Since the cooperation agreement between Prime Minister Yves Leterme and Defense Minister Pieter De Crem in April, the unmanned aircraft of Defense have flown 67 hours over the North Sea to monitor pollutions. 239 ships were inspected, of which two were further investigated, but no illegal discharge was found. The Prime Minister Leterme and Minister De Crem reported Wednesday that next year, the number of flight hours will be increased to hundred.

The aim of the cooperation agreement was to deploy unmanned aircraft to monitor the pollution of the North Sea. The UAV were previously used in Kosovo and Congo for military surveillance missions and for training in the military training zone over the sea. The idea was born to combine training flights with the monitoring of illegal discharges from ships. The B-hunters are equipped with a special camera that can transmit night detailed images of the shipping activities.

The B-Hunters depart on irregular intervals from the military base of Koksijde. They fly over an area stretching from the French border over the shipping routes.

The images collected by the military command in Koksijde can be forwarded to the Maritime Information Confluence (MIK) of the Central Coast at the naval base at Zeebrugge. There, all abnormal traces on the surface of the sea are immediately analysed and the suspected ships identified. If necessary, a police boat or a helicopter can carry out an inspection on board.

While in the 90's about 50 oil spills were noted, since 2000 there are annually only thirty discharges noted. The total volume of discharges is declining, and this while the last 10 years the traffic has doubled, the ships got bigger and carry diverse loads.