Every year, several thousand ships pass through Danish waters, and a large number of them anchor at Skagen Red, which is one of the largest anchorages in the Nordic region and serves as the gateway to and from the Baltic Sea.

The government will now strengthen environmental supervision of ships that anchor at Skagen Red. The effort is being made as a result of increased activity by older ships that, among other things, transport sanctioned oil through Danish waters, and which entails increased risk and concern for, among other things, the marine environment.

“We know that there is a lot of traffic consisting of older ships sailing through Danish waters, and they pose a particular risk to our marine environment. That is why we are now tightening controls with very basic environmental rules so that we can take more effective and consistent action against tankers and the Russian shadow fleet,” says Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke.

“We must put an end to Putin’s war machine. This also applies to the Russian shadow fleet. We are using all tools. We know from our safety checks at Skagen Red that among these ships there are old and worn-out ships sailing around. That is why our authorities are now intensifying the controls so that we look after Denmark and Danish waters,” says Minister of Industry and Trade Morten Bødskov.   

In the future, the Danish Maritime Authority, in collaboration with the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, will carry out more environmental inspections of the ships to ensure that they comply with environmental regulations on, among other things, waste management, scrapping certificates, ballast water (to counteract invasive species), discharge of scrubber water (to reduce environmentally hazardous substances in the sea) and fuel requirements. The measures are intended to ensure that the ships comply with the rules for environmental protection.

Facts

• In the proposed 2026 Finance Act, the government has prioritized funding for the Danish Maritime Authority, which will carry out the inspections. Environmental inspections will be carried out by environmental ship inspectors together with port state control, and will thus result in more ship inspectors boarding the anchored ships.
  
• At the same time, measurements with the so-called “sniffer” will be initiated on the Great Belt Bridge until the end of the year. The sniffer scheme measures the sulfur content in ship fuel and provides an indication of whether the ships comply with the sulfur limit value.
  
• The two new measures will intensify efforts against the shadow fleet. In addition, any information collected on the basis of the measures can be used in international cooperation on measures against the shadow fleet, including being included in the work on sanction listing of specific ships. With the adoption of the EU’s 18th sanctions package on 18 July 2025, there are currently 444 sanction listed ships in the EU.
  
• Danish authorities are working together on the challenge of the Russian shadow fleet with other countries in relevant regional and international forums to, among other things, exchange information on ongoing initiatives, and discuss further international opportunities to address the shadow fleet.