@208d]

People are running around with electric cars , energy saver lightbulbs and a shopping bag for life , the worst perpetrators for pollution , theres over 250 thousand barrels of nuclear waste dumped into our seas, and nuclear plants pumping thousands of litres of contaminated water daily into the sea. A few oily bilges from ships is bad but not that bad , most modern ships from developed countries have strict policys.

[@paulszymanski1005]

so depressing that there are people who can do such things to living creatures; the culprits should be fed with bilge water as punishment

[@sandesh9240]

Very true..That is the only way u teach a lesson.

[@mfaizsyahmi]

they should be tarred and feathered. with the bilge oil. nothing new in the books.

[@OrPhEeUs]

@Adam Green What's your point? Are you seriously trying to compare that to this blatant unlawful ecological damaging practice? Seriously?

[@operationgnp]

@@OrPhEeUs they dont even know who theyre mad with they just argue for the sake of it. or a mindess corporate drone, either/or.

[@StressHaze]

@Adam Green MOTHER FUC- HOW IS DAMAGING THE SEAS RELATED TO BEING AN OMNIVORE ?!!!!!

[@tride536]

Great job DW, it makes a lot of sense, no wonder why the oceans are dying out and why no one should ever eat sea food again.

[@gregdekkers2667]

In my 15 years at sea I never worked on a single ship where we performed illegal discharge of bilges. It seems a more common practice with questionable companies. I'm a Chief Engineer now and anyone illegally pumping bilges overboard can expected to be fired on the spot. If a company would pressure me into these practices I'd resign.

[@michaelellringer5600]

There are a number of scientists who have already concluded Planet Earth is Dead with no hope of it being repaired.

[@SrikanthIyerTheMariner]

I was a junior engineer on a ship -- we engineers can easily bypass all systems and do whatever the management wants .. It is trivial to fabricate fittings right onboard the ship .. and pump shit out.

[@jayesh5131]

great job guys

[@E1Luch]

What if ships were reqired to report their bilge levels at all ports they go to and submit their sailing plans, so at each port ispectors can compare expected vs actual levels of bilge that a ship has?

[@haifutter4166]

I'm not sure, whether it is that easy to calculate and I'm pretty sure, that people will find ways to sabotage these systems. But what if harbors would take a general fee for bilge water disposal, no matter wether the ship actually makes use of it or not. That would make proper waste disposal more attractive. I wonder wether Greenpeace or other institutions have ways to bug suspicious vessels, as satellite images are not sufficient to sue them and whistle blowing isn't really reliable enough as a measure.

[@E1Luch]

Or maybe make the fee dependant on the fuel used or on distance traveled divided by time. Doesnt incetivize dumping but still somewhat proportional to how much bilge is generated

[@kuhluhOG]

@@haifutter4166 the main point of why they do it is time (aka, time to get it out of the ship) not fees

[@aparnabhardwaj8500]

It is being done.

[@mattboney6284]

That's already the case, at least in Europe. Ships have to submit waste declarations before being allowed into a port. The port authority can even force them to offload some wastes in shore facilities if they consider there is a risk for the ship to dump them at sea.

[@delicious619]

I hope videos like this keep getting made. I am still hopeful that the next generation will be aware of the health of the planet. We can learn to do good when we know more about the bad.

[@SaveMoneySavethePlanet]

I’m really hopeful that we just have a wave of selfish people in power right now. And as they move out of positions in power they’ll be replaced by more environmentally minded people. Simply because the younger generations have a larger percentage who care about this stuff. We’ll see though.

[@klusher5556]

How to make the next generation aware is by not making a next generation. It's pretty unethical to make children, and from a environmental perspective, way less polluting.

[@kipechawolfeortiz8791]

Stop waiting for the next generation to do it and start now.

[@SageRosemaryTime]

One of the KEY Documentaries we have been in need of. Extraordinarily well done.

