Oil disaster successfully prevented in Bornholm
– in HELCOM exercise

30 August 2011, Bornholm, HELCOM Information Service – Oil-combatting forces of the Baltic Sea countries joined under the HELCOM flag to test its preparedness to a major oil spill accident during an international exercise held today off the Danish Island of Bornholm.

The drill, BALEX DELTA 2011, is the largest emergency operation of its kind in the Baltic Sea and one of the largest worldwide, conducted by the coastal countries every year. This time the exercise was organized by the Admiral Danish Fleet and it involved a scenario where an oil tanker collides with a large trawler in the waters between Sweden and Denmark. As a result, the tanker suffers the breach of its two cargo tanks and leaks around 5,000 tonnes of crude oil drifting towards Bornholm.

The sea-going vessels were tasked to jointly prevent the oil slick from coming ashore. The pollution which anyway reached the shore was handled with a national clean-up and oiled wildlife response operation.

“My evaluation of the exercise is that in spite of the rough weather in the beginning of the operation the responders cooperated smoothly under unified command, communication routines were closely followed and deployment and testing of the pollution recovery equipment went undisrupted,” says Bernt Stedt, the Chairman of the HELCOM Response Group. “The vessels’ crews and operational staff on land gained valuable experience which is needed to effectively deal with a real-world emergency situation.“

In total, 14 oil-pollution-combating ships as well as smaller vessels participated from eight HELCOM countries - Denmark, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden. A Danish pollution patrol aircraft took part in the exercise as well and the European Union, being one of the HELCOM members, was represented by one response vessel chartered by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). In addition, over 20 observers from all the Baltic Sea countries, EMSA, non-governmental organizations as well as shipping industry were monitoring the actions of the response units.

Background:

BALEX DELTA operational response exercises have been held annually since 1989. Throughout this time HELCOM has steadily improved the readiness of the countries around the Baltic to jointly respond to oil spills at sea.

The Baltic Sea today is one of the busiest seas in the world, accounting for around 9% of total cargo and 11% of oil transportation in world traffic. There are about 2,000 ships in the Baltic marine area at any given moment.

Although growing traffic is a positive sign of intensified cooperation in the Baltic Sea region and a prospering economy, it also makes potentially polluting shipping accidents more likely. Collisions and groundings have increased, and these days there are some 120-140 shipping accidents in the Baltic Sea area every year. Fortunately, most of the accidents in the Baltic do not cause notable pollution. Over the period 2000-2009, an average of 7% of all reported accidents resulted in some kind of pollution. However, even just one large-scale accident would seriously threaten the marine environment. Two of the five most serious accidents in the Baltic marine area have occurred since 2001 – involving “Baltic Carrier” in 2001 (2,700 tons of oil spilt), and “Fu Shan Hai” in 2003 (1,200 tons of oil spilt).

Note to Editors:

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, usually referred to as the Helsinki Commission or HELCOM, is an intergovernmental organisation of all the nine Baltic Sea countries and the EU. It works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution.

HELCOM is the governing body of the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area," known as the Helsinki Convention.

For more information, please contact:

Ms. Monika Stankiewicz
Professional Secretary
HELCOM

Tel: +358 (0)40 840 2471

Fax: +358 (0)207 412 645

E-mail: monika.stankiewicz@helcom.fi

Ms. Johanna Laurila
Information Secretary
HELCOM

Tel: +358 (0)40 523 8988

Fax: +358 (0)207 412 645

E-mail: johanna.laurila@helcom.fi  

Skype: helcom70