In February, the Arrow strikes rock in Chedabucto Bay, Nova Scotia, spilling some eight,000 tonnes of oil. The 1971 Fund Convention offered for the payment of supplementary compensation to these who could not receive complete compensation for oil pollution damage beneath the 1969 CLC. The Canadian Government’s claim for charges and expenditures incurred is presented to, and paid by, the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund. The consolidated text of CLC 1969, as modified by the 1992 Protocol, is referred to as the 1992 Civil Liability Convention.
On the other hand, the 1992 CLC prohibits claims against the servants or agents of the shipowner, the members of the crew, the pilot, the charterer (including a bareboat charterer), manager or operator of the ship, or any particular person carrying out salvage operations or taking preventive measures, unless the pollution damage resulted from the private act or omission of the person concerned, committed with the intent to bring about such damage, or recklessly and with knowledge that such harm would most likely outcome.
Immediately after the 2003 amendments to the Fund Convention entered into force the compensation ceilings have been elevated to about € 1.000.0000. Subject to a number of certain exceptions, the Civil Liability Convention areas liability for pollution damage on the owner of the tanker from which the polluting oil escaped or was discharged (not necessarily the vessel at fault).
Recognition of the difficulties that can be caused by spills of heavy bunker fuel from non-tankers led to the adoption of the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage at a Diplomatic Conference in March 2001. Portion 6 of the Marine Liability Act is amended to implement the Supplementary Fund Protocol and the Bunkers Convention.
The harm was wholly triggered by the negligence or other wrongful act of any Government or other authority accountable for the maintenance of lights or other navigational aids, in the exercise of that function. The owner might be needed to present the certificate on entering the waters of a state celebration to the CLC, to demonstrate that he has in place insurance to cover claims for oil pollution up to a particular limit, determined by the tonnage of the ship.
