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The Pacific Ocean Pollution Prevention Programme (PACPOL) mission is to protect public health, safety, environment and natural resources of the Pacific Islands from the effects of ship sourced marine pollution

Marine pollution is widely recognised as one of the four major threats to the world’s oceans, along with habitat destruction, over-exploitation of living marine resources and invasive marine species. Spills of oil and other chemicals into the marine environment, both from ships and land-based sources, is a significant source of pollution.

Breeding success of 5 Cory’s shearwater Calonectris diomedea sub-colonies of Lavezzu Island (Lavezzi Archipelago, Corsica) was checked annually for 25 consecutive years from 1979 to 2004. Between 1989 and 1994, 4 ship rat Rattus rattus controls were performed in several subcolonies. In November 2000, rats were eradicated from Lavezzu Island and its 16 peripheral islets (85 ha) using traps then toxic baits. We compare cost (number of person-hours required in the field) and benefit (Cory’s shearwater breeding success) of control and eradication. The average breeding success doubled when rats were controlled or eradicated (0.82) compared to the situation without rat management (0.45). Moreover, the average breeding success after eradication (0.86) was significantly (11%) higher than after rat controls (0.75). Furthermore, the great variation in breeding success recorded among sub-colonies both with and without rat control declined dramatically after eradication, suggesting that rats had a major impact on breeding success. The estimated effort needed to perform eradication and checking of the permanent bait-station system during the year following eradication was 1360 person-hours. In contrast, rat control was estimated to require 240 or 1440 person-hours per year when implemented by trained and untrained staff, respectively. Within 6 yr, eradication cost is lower than control cost performed by untrained staff and confers several ecological advantages on more ecosystem components than Cory’s shearwater alone. Improved eradication tools such as hand or aerial broadcasting of toxic baits instead of the fairly labour-intensive eradication strategy we used would dramatically increase the economic advantage of eradication vs. control. Therefore, when feasible, we recommend eradication rather than control of non-native rat populations. Nevertheless, control remains a useful management tool when eradication is not practicable.

Assisting the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme's (SPREP) island members to plan, prepare and respond to marine spills is one of the four activity areas of the Pacific Ocean Pollution Prevention Programme (PACPOL). PACPOL activities currently include a regional risk assessment regional and national contingency plans, formulation of a regional equipment strategy and facilitating regular workshop to discuss marine spill issues. The aim of this initial shipping risk study was to identify and quantify the shipping routes, frequency of voyages and types of cargoes transported in the region as well as to map shipping incidents, navigational hazards and assess the risk of marine pollution across the region, EEZs and at a port scale. The regional and EEZ distribution of risk potential showed clusters of high risk in Fiji, French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. Smaller clusters occurred in Tonga, the Samoa's, Vanuatu and the corridor from Chuuk northward past Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Another potential marine pollution risk for the Pacific is the fuel oil and cargoes remaining on WWII shipwrecks deteriorating in the waters of the region. More than 1000 such wrecks have been identified amounting to over 3 million tons of shipping lost.

Report on the Strategic Environmental Assessment Oil Spill Incident USS Mississinewa, Ulithi Lagoon, Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia : Draft, 18th September, 2001 / by Trevor Gilbert