Responding to an accident at sea with an oil spill was the subject of an exercise by the Navy of the Army of Montenegro and the Navy of Slovenia in the waters of the Tivat Bay, which was also an opportunity to demonstrate the interdepartmental cooperation of all Montenegrin state institutions involved in the civil safety system at sea. .
The multi-purpose patrol ship VNL-11 "Triglav" of the Slovenian Navy and an eight-member team of the Civil Protection of that country, two helicopters of the "Gazelle" type of the Croatian Air Force, vessels of the Croatian Navy - offshore tugboat PR-41 "Orada", harbor tugboat LR-77 took part in the exercise. , motor boat "Polycat", two high-speed RHIBs of the "Valiant" type, environmental ship "EKO-1" of the Maritime Safety Administration of Montenegro, barge "EKO-2", vessel of the Port Authority of Kotor, patrol boat P-110 "Herceg Novi " of the Maritime Police, as well as members of the Rescue Squad and Maritime Squad of the MCG and representatives of the Directorate for Emergency Situations of the MUP.
About 41 people participated in the exercise, which was supervised from the deck of the tug PR-120 by the commander of the MCG, the captain of the battleship Darko Vuković and the director of the UPS of Montenegro, captain Vladan Radonjić, as well as the Coordination Center for Rescue at Sea MRCC Bar.
According to the scenario of the exercise, the yacht "Neverina" ran aground in the Tivat Bay, which was "acted" by the diving barge BRM-85. After the call for help, the Coordination Center launched the entire emergency response system. VCG helicopters performed an aerial reconnaissance of the stricken ship and the oil stains that leaked from the damaged yacht and spread across the bay.
The MCG medical team provided first aid to an injured member of the yacht's crew, a military diver examined the underwater part of the hull and temporarily repaired the damage, in order for the tugboat to bring the barge "EKO-2" to the spot, from which the floating dam was lowered into the sea and "picked up" with a skimmer “ greasy stain. The Slovenian "Triglav" and our tugboat "Orada" then, using the horseshoe system, towed together the second dam, which had been prepared in the meantime by members of the Slovenian Civil Protection, and with it stopped the spread of the alleged oil spill on the waters towards Bijela.
The exercise ended on the coast in Petrovići, where a special field team of the MCG, using a floating dam, dispersants, absorbers and other special technical equipment, demonstrated the remediation of oil pollution of the sea and coast.
"This exercise represents the implementation in practice of legal solutions on the protection of the sea from vessels and the national plan that foresees the creation of a system of state services to respond to such emergency situations. We managed to create an inter-resource system that, using all the means available to various state bodies, can respond adequately. In my opinion, the exercise was a complete success and from today we are even more ready to respond to possible accidents that would happen on our sea", said the director of UPS Montenegro, captain Vladan Radonjić.
The commander of the MCG, the captain of the battleship Darko Vuković emphasized the complexity of the exercise, which involved all competent state institutions of Montenegro, as well as guests from Slovenia.
"Since this was a military-civilian, but at the same time international exercise, we had to take into account the application of completely different standards that are applied in such international activities in communication, joint maneuvering of ships and everything else," said Vuković, adding that ADRION the initiative, whose members are the countries of the Adriatic-Ionian region, takes a step further by signing a multilateral technical agreement "which will enable legal prerequisites for the engagement of our fleet in various situations, especially in the case of sea pollution".
Rok Kamenšek from the Administration for Protection and Rescue of Slovenia emphasized that the exercise was a complete success and proved that the services of the two countries can successfully cooperate in the event of environmental incidents at sea.
Gallery
Bonus video:
