Discussion on Legal Issues Related to Salvage Operations in Turkish Straits

Introduction

The first international convention on salvage was accepted in 1910. According to the first Salvage Convention, “a salvor was only rewarded for services if the operation was successful. The first convention was not to take pollution into account”. International Convention on Salvage (1989) “A salvor who prevented a major pollution incident but did not manage to save the ship or the cargo got nothing. There was therefore little incentive to a salvor to undertake an operation that has only a slim chance of success”.

Historically salvors encouraged to start a salvage operation granting a generous reward for salved property at sea. The salvage operations become highly important after major casualties which created environmental disasters. The public awarness for environmental protection become became rather important at the end of 20^th century after some accidents at sea which caused major oil spill, salvors also assumed role in the prevention of such environmental damages.

Salvage Convention corrected the deficiencies of the previous convention and provided an additional salvage award considering the skill and efforts of the salvors in preventing or mitigating damage to the environment (International Convention on Salvage, 2017:3). This additional reward concerning protecting and mitigating the environmental damage is called special compensation. This new compensation introduced a reward to be paid to salvors who assume role in salvage operation also for environmental damage

The compensation consists of the salvor's expenses, plus some amount of rewards if environmental damage has been prevented or mitigated by the salvor. International Convention on Salvage, 1989:5) established some special rules for this application “If the salvor is negligent and has consequently failed to prevent or minimize environmental damage, special compensation may be denied or reduced. Payment of the reward is to be made by the vessel and other property interests in proportion to their respective salved values”.

The traditional salvage award is defined in the Salvage Convention (1989:7) “Criteria for fixing the reward are set out in terms of article 13 which is a guidance to be considered by the court and/or arbitrator when assessing a salvage award”. The essential elements of these criteria may be resumed as follows (Salvage Convention, 1989:7):

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  The value of the vessel and other property.

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  The salvor’s effort and skill in preventing or minimizing damage to the environment.

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  The nature and level of the danger.

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  The success of the salvor.

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  The time spent and expenses and of the salvors.

The other elements of fixing the reward are readiness, promptness for salvage operations, risk of liability of the salvor, equipment used by salvor and risks to this equipment, other risks for salvor.

If there was a threat of damage to the environment and salver conducted salvage operations related to protection of environment during the salvage operation, the salvor would at least be able to recover his expenses up to 100% of those expenses according to Article 14 of the Salvage Convention (1909: 8)