around the coastline, although H.M. Coast Guard operate the opposite policy of devolving to the coastline and running incidents from the coastline, from their emergency centers there. But we are centralized, and basically we're facilitators and enablers and provide the management and expertise in any incident. We have to go outside for local authorities who provide the shoreline cleanup, industry to provide those resources I've already mentioned, and our own contractors, who work the ships and fly the aircraft, and we provide some training to them.
Toenshoff: In the United States, the responsible party, or the spiller, plays a very significant role in the decision-making process for development of an oil spill contingency plan, and it is ultimately the responsible party that pays for the response operations. How is that different from a spill response in the U.K. using your resources?
Gainsford: Well, outside the States, as I understand it, we all come under the IOPC Fund, so you don't have to prove liability. If there is any spill from a tanker, then we can immediately claim redress through the IOPC Fund, and that amount has been recently increased. But it is a tortuous process and far from simple, as I'm sure my local authority colleague may mention. So it is absolutely critical that you retain totally comprehensive records of all expenditures and what you do, because months later it can be very difficult to actually recover all your costs.
Since the TORREY CANYON in 1967-up to that stage, we expected･the shipowner to clean up his own mess, but after TORREY CANYON, we realized that that was not feasible and that the government would have to take responsibility. So the owners have a role to play, but they will be incorporated in our management system. Dealing with oil rigs is different, because we expect more from the oil company. Their license is let for them to be able to respond, and if they're not able to respond, then we haven't done our job in checking the spill plan before.
