ITOPF attends UK National Oil spill Contingency Plan test exercise

More than 100 attendees involved in the marine pollution response industry came together for the UK National Contingency Plan exercise, which took place in Fareham as the plan was put through a mock pollution incident scenario. This exercise was jointly hosted by the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency and bp.

ITOPF was on-site for the exercise and was represented by two of its Technical Advisers whose role it is to attend ship-source pollution events worldwide and provide objective advice to those managing clean-up efforts.

Sue Ware acted as part of the evaluation committee alongside the UK government marine response cell, while Amy Jewell moved between MCA and BP incident commands to provide objective technical advice, undertaking many of the same responsibilities that ITOPF undertake on-site for real events.

Rigorous exercises such as these provide an important basis for live incidents when they do occur and benefit not only the marine pollution response community but in turn the wider marine environment, helping to mitigate environmental impacts with well-practised procedures and processes.