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Special and Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas

Special Pollution Prevention Areas

MARPOL specifies certain sea areas as "special areas" in which, for technical reasons regarding their oceanographical and ecological condition and to their sea traffic, the adoption of special mandatory methods for the prevention of sea pollution is required. Under the Convention, these special areas are provided with a higher level of protection than other areas of the sea.

[1] IMO, Special Areas under MARPOL (Retrieved January 30, 2021)

Particularly Sensitive Sea Area

A Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) is an area that needs special protection through action by IMO because of its significance for recognized ecological or socio-economic or scientific reasons and which may be vulnerable to damage by international maritime activities. The criteria for the identification of particularly sensitive sea areas and the criteria for the designation of special areas are not mutually exclusive. In many cases a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area may be identified within a Special Area and vice versa.

The following PSSAS have been designated:

  • The Great Barrier Reef, Australia (designated a PSSA in 1990)
  • The Sabana-Camagüey Archipelago in Cuba (1997)
  • Malpelo Island, Colombia (2002)
  • The sea around the Florida Keys, United States (2002)
  • The Wadden Sea, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands (2002)
  • Paracas National Reserve, Peru (2003)
  • Western European Waters (2004)
  • Extension of the existing Great Barrier Reef PSSA to include the Torres Strait (proposed by Australia and Papua New Guinea) (2005)
  • Canary Islands, Spain (2005)
  • The Galapagos Archipelago, Ecuador (2005)
  • The Baltic Sea area, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden (2005)
  • The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, United States (2007)
  • The Strait of Bonifacio, France and Italy (2011)
  • The Saba Bank, in the North-eastern Caribbean area of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (2012)
  • Extension of Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait to encompass the south-west part of the Coral Sea (2015)
  • The Jomard Entrance, Papua New Guinea (2016)
  • Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park, the Sulu Sea, Philippines (2017)

[1] IMO, Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (Retrieved January 30, 2021)