The Tricolor incident: from collision to environmental disaster

The sinking of the Tricolor on 14 December 2002 and the subsequent related events had disastrous effects on the wintering seabirds in the southern North Sea. This article presents a chronological overview of the events leading to the wreck of seabirds in the first months of 2003 and summarises the actions performed by the administration responsible for marine environmental matters in Belgium, the Management Unit of the North Sea Mathematical Models (MUMM).