The Prevention of Marine Pollution from Ships in the Yellow Sea: Assessing the Need for the Establishment of a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA)

Abstract

With each passing decade, industrial and economic activities have increased the severe contamination of the Yellow Sea. This contamination, caused by various pollutants, has reached an alarming level. One of the main sources of contamination are pollutants from the international shipping industry. Due to an increase in maritime trade volume, driven by the rapid economic growth of China and South Korea, the danger of polluting incidents caused by ocean shipping continues to rise. If the states bordering the Yellow Sea do not jointly undertake to protect and preserve the sea’s marine environment and ecosystems, our descendants may be unable to enjoy its benefits. The semi-enclosed Yellow Sea poses geographical disadvantages. Pollution incidents involving oil, hazardous and noxious substances (HNS), or other pollutants from ships which occur in the territorial sea of one state may have serious impacts on the maritime zone of another. The numerous maritime boundary disputes in the Yellow Sea complicate the proper exercise of coastal states’ jurisdiction; states must act in accordance with applicable international laws and regulations that aim to prevent marine shipping pollution. States have not made a joint effort to create an institutional strategy or integrated management plan for the prevention of vessel-source pollution in the Yellow Sea. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the global authority to provide an international legal framework for the shipping industry, has attempted to prevent vessel-source pollution by adopting substantive global regulatory instruments. However, a failure to implement the IMO instruments by the Yellow Sea states, coupled with the weakening of flag states’ enforcement jurisdiction by North Korea, have undermined the efficacy of the IMO regulatory regime. In addition, regional agreements and regional sea programmes of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are an ineffective legal framework to prevent marine pollution in the Yellow Sea, even when supplemented by the IMO instruments. This thesis serves as a starting point for discussion, to make the case for the necessity of a practical regulatory instrument and regional cooperation to prevent vessel-source pollution in the Yellow Sea. In order to overcome the normative issues underlying this pollution and effectively address it, this thesis argues that the designation of a Yellow Sea Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) is required. The goal of this study is to serve as a stepping stone by proposing a framework that allows the Yellow Sea to continue to perform its socio-economic, cultural, and historical role for the states that border it, while preventing marine environmental pollution through regional cooperation.