In the picture: The ISCO Delegation to the IMO OPRC-HNS TG13 meeting. From left to right, standing – Dr Wierd Koops, Honorary Member, (Netherlands); Dr Merv Fingas, Member of ISCO Council for Canada; seated – John McMurtrie, ISCO Secretary (UK); David Usher, ISCO President (USA); Dr Douglas Cormack, Honorary Member (UK). Photo: Courtesy of Josée Lamoureux.

Last week delegations from 27 governments, REMPEC, EEC, IOPC Funds, MOWCA, and 7 NGOs participated in the 13th Session of the IMO OPRC-HNS Technical Group on the Implementation of the OPRC Convention and the OPRC-HNS Protocol and relevant Conference Resolutions.

Over 5 days the TG addressed a full agenda covering the development of Manuals and Guidance Documents, Training, Information Services and  

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Exchange, and Technical Co-operation Implementation on OPRC and HNS.  The meeting was chaired by Alexander von Buxhoeveden (Sweden).

Work on the various agenda items was complemented by a number of special presentations given by members of the attending delegations –

• Dr Rebecca Coward of ITOPF gave a presentation on the clean-up operations on the west coast of Sweden following a collision involving the bulk carrier Golden Trader.

• Luigi Alcaro of ISPRA, Italy, gave a summary of events and operations following the Costa Concordia cruise liner accident in Italy.

• Dr Wierd Koops of ISCO and the University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands described the scope of the new on-line chemical spill response manual and interactive HNS database and gave a demonstration of the system.

• Carlos Ormaechea of IMO MSD gave a presentation on the IMO Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GISIS).

• Alexander von Buxhoeveden (Swedish Coast Guard) gave a presentation on oil spills that occurred in Swedish waters during 2011, including a spill of Crude Tall Oil (by-product of wood processing).

• Marisa Fernandez (Spain) gave an update on the activities of the ARCOPOL Project (a project framed in the Atlantic Area Transnational Programme focused on the preparedness, response to and mitigation of accidental marine pollution impacting on the shoreline).  

• Marek Reszko from Gdynia, Poland briefed the meeting on the activities of the BRISK project which is concerned with the risk of spills of oil and HNS in the Baltic Sea.

• Annabelle Nicholas of ITOPF gave a presentation on the December 2011 oil spill following the grounding of the vessel in Brittany, France.

• Christophe Rousseau of CEDRE, France presented on the new Flume Tank and Ecotoxicology Test Bench created by CEDRE, describing the new developments at CEDRE and their functions.

• Burak Aykan from Turkey described Turkey’s oil and HNS response plan, the new bases and other facilities being developed in Turkey.

• Andrew Berry of Maritime New Zealand described the events and operations following the Container Vessel Rena impacting a reef  offshore Tauranga, New Zealand.

• David Usher of ISCO gave a presentation on submerged oil recovery, including new concepts and prototype testing at the OHMSETT facility in the USA.

NOTE: Readers wishing to access more information on topics described can use the following links –  Chemical Spill Response Manual   GISIS   BRISK  ARCOPOL Maritime New Zealand   or drop a line to the Editor at  [email protected]