Lithuania will host this year’s oil spill response exercise, BALEX DELTA 2024, starting today in Klaipeda, Lithuania. The largest Baltic Sea international pollution incident drill lasts for four days and will involve twelve ships from seven different countries at sea, preceded by a shoreline and wildlife response exercise, conducted on Tuesday 27 August.
The annual BALEX DELTA is a complex exercise. They have been conducted since the late 1980s, substantially improving the readiness of Baltic Sea coastal countries to respond collectively to major pollution incidents. The HELCOM Response Working Group has been committed to ensuring that all related procedures and plans are in place and regularly updated as needed.
Among the priorities this year are to test the alerting and assistance request procedures and to practice the shoreline response capability, the latter bringing together the unified Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian units under a single command.
The main organizers of BALEX DELTA 2024 are the Lithuanian Navy, Klaipeda Fire Rescue Department of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania, Klaipeda State Seaport Authority, and the Baltic Sea Rehabilitation Center of the Lithuanian Maritime Museum. Observers representing various organizations such as the European Union, European Maritime Safety Agency and HELCOM will participate in the exercise. This year the total number of exercise participants will reach over 300 people.
During the BALEX 2024 exercise, various tasks are carried out such as a BALEX ALPHA table-top exercise on response to incidents with Hazardous and Noxious Substances (HNS) cargo, emergency ship towing, firefighting at sea, pollution detection with EMSA CleanSeaNet service support, pollution monitoring from the air, pollution dispersion modeling (SeaTrackWeb), response of pollution incidents at sea, in the port and on shore, and reception of collected pollutants from ships to ships (STS), provided help for animals and birds affected by oil.
Firefighting teams from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will carry out pollutant response work in the Curonian Lagoon and on the shore. Rendering assistance to birds affected by oil will be practiced by the Baltic Sea Rehabilitation Center of the Lithuanian Maritime Museum.
About BALEX DELTA
The annual international marine pollution response exercise in the