Bonn Agreement/ Counter-Pollution Manual Chapter 7 Exercises

(i) to inform one another about bilateral or multilateral exercises concerning combating of pollution at sea in which one or more of the Contracting Parties have participated. This information should contain a short note on the exercise as such, in particular if special problems have been analysed, as well as lessons learned from the exercises with particular emphasis on matters of interest for the other Contracting Parties to the Bonn Agreement;

(ii) to endeavour to carry out regular exercises in order to strengthen the operational co-operation in pollution combating operations within the framework of the Bonn Agreement;

(iii) that exercise programmes for intersessional periods shall be agreed by the Contracting Parties at plenary meetings.

7.2.1 To avoid conflict with exercises undertaken in the Helsinki Convention and the Copenhagen Agreement, the Contracting Parties have agreed that alarm exercises in the Bonn Agreement should only be carried out in the months of March, June, September and December.

7.2.2 To identify exercise traffic, the text of all messages (both to and from the lead country) shall begin with the words

7.2.3 At the end of each exercise, the lead country shall send a final “END OF EXERCISE” signal to all Contracting Parties.

7.3.1 In the light of experience gained from the alarm exercises in the framework of the Bonn Agreement, the Contracting Parties have agreed that, in the event of a real pollution incident:

(i) Contracting Parties requesting and providing assistance should themselves notify their appropriate national authorities (Foreign Office and Customs) of expected times of arrival and departure of strike teams and equipment so as to avoid border problems;

(ii) Contracting Parties providing assistance will normally make arrangements for transportation of equipment to the place specified by the assisted Party, but that assisted Party should bear the total costs if so requested by the assisting State;

(iii) arrangements for the disposal of recovered substances should be part of every Contracting Party’s contingency plan;

(iv) it is the responsibility of the assisted Contracting Party to ensure that the recovered substances are disposed of satisfactorily and that the equipment which has been provided on request is returned to its owner in a clean state;

(v) a Contracting Party requesting assistance in the form of spraying aircraft will normally specify whether it wishes the assisting Contracting Party to provide the initial dispersant to be sprayed. The subsequent provision of dispersant will normally be the responsibility of the assisted Contracting Party.

7.3.2 It has been agreed that the efficiency of the arrangements under 7.3.1 (i) and (ii) above should be included when the Contracting Parties report back to OTSOPA on the outcome of alarm exercises.

7.3.3 It has been agreed that it would be useful if Contracting Parties which have dealt with real incidents would report on these issues in a manner similar to that used for exercises.

On finalisation of an exercise within the Bonn Agreement, the lead country shall prepare a brief report on lessons learned for the following OTSOPA meeting.

Names of participating Contracting Parties with a description of participating units from each Contracting Party.

            -           scenario
            -           command
            -           communications
            -           finalisation of exercise
            -           exercise reports from participating Contracting Parties.

A brief summary of comments received from each participating Contracting Party. Only comments on important matters should be mentioned.

A general conclusion from the lead country’s point of view on lessons learned. Suggestions and recommendations on how to improve exercises in the future.

Tables, statistics or figures can be added as necessary under each item as annexes at the end of the heading.

7.5 GUIDELINES FOR JOINT EXERCISES IN CO-OPERATION IN COMBATING SPILLAGES ON THE SEA WITHIN THE NORTH SEA AREA[1]

Within the BONN Agreement context, the following types of joint exercises in co-operation in combating spillages into the sea (BONNEX) have been agreed upon:

          - Alarm exercise             (BONNEX BRAVO)
          - Equipment exercise       (BONNEX CHARLIE)
          - Operational exercise     (BONNEX DELTA)

(i) The aim of this exercise type is to test the agreed procedures and lines of communication for reporting, requesting and providing assistance, and to get a picture of the current response readiness of the Contracting Parties to calls for assistance.

(ii) The exercise further aims at familiarising the personnel with the use and national handling of the adopted POLREP reporting form.

(iii) It is not the intention with this exercise that combating equipment and its handling personnel should be activated.

(iv) When receiving an Exercise POLREP (POLWARN), the participating Contracting Parties should record time of receipt, time of transmission to the responsible national authority and time for the receipt of the POLREP (POLWARN) by the person responsible for initiating further national action.

(v) When receiving an Exercise POLREP (POLINF/POLFAC), in addition to the time recorded as for POLREP (POLWARN), the participating Contracting Parties should e.g. make a realistic evaluation of types and amount of equipment as well as personnel at their disposal for rendering assistance called for as well as the estimated time of arrival at the scene of the accident.

(vi) After termination of each exercise, the Contracting Parties shall submit a report containing the aforementioned times and evaluations, as well as a description of the management structure during the event, to the lead country for the drafting of the Exercise Report with the aim of having this report presented and discussed at the first following meeting of OTSOPA and subsequently to the meeting of the Contracting Parties.

(vii) When sending the telefax to end the exercise, the lead country shall notify the deadline for submission of the report from each Contracting Party and the address to which the report should be sent.

(viii) The BONNEX BRAVO takes place without notice within a specified period of time, and the participants in the exercise are not notified of the incident before the exercise takes place.

(ix) The BONNEX BRAVO can be carried out between all the Contracting Parties and the arrangement and initiation of the exercise are undertaken by a designated lead country.

(i) The purpose of this exercise is to test the co-operation between combating units of the Contracting Parties with respect to both communication and equipment. It is intended to involve staff authorities only to a very limited extent.

(ii) The BONNEX CHARLIE is carried out between two (or more) Contracting Parties with bordering response regions.

(iii) Notice as to time and event is to be given well in advance of the exercise and Contracting Parties not taking part in the exercise and the Secretariat shall be invited to send observers to the exercise.

(iv) Reports on the exercise should be sent to the lead country for the drafting of the Exercise Report (see 7.4) with the aim of having this report presented and discussed at the following meeting of OTSOPA and subsequently to the Meeting of the Contracting Parties.

(v) The BONNEX CHARLIE is arranged and carried out after direct consultation between the Contracting Parties involved and following the lead country principle.

(i) The aim of this exercise type is partly to test the alarm procedure, the response capability and the response time of the Contracting Parties, partly to test and to train the staff functions and the co-operation between combating units of the Contracting Parties.

(ii) Guidelines for this exercise type will have to be worked out at a later stage when experience from undertaking the three foregoing exercise types has been gained.

Unless otherwise decided, each participating Contracting Party pays its own expenses for planning and implementing the various exercises.

A CEPCO operation can be defined as a continuous sequence of aerial surveillance flights supported by sea-borne assistance and, where possible, by data from satellite observations, to ensure a permanent presence (e.g. over a period of 24 hours) in a sea area with high shipping intensity. This high level of deployment of means is only possible when several neighbouring Contracting Parties cooperate intensively to ensure continuity and optimal coordination of the surveillance activities. The aims of the operation are, among others, to enhance the enforcement of discharge provisions at sea, to increase the deterrent effect of aerial surveillance efforts and to improve cooperation between participating authorities. An expanded CEPCO is an extension of the CEPCO programme.

The RTTG has a watching brief to monitor research and trials around the world, to promote the organisation of trials of developments that appear promising for the work of the Bonn Agreement, to review the outcome of all surveillance work in the Bonn Agreement area and to coordinate the exercise programme between the Bonn Agreement and HELCOM Contracting Parties. The group works mainly by correspondence.

[1] The North Sea Area covers the North Sea, the English Channel, the waters around Ireland and parts of the Western Approaches and the Norwegian Sea .