Marine HNS Response Manual
17 January 2024
The Project to create the Marine HNS Response Manual was implemented through an inter-regional effort, including the participation of the Western Mediterranean Region Marine Oil and HNS Pollution Cooperation (West MOPoCo), the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC), the Bonn Agreement for the Greater North Sea and its approaches and the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) for the Baltic Sea. The project benefits from the technical support and expertise of expert partner institutions such as Cedre, ISPRA and ITOPF.
The present Manual has been developed by Cedre, ISPRA and ITOPF in the framework of the West MOPoCo project at the request of the Secretariat of the Bonn Agreement, HELCOM and REMPEC, to provide state of the art information on HNS pollution preparedness and response. The competent national authorities of Member States of the three regional conventions were consulted at each step of the drafting process, to ensure the Manual meets their operational needs and to enrich it with their national experience in responding to chemical spills at sea.
The objective of this Marine HNS Response Manual is to provide operational guidance for first responders and decision-makers during a maritime incident at sea or in port involving HNS. The manual does not cover all aspects of an incident involving HNS, but specifically addresses relevant offshore and onshore spill response techniques (but excludes topics such as search and rescue, salvage, medical treatment).