Mackay Communications supplies marine oil discharge monitoring equipment (ODME) that gives shipboard crews continuous, real-time detection of oil content in ballast, slop, and bilge water before it’s discharged overboard. Featuring the VAF Instruments Oilcon® Mark6, built on a patented multiple-scattering measurement technique, these systems deliver highly accurate oil-in-water readings and automatically stop discharge operations when oil concentration exceeds regulatory thresholds — protecting vessels from pollution incidents, fines, and detention. Mackay also provides factory-trained annual calibration and certification services for Oilcon MK5, MK6, and MK6M units, keeping equipment in verified working order between class surveys.

For the maritime industry, an oil discharge monitor isn’t optional — it’s a mandatory piece of pollution-prevention equipment under MARPOL Annex I and built to IMO Resolution MEPC.108(49), and it’s routinely checked during USCG, port state control, and classification society inspections. As environmental enforcement tightens and ports increase scrutiny of discharge records, reliable oil content monitoring and up-to-date calibration certificates have become critical to keeping vessels compliant, avoiding costly detentions, and demonstrating environmental responsibility to regulators, charterers, and P&I insurers.