[@glenn9832]

Im have been working as an engineer for 10 years and have never been on a boat where bilge water has been dumped directy overboard. I have used 3 diferent types of bilge water separators. Marinfloc and alfa laval centrifugal separator works great. But the cheepest alternativ is RWO and it is a struggle to get it to work under the 5ppm limit. So the sensor has to bee tampered with to manage to pump "clean" water overboard. The RWO usualy pumps out cater containing 20-50ppm oil, but the Marinefloc and alfa laval works like a charm delivering below 5ppm. Sadly the cheapest RWO is the one that has been on most of the boats where i have been. We all wish tho follow the 5ppm law but it is not possible.... There should be many more sensors on the owerboard pipes and the should be tamper proof.

[@em945]

Really promising info, thank you.

[@stuartd9741]

Could the bilge water system be closed loop. So that the waste liquid could be dispensed each time the ship docked at port? All the time there is this open loop system it will allow abuse.... Or as you say. Perhaps mandation of the more efficient bilge pumps..

[@MsLars53]

All kinds of bilge water separators should not be allowed , plugged, then all ports should have facilities to recive bilge, then there's no reason to fiddle and pump overboard. How about seewage , another problem , big tanks to keep until reach port ?? Also Cargo residues should be pumped ashore not this 15 ppm buisiness.

[@amirgolpira3893]

I've been working for more than 17 years onboard ocean going ships and never see anyone to use this equipments.they just use it in front of surveyers but not in normal condition.

[@0xsergy]

for every industry there's always going to be that 1-10% that do things illegally/cheaply to save money.. and that's in 1st world countries. now imagine what happens on chinese boats with their bilgewater?

[@Chewbacca55]

I don´t think this problem can be solved by suing companies here and there. It will still be more profitable to keep this up and fight the occasional lawsuit that will be fend off by a team of lawyers. I would rather think that the only solution is to make it not profitable anymore. I can imagine that a tanker of a certain size builds up roughly the same amount of bilge water for every kilometer it travels. What if for every kilometer they travel the have to pay a fee and if they dump the bilge water in an harbor they get that money back?

[@bsri84]

Good idea

[@petergibson2318]

A fine must hurt. A $100 parking fine is nothing to a Billionaire Russian Oligarch . A fine has to hurt the perpetrator if it is to work.

[@Chewbacca55]

@@petergibson2318 I was not talking about a fine but a fee. You can make that fine as high as you like it still will not work. A fine can only be enforced if someone is prooven to be guilty. A fee is payed by everybody who is shipping in international waters. Only those who dump their bilge water in the harbour get that money back. Those who obey the law pay nothing those who dont do. Without anybody having to proove if they did or not.

[@AnarchistMetalhead]

the amount just tells you how much parts of the ship leak, you can"t directly equate distance with bilge waste volume obviously no leak at all would be incriminating on ships of that size, but estimating how much there should be is not a straightforward process if you tried to standardize it, badly maintained ships would keep dumping, and well maintained ones would start deliberately dumping oil and sea water into their bilge to get believable results, and eventually give up on high maintainance standards

[@Chewbacca55]

@@AnarchistMetalhead Ah damn that makes sense. Thanks for the explaination

[@arbaz79]

A very educative & informative video.Learnt about bilge dumping for the first time.

[@stephanebonhomme1166]

big thank you

[@ninjanerdstudent6937]

Great investigation! I’m sure the other climate change and environmental channels will talk about it next week, but I heard it first here.

[@ken91656]

Ships should require receipts/proofs of bilge water treatment by certified bilge treatment facilities. Great report by DW.

[@joshuahhaining-finch7577]

They do. Any discharge via the onboard Oily water separator is to be logged in the Oil Record Book which must have the ships position, start time, stop time, quantity discharged and quantity remaining onboard. Internal transfers are logged and discharges ashore are logged and a copy of the paperwork kept. Oily water seperators have tamperproof monitoring that record operation and oil content, max to discharge overboard is 15ppm. They are tested monthly and surveyed yearly. Keeping ontop of bilges is complex, the designs of the ships don't necesarily make it easy and treating bilge water is very difficult. Often seaferes, especially those who have very little rights/ job security are pressured into illegal dumping of untreated bilge water by the companies not willing to pay for shore side dishcarge.

