With over 270 flight hours of pollution patrolling in Lithuania on behalf of the Lithuanian authorities, Nordic Unmanned identified more than 10 cases of non-compliant vessels, with one shipping company being fined €10.000 for sulphur pollution. This vessel became the first known violator in the world to be fined under the new IMO 2020 regulation, using drone enforcement.
“Our drone monitoring service represents an effective enforcing of new regulations, as shown by our recent operations in Lithuania. By operating daily for over at least 5 hours, our clients experience a massive increase in the amount of vessel they are able to inspect”.
Knut Roar Wiig, CEO at Nordic Unmanned
Lithuanian authorities could also report that only every fourth ship entering Lithuania was inspected before the implementation of drone monitoring. Now, they monitor around 70-80% of the ships entering Lithuania, with a drone that flies for at least 5 hours a day.
Additionally, it is expected that in the European Union, around 2-3% of inspected ships are non- compliant with sulphur emission requirements, but based on the data from the drone monitoring operations, the percentage of non-compliance seems to be a lot higher than the expected 2-3%
Source: Press Release