Belgium, France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom decided earlier this year to present the International Maritime Organisation with a joint request to designate certain maritime areas a particularly sensitive sea area – PSSA – to strengthen its protection of particularly vulnerable areas. The limit of the PSSA proposed coincides with the 15th meridian, the Porcupine Bank, and includes parts of the special waters of the north-west Europe zone as defined under the MARPOL convention, the English Channel and coastal waters, and certain parts of pollution response areas and exclusive economic zones along Spanish, French and Portuguese coasts. The aim of the exercise is to protect our marine environment and coastline from oil spills by discouraging vessels from entering into the particularly sensitive sea area. It was proposed to ban certain tankers and others, for example, double hulls and some single hull tankers, would have to state their intention to cross the area 48 hours in advance.