The MARISEC project collects best practices in the Baltic Sea region for combating oil and chemical spills, tests the efficiency of response equipment, and develops an action plan to enhance performance and training activities. Testing response and recovery equipment aims to validate current capabilities and assess future development needs. The project is carried out in collaboration with the Kymenlaakso Rescue Services and Xamk, the South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences.
Targets
The project aims to strengthen the Baltic Sea region’s resilience to maritime environmental accidents by promoting risk awareness, preparedness, and response capabilities. Additionally, it seeks to enhance cross-sectoral co-operation within the field and foster mutual interaction among the Baltic Sea coastal states.
The project also aims to improve preparation for responding to hazardous substance incidents in coastal areas and to strengthen national authorities’ expertise and operational reliability in combating environmental damage by utilizing the latest technology. The focus is particularly on verifying current response and recovery capabilities through practical testing, assessing future development needs, and evaluating the applicability of new technologies and measures to enhance performance.
Procedures
The project will implement key actions related to compiling results from previous projects, testing oil spill response equipment, collecting best practices, and assessing current capabilities in environmental damage response. These efforts will culminate in comprehensive syntheses enriched through dedicated workshops and presented at a joint seminar.
1. Collect and leverage results and outputs from previous projects and existing models related to oil and chemical spill risks and response in the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea coastal areas. This includes identifying and describing significant changes in the risk landscape, including those arising from the green transition, such as evolving types of hazardous substances like renewable and recycled-based products.
2. Evaluate the recovery capacity of current oil spill response equipment and test the latest oil spill response technologies to support current capabilities against the most likely and potentially emerging types of hazardous substances in the future.
3. Compile best practices and preparedness models for combating environmental damage in the Baltic Sea region and explore opportunities to leverage new technologies. This effort will draw on both national and international networks.
4. Assess the current state of environmental damage response capabilities and preparedness levels based on the situational awareness developed during the project. Develop a unified action plan to modernize performance and improve training activities.
5. Organize project workshops and a seminar to present project results, outputs, and observations made during the project, ensuring broad dissemination and impact.
Our Tasks
Merikotka will produce an analysis of previously published risk assessments for the Baltic Sea as part of the project. The aim is to determine how oil and chemical spill risks have been approached in the past, what factors have been considered, and what outcomes have been achieved. Building on this foundation, we will develop a qualitative risk landscape change analysis to map how these risks have recently evolved and will likely change shortly.
This description will be further enriched in the project’s workshops, where the findings will be refined through discussions with experts. Based on the results, the usability of previous risk assessments will be evaluated, and the need for their updates and revisions will be identified.
The analysis outcomes will also be utilized in other project work packages and final-stage workshops to explore near-future investments, development, and knowledge needs.
Funding and Project Partners
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides funding for the project, with the Ministry of the Interior as the responsible ministry.
