Baseline study to determine the implementation area of an oily waste management system for artisanal fishing vessels

This work seeks to perform a baseline study to determine the implementation area for a management system of oily waste generated by artisanal fishing boats within the Peruvian context. This explanatory study, conducted based on quantitative and cross-sectional considerations, includes a regulatory review; content analysis of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) both in seawater and sediments; and metal assessment in sediments and waste oil, with the corresponding result correlations. In this study, the results reveal that while regulations are adequate, their implementation is not evident. In addition, no evidence of contamination by PAH and TPH was found. However, traces of metal contamination were found in sediments, and, after being correlated with the metal values from waste oil, a Spearman's Rho correlation coefficient of 0.619480 was reported. Hence, we can conclude that the regulations to prevent marine pollution from oily waste contained in the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships MARPOL agreement have been accepted and approved for implementation. In fact, they can even be applied to different activities that fall out of the scope of the agreement. Finally, the baseline study reveals oily waste generation indicators, as well as a correlation between waste oil metals and marine sediment metals that merits the implementation of an oily waste management system within the study area.