Press release 2013-08-28 at 12:26
Finnish and Estonian oil recovery vessels arrive to the area of the exercise. Photo: SYKE.
Finnish and Estonian authorities held an oil spill response exercise off the coast of Kotka on Tuesday 27 August. The exercise scenario involved a grounded oil tanker, with 30,000 tonnes of crude oil spilling into the sea. A huge oil slick 8 kilometres long and 1.5 kilometres wide, drifting towards the city of Kotka on south-westerly winds, was the imagined result.
The exercise began on Monday, when the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE’s duty officer for environmental incidents alerted both Finnish and Estonian oil recovery vessels. A total of six Finnish oil recovery vessels – the Hylje, Halli, Seili, Oili 1, Louhi and Merikarhu – were participating, while Estonia was contributing its new multipurpose vessel, the Kindral Kurvits.
The Kymenlaakso Rescue Services were also participating in the exerciseby mobilizing and testingtheir own oil-spill response equipment. A maritime surveillance aircraft tracked the spread of the oil and reported its observations to oil recovery vessels. During the exercise, no oil was actually spilled into the sea; small quantities of peat was used instead.
The aim of the exercise was to test oil-spill response, the command system, recovery technology, alarm procedures, and international co-operation between various authorities. Designed for oil-spill response operations, the BORIS situation awareness system for environmental emergency response was used during the exercise.
The exercise was arranged by SYKE’s Pollution Response Section.
For further information, please contact:
Senior Engineer Kalervo Jolma, Response Commander
Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, Pollution Response Section
firstname.lastname (at) ymparisto.fi
Tel. +358 400 444 686
Inspector Jouko Pirttijärvi
Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, Pollution Response Section
firstname.lastname (at) ymparisto.fi
Tel. +358 400 618 997
Web Editor-in-chief Aira Saloniemi
SYKE´s Communications
firstname.lastname (at) ymparisto.fi
Tel. +358 400 148875