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October 2011 www.sname.org/sname/mt P ressure to reduce the environmental footprint from shipping dominates the current regulatory landscape. e tanker industry, perhaps more than any other segment of shipping, has dealt with environmental challenges and regulations for a long time. It has made great advances, which should be recognized as the industry tackles new challenges and opportunities resulting from recent commercial and regulatory events. Major regulatory changes have impacted this segment of the shipping industry during the last sev- eral decades. ese changes oer useful lessons to be learned for the industry. Focus on oil spills e Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 was a turning point for the industry. Although it was not nearly one of the largest oil spills in volume, the consequences were sig- nicant both in terms of the regulatory changes enacted and in the resulting public image of tankers. Sometimes, good things happen for the wrong rea- sons, and that can be said about the evolution of the environmentally-friendly tanker. But we need to look beyond the Exxon Valdez to understand the full scope of the tanker evolution. e predominant environmental focus for shipping has historically been on the prevention of oil pollution from tankers. Accidents causing oil spills have received much public attention, but the industry has also had to deal with reducing or eliminating operational oil release resulting from oily water discharges or bunker- ing operations. Pre-MARPOL tankers had no segregated ballast tanks and the ballast was loaded in cargo tanks that had oil residue. e operation was based on the principle that oil is lighter than water and most of it was retained on board while the water was discharged. The adoption of MARPOL in 1973 introduced segregated ballast tanks, which resulted in a major reduction in operational oil releases from tankers. Later Green Evolution Lessons learned from development of environmentally-friendly tankers BY KIRSI TIKKA (historical note )The Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 was a turning point for the industry, with signi?cant consequences both in terms of the regulatory changes enacted and in the resulting public image of tankers.