The owner's obligation to remove a sunken ship, whose cost bears no relation to the vessel's value and depends above all on where it lies.
When a ship sinks, the coastal state authority may require its owner to remove the wreck if it presents a hazard to navigation or to the environment. The cost of the operation bears no relation to the value of the ship, which is the decisive feature of this exposure: it depends on depth, exposure to swell, proximity to an inhabited coast and the environmental protection status of the site, so a low-value vessel stranded in the wrong place produces a loss out of all proportion to its insured hull value. The Nairobi international convention harmonized the regime by imposing strict liability on the registered owner, compulsory insurance evidenced by a certificate, and direct action against the insurer, the last point being what changes everything for the victim. The cover is carried by protection and indemnity clubs rather than by the hull policy, and the largest refloating operations rank among the most expensive marine losses ever settled.
The refloating and subsequent scrapping of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, grounded on 13 January 2012 off Giglio and righted then towed away in July 2014, was the most expensive wreck removal ever undertaken. The Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks entered into force on 14 April 2015.
wreck removal, renflouement, convention de Nairobi, retrait d'épave