### Bosporus

All routes that involve bringing oil out through Black Sea ports into the Mediterranean must face the potential problems associated with increased traffic through the Bosporus. More like a sinuous river than an international waterway, the Bosporus Strait offers the only connection between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The average width of the strait is 1.5 kilometers, narrows down to a mere 700 meters. At this point, ships must make sharp turns while blinded to oncoming traffic.

Satellite Photo of the Bosporus

Because the nineteen-mile long Bosporus cuts through the heart of Istanbul, the environmental and safety hazards posed by increased tanker traffic are of prime concern to the Turkish government, which has been pushing the issue to the forefront internationally. The 1936 Montreux Convention guarantees ships freedom of passage through peacetime and has hampered Turkey’s ability to authoritatively manage traffic through the strait as congestion continues to increase. The treaty was written at a time when an average of fifteen ships weighing an average of 13 tons each navigated the strait each day; each day in 1995, however, 126 ships with an average weight of over 200,000 tons passed through the Bosporus. Accidents have become increasingly common in the busy Bosporus, with 201 major accidents between 1982 and 1994.

Recognizing the particular threat posed by tanker traffic, Turkey in 1994 and again this year moved to impose stricter safety regulations on Bosporus traffic. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has approved many of these restrictions, including an overall speed limit of ten knots, the restriction of ships longer than 200 meters to daylight crossings only, and the reduction of traffic to one lane when ships over 250 meters in length are in the strait. The strait also closes to all other traffic when ships over 300 meters in length (or tankers of 100,000 tons or greater) pass through its waters. Other potential regulations advocated by Turkey, such as limiting maximum vessel size or requiring double-hulled tankers, have not yet been approved, although Turkey continues to threaten their implementation. It is unclear how strict of a regulatory position Turkey will be able to take as traffic through the Bosporus increases.

Bosporus Links