Modern Development
While salvage tugs are still in use, ubiquitous radar and depth sounders, Global Positioning System (GPS), and proper charts have made normal ship operations orders of magnitude safer than they were still around 1980. Ships are also much larger on the average than they were, and more damage resistant due to proper hull bulkheads, double bottoms and double hulls, and more reliable machinery. The total demand for salvage tug services is significantly down from its peaks in the years around World War II.
The increasing sensitivity of societies and legal systems to environmental damage and the increasing size of ships has to some extent offset the decline in the number of salvage operations undertaken. Accidents such as major oil tanker groundings or sinkings may require extensive salvage efforts to try and minimize the environmental damage (see Exxon Valdez oil spill, Amoco Cadiz, Torrey Canyon and in general Category:Oil spills).
Read more about this topic: Salvage Tug
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