Since 1998 for protection of marine pollution, all ships must have oil filtering equipment and 15ppm bilge alarms which satisfy Requirements of MARPOL 73/78. Oily-water separator used in machinery area of ships usually consists of two parts; one is filtering equipment and the other is oil content meter(OCM). This study presents optical characteristics of bilge were acquired form oil content sensing module. The oil content sensing module consists of IR-LED light source, photo-diode light receivers, and a glass tube for bilge water sample. The experiment with the bilge water demonstrates various valuable optical properties. These optical properties suggest notes and guides to make the low-cost, easy operation and good performance commercial type OCM that satisfy the requirements of MARPOL 73/78.