37 
sultative Organization (IMCO) charged its Maritime Safety Com- 
mittee to take all reasonable measures to achieve significant progress 
in the prevention and control of oil pollution. In response to this man- 
date the Maritime Safety Committee first proposed tightening existing 
control measures with respect to deliberate discharge of oily waters 
into the seas. Following these recommendations, the assembly of 
IMCO voted further amendments to the 1954 Oil Pollution 
Convention. 
These amendments finally eliminated the zone concept and limited 
the rate of discharge of oil or oily mixture of ships other than tankers 
to an oil content of less than 100 parts per miilion and to discharge 
volumes less than 60 liters per nautical mile, varying with distance 
from shore but as far as practicable from land. Tankers were more 
stringently limited to total discharges of no more than one-fifteen- 
thousandth of the total cargo capacity and at a distance of greater’ 
than 50 miles from land. In addition, a simplified oil record book was: 
required. Small tankers defined as less than 150 gross tons were still 
exempt. 
Enforcement of the Convention is defective. Violations are punish- 
able only under the laws of the state of registry of the offending vessel 
unless the violation occurs in the territorial waters of another nation. 
The injured coastal state obviously has a greater interest in prosecu- 
tion than the state of registry, which is often nothing more than e 
matter of convenience. The amendments are not yet in force inter- 
nationally. When they are signed into force they will approach, but: 
not quite attam, the goal set by the United States in the 1920’s. 
1971 amendments.—In subsequent action, the Maritime Safety 
Committee recommended and IMCO adopted two other sets of 
‘’ amendments to the 1954 Convention. The first set adopted on Oc= 
tober 12, 1971, provided special protection for Australia’s Great 
Barrier Reef by redefining ‘“‘nearest land” to include the area of the 
reef. The second set of amendments, adopted by the IMCO assembly 
on October 15, 1971, provided for tank arrangements and size limita= 
tions in the construction of new large tankers. The purpose of this set 
of amendments is to limit oil loss in the event of collision or 
stranding. The 1971 Amendments have yet to come into force inter= 
nationally. 
Geneva Conventions of 1958 
The complexity of problems facing the marine environment de= 
manded more than a piecemeal approach, yet that approach was 
Ceteenene of the four 1958 Geneva Conventions on the Law of 
the Sea. 
Convention on the high seas——Like the 1954 Convention which 
concentrated only on oil pollution, the 1958 Geneva Convention on 
the High Seas did not deal with pollution generally but concentrated 
on only two specific types of pollution. It again “obliged” signatory 
states to “draw up regulations to prevent pollution of the seas by the 
discharge of oil from ships or pipelines or resulting from the expioita~ 
tion and exploration of the seabed and its subsoil, taking account 
of existing treaty provisions on the subject.’ °® States were aise 
obligated to “‘take measures to prevent pollution of the seas from. the 
29 Convention on the High Seas, April 29, 1958, 18 U.S.T. 2312, T.1.A.S. No. 5200, art... 24.- 
