The coast guard keeps an eye on the sea

Coast guard

Polex exercise 2013

June 25th a Polex exercise was carried out near the windmill farm C-Power. This anti-pollution exercise aimed at testing and training the coordinated deployment of dispersants in and around the windmill farms. Dispersants are chemical products, more in particular, detergents that are specifically used for combating oil at sea. By spraying dispersants onto the oil, the natural dispersion of an oil slick (wave energy resulting in the breaking down of the oil slick into tiny droplets which are released into the water column and are thus diluted) can be accelerated greatly.

Exercise Polex 2013

Spraying dispersants is often done out of an airplane, but it can also be done from a vessel, as was the case during this exercise. For this POLEX exercise a Vikospray dispersant-spraying system was deployed. This system, which belongs to Belgium's national combating means, atomizes detergents above the oil slick by means of spraying-arms installed on vessels of the ministry of Defence, in this case BNS Stern. The testing of the Vikospray-system was successful.

Different coast guard partners worked toghether during this exercise: the ministry of Defence, Mumm (Management Unit of the North Sea Mathematical Models), FPS Public Health (DG Environment), Civil Protection, the MRCC (Maritime Rescue- and Coordination Centre) and the MIK (Maritime Security Centre Belgium). Windmill operator C-Power also took part. The exercise showed some points for improvement but overall good results were booked regarding cooperation and communication.

Pictures (with thanks to Jean-Pierre Vogt of MUMM and Jan Tavernier of DG Environment: