CleanSeaNet (CSN) is a satellite-based monitoring system for marine oil spill detection and surveillance in European waters.
CSN was created by the European Maritime Safety Agency (ESMA) in 2007 to include services such as locating and following oil pollution, monitoring accidental or deliberate pollution, and identifying polluters through the use of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite images. The information given from these images includes spill location, spill area and length, and source of the spill.[1]
As of 2017, CSN has become available in, “23 European Union (EU) coastal member states, two EFTA coastal states, three EU candidate countries, the Dutch Caribbean, the French Antilles, Greenland and finally the European neighbourhood partner countries across the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian seas.”[2]
The legal basis for the CSN service is Directive 2005/35/EC on ship-source pollution and on the introduction of penalties, including criminal penalties, for pollution offenses (as amended by Directive 2009/123/EC). The EMSA has been tasked to 'work with the member states in developing technical solutions and providing technical assistance in relation to the implementation of this directive, in actions such as tracing discharges by satellite monitoring and surveillance'.[1]