[@TheLaXandro]

@@joshuahhaining-finch7577 wait, companies pay for shoreside discharge? That explains everything.

[@ken91656]

It seems that paying for shore side discharge is "stopping" ships from using the onshore facility. What's about adding a mandatory fee for the shore side discharge?

[@bentilsley4305]

This happens every day on your doorstep... Even the small fishing boats dump stuff over the side, from Newlyn to New York, LA to Hong Kong, Cadgwith to Cardiff... Fishermen have a lot to answer for 😔

[@user-eh2hj8bx6i]

Thank you to the whistleblowers. We seriously need people to go undercover. The toxic waste affects everyone.

[@uniformitydubliner9691]

If undercover investigations in farms show extreme animal cruelty and it's ruining the environment too, would you go vegan?

[@Trippy_Space_Bunny]

The ways we are killing this planet seem to be endless, I never have and don't think I ever will understand people who are so callous about the state of our planet.

[@awlox_mmxx5714]

the behaviors of these companies are absolutley deplorable thank you for exposing this

[@boombot934]

Thank you❤🌹🙏 dear DW planet A team. This 🌍🌎🤔🌏🥀outrageous issue, massive fines should be put on these companies! 😢

[@DWPlanetA]

@Boom Bot Thank you for your encouraging feedback!

[@ZVVWVVZ]

Between the current wild fires, bumblebee decline, and now watching this video.. It’s more than scary.

[@zerowastehomestead2518]

It's been going on for 20 years and still they are waiting on the technology to get better... and still nothing gets done about it. that is very sad :(

[@SaveMoneySavethePlanet]

I’ve noticed a general trend where people like to kick the can down the road by saying stuff like “once this new tech gets deployed we’ll be able to really take care of ____ problem.” In reality, most of our problems can be taken care of immediately with a mix of extra human labor (lord knows we have enough people who need jobs) and caring less about constant profit growth. That’s what makes all of this so frustrating to constantly see. None of these are terribly hard problems to address.

[@stuartd9741]

Where is the climate emergency then? Apparently we don't have time to kick the can down the road..? ... What about a closed loop bilge system emptied each time at port...?

[@aaronpilkington1604]

Great idea, but not from a shipboard safety standpoint. More regulation and enforcement is required. Ships have been dumping waste overboard since the age of steam. Ash clinker, bilge, cylinder oil etc ejected overboard since the age of steam.

[@dontcare7086]

@@SaveMoneySavethePlanet that's what I dont understand. At what point do you still need money. You only live 100 years if your lucky and people make 500 million dollars in 20 years and still want more and more. When we are talking that much money you can buy land and build houses that generations of your family can live in and never have to work again yet people still want more and more. What's the point in owning a yacht you use twice a year or owning houses you use every couple years? The insanity of human greed is something I wish we could evolve beyond.

[@jackieliu4022]

@@dontcare7086 How would you feel if someone poorer than you decided "hey! You have enough, hand over your money"?

[@warhawkjah]

I saw one of these trails in the Puget Sound one time. I thought it was just something on a ship leaking which would have to be fixed and was probably illegal, I never thought it could be intentional.

[@warhawkjah]

@@bryannonya9769 not legal. Shipping companies have been fined for bilge dumping in US waters.

[@KrolKaz]

Why didn't you rep9rt it

[@nickthompson1812]

Yeah… people are too kind-hearted to realize corporations will do harm and break the law as long as they can get away with it and it helps their bottom line. It makes me really mad for my fellow humans to be controlled and manipulated by corporations like we are in 2023.

[@Jollyva]

This is shocking, utterly deplorable from all of the individuals and corporates involved

[@awesomedude3432]

That rainbow in the thumbnail was beautiful,I wanna see more of those

[@VielleWink]

As a marine ship agent, I always encourage crew to speak up and I always give the number of agriculture to report such incident every time I go on board and meet them.

[@tooflesstesla]

Great investigative journalism. If the radar satellite investigation picks up 1,500 dumping incidents year (equivalent to five Exxon Valdez oil spills!!) and only in EU waters, this means a helluva lot more is occurring worldwide. It's horrendous and so frustrating that these companies continue to treat our oceans, and Life, as dumping grounds.😫😭

[@Rpzz0]

They are soulless, evil, twisted and money hungry people that do this

[@tooflesstesla]

@@Rpzz0 Bandits!

[@Revolver.Ocelot]

What about natural oil welles that leak in the ocean? But yeah oil is bad :(

[@jamaly77]

It's not only companies. The US Navy is probably the biggest pollutor.

[@jimjimmyjam8242]

I never knew anything about this? This video needs to get more attention. Sadly it does not surprise me that ship owners and company's would take the cheaper and easier route by dumping into open waters.

[@casssoriano2145]

Wow. So that was what we saw from the plane while approaching Manila Bay ☹️ Took some photos and a short video to show my friends, but no one knew what it was until KZbin suggested your video.

[@korwynze6288]

thank you for reporting on this!

[@beaubalentine4403]

I used to work on a barge and we would get accused of dumping our bilge water all the time…what we were actually doing was pumping sea water out of the hull cavities of our barge so it wouldn’t sink. So public service announcement: if a barge is pumping water and it’s not leaving an oily slick on the water…it’s not bilge water. The technology these guys are using to catch people dumping bilge water is so cool. A lot has changed in 15 years.

[@sagsfv3122]

When I was in the US Navy on a Destroyer in 1976, it was not uncommon as a "fireman" to go "Bilge Diving" while underway. One time, the sea valve would not close for the Pit Sword - which was the 'Rod Meter' used to gauge our speed. We would open the valve to manually with a hydraulic lever, drop the device through the hull and a double thick neoprene gasket would help keep anything from draining out, or sea water from entering. Well one day, the gasket broke and the sword pushed part of it into the ocean! So we had to remove the deck plates and climb down into the brackish liquid (complete with human waste from lazy engineers who didn't want to climb up to the main deck to visit the head), to open the valve of an opening of about 3" x 7 ". Then yank out the gasket, while seawater gushes in. By the time we got the valve closed, the bilge water level was 8" below the fireroom deck plates and just below my chin. YUCK!!! Even though we wore coveralls, once that job was finished we had to walk outside on the main deck to enter the head with the showers. That was the worst day of my 3 years on that ship!

[@carstenhansen5757]

It should be fairly simple to figure out. If a ship sail, for so many miles, it must have accumulated so and so much bilge, from one harbor, to the next. If it hasn't anything to unload, I'd say there foul play.

[@celeron55]

Then they'd just make sure to dump every time in a timely manner to make it look like the ship doesn't produce much bilge oil at all.

[@carstenhansen5757]

@@celeron55 It can be calculated how much waste product an engine, with a certain speed/revolution produces.

[@gamingvibrations5320]

As always, impeccable journalistic work. DW is quickly becoming my favourite international news media.

[@GjaP_242]

'The world's seventeen largest ships emit more sulphur than the global car fleet. ' 'A seagoing container vessel is just as polluting as up to 50 million cars. 6:09 Every year, those container ships plying the world's waterways spew about 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air, which is about three 3% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Sources: CE Delft; NPR

[@gauravkulkarni2695]

Great video, and thanks for shedding light on such crucial aspect.

[@DWPlanetA]

Thanks! Make sure to hit the subscribe button, we have a new video coming out every Friday!

[@remcoverhoeven1370]

In the Netherlands we have a program called Zembla! The program made a docu off toxic waist in the ruff oil for big ships and the lobby and that the big players can talk on the same table off the regulators!

[@CruiseSLS]

I remember my bosun's crew mate once dumped an empty barrel to Biscay Bay in rough weather without putting a hole to the barrels so it will directly sink to the bottom before he throws it overboard the bad thing is there's a ship name and IMO number imprinted on those barrels and months had pass those barrels drifted at French coast, and the vessel is at the port of Las Palmas Spain the French coast guard called the Las Palmas port authority to conduct investigation so it find guilty and the vessel is detained for many violations..

[@itzsleazy6903]

Thanks for sharing this, I never knew this was even a thing

[@DWPlanetA]

Make sure to subscribe, we have a new video coming out every Friday!

[@SkyTruth]

Thank you for such excellent explanation of this chronic pollution problem that's been out of sight for far too long.

[@LettersAndNumbers300]

Great video!

[@spram]

Carry on the nice work

[@kasimirb5155]

Firstly: If there is always bilge water being produced, then it must always be cleaned out, mustn't it? Therefore it should be easy to control these professional cleanings in the next harbor. Make it mandatory! Secondly: If a company has been found guilty of dumping their bilge water illegally into the ocean, then it must either be punished with a multi million Euro fine or - at least with recurring misbehavior - put out of business for good.

[@jacoblima2242]

The problem with this idea are loopholes in our legal system, A petroleum company I worked for the CEO was going through a divorce to prevent the wife from taking 50% of the equity out of the company he had changed the name of maritime company, and shafted her out of the money. Sure this may be a civil matter but the principle is still the same. Change the name of the company, and walla it's no longer the same company being ran thus it can't be shut down,

[@NicholasLittlejohn]

@@jacoblima2242 voila, yes

[@saltysteel3996]

A bilge pump isn't for polluting. They're for pumping out sea water that gets inside of the ship. The pollution is the fault of the crews/ poor maintenance/ or just straight up negligence.

[@cg986]

Incredible

[@allatones]

Wow. Thank you for making this hugely important video!!!!

[@DWPlanetA]

Thanks! Don't forget to subscribe, we have a new video coming out every Friday!

[@AWPBASH]

i was in a certain country's navy and i tell you we retrofit our pumping systems to discharge oil and bilges overboard, usually at night to avoid oil trail detection

[@stuartd9741]

You worked for a government entity that pumped bilge water into the ocean? Why? Could this dirty liquid be not dispensed at port...?

[@syiemsonny8659]

Great job

[@keikei3301]

Investigative stories that expose or uncover such horrifying, utterly destructive practices like bilige dumping should go viral so consumers around the world are aware of what’s happening and so that it might encourage more whistleblowers to speak out and also gain more advance technology to locate the spills and the ships causing it

[@MssIAMNOBODYSPECIAL]

Isnt it possible that ships would have to document where they discard of their bilge? (Like get a stamp from the harbor). Because then, when they can't show they have the right documents we can fine them or even forbid them from leaving. Of course these documents could be forged, but it would be a discouragement if fines are large enough. The major problem i see is that it would require additional international agreements and law.

[@SaveMoneySavethePlanet]

I think the international aspect is the biggest thing that holds the shipping industry back. Everyone just concentrates on governing what happens along their coastline and ignores stuff in international waters for the most part.

[@kari53]

This could work. The key would be to have access to their water treatment plant data on board. Seeing how much M3 of water they are processing. Then you could calculate an approximate amount of waste extracted. If that approximate amount of waste is not pumped off at regular intervals at documented ports then the ship should be flagged for possible bilge dumping.

[@dsnmttr]

It is...in order to discharge bilge water you use an OWS (oily water separator) system. When the system is started it is logged in the ship's log, the OWS system, in the bridge navigation log (ship stamp and captain signature) and in the engine book (ship stamp, chief engineer signature). The system discharges water only if it has a contamination level bellow 15 ppm (parts per milion). This kind of behavior is not the norm, it mostly happens in small shipping companies whith poorly maintained vessels and poorly trained(to put it mildly) seafarers. It is by no means "the norm". There are strict regulations in place and in most countries violation is a criminal offence.

[@MssIAMNOBODYSPECIAL]

@@dsnmttr thanks for this. Puts in some perspective. Now I think about it this video doesnt really name percentages how often it happens. Do you work in shipping that you know this? Or could you maybe provide me woth some sources so i can look into ot further myself

[@dsnmttr]

@@MssIAMNOBODYSPECIAL i work on board merchant marine vessels since 2014. This is not "the norm", this video is a shallow investigation and resembles more of a "hit piece" click bait video. While this still happens in small shipping companies with poorly maintained vessels and even poorly trained crew...it is not "the norm". LE: oil spills can be seen with infrared camera's and there was once talk in the EU of buying drones that can easily monitor ship behavior whilst in the EU zone. The US Cost Guard already does this with planes and helicopters in a limited capacity.

[@applasamysubbharao2578]

This is very common. I has seeing this when I was start do open sea fishing. Looks like they capable dumping toxic waste all the time even from containers. Well Done Naomi...

[@banetkaa]

Very informative video.

[@MCosan]

As an engine cadet, we do not pump bilge tank into the sea but unfortunately some of vessels do and on the vessel most of the workers throw their garbage into the sea.

[@GamalKevin]

The video and investigation is really well-made and thorough. Kudos to everyone involved 👏

[@richardsmith1331]

They can lie all they want, but 10 years in prison to the bildge dumpers is in order.

[@BUEAU]

Cruise ships do something similar. During the day their smokestacks show very little dark smoke. But in the night, the exhaust smoke billows out dark and thick. I noticed that on a cruise back in 2019. Need regulations, inspectors etc.

[@adrianthoroughgood1191]

Did they switch to cheaper fuel at night? Or just run the engine harder? Sounds a bit like the Diesel engine emissions scandal.

[@dsnmttr]

Most probably during the day they are closer to shore, regulated to use diesel, during the night they go further from shore so they can use heavy fuel (more smoke). Since 2020 even heavy fuel is either very low sulfur or if you use old heavy fuel, the ship is required to have scrubbers fitted to the exhaust

[@FW-jq1ox]

The US Navy "skims" a lot of waste water just like this as I'm sure many other navies do the same every day. For example, the byproduct of launching planes off a carrier is used lube oil that collects in a huge tank of water at the end of a aircraft catapult. The water is supposed to stay a certain temperature, but the lube oil raises that temperature and has to be skimmed off repeatedly into the ocean. That's a lot of lube oil and just one example of how changing the name from bilge to skim makes is perfectly ok.

[@phillipa6402]

Via clean drain tank can’t happen on my vessel. It is also equipped with oil content monitor with downloadable running time, ppm and ship positions.

[@this_name_is_not_available6923]

I think it really depends on the company and officer in charge (whether in Engine or Deck dept). Some companies and officers tolerate this kind of polluting in the environment, which is most likely due to laziness, "time and cost cutting" or just don't care about the environment while some are really strict regarding MARPOL.

[@Jan-tp7oh]

Thank you for putting in all this work for exposing such malpractice! Something I asked myself while watching this: Is it possible to measure the divination between the expected amount of bilge and the amount ships arrive with at ports, record that and check the amounts that they discharge in a proper manner? Then all the satellite images would not be necessary.

[@AnarchistMetalhead]

not really, the amount just tells you how much parts of the ship leak obviously no leak at all would be incriminating on ships of that size, but estimating how much there should be is not a straightforward process if you tried to standardize it, badly maintained ships would keep dumping, and well maintained ones would start deliberately dumping oil and sea water into their bilge to get believable results, and eventually give up on high maintainance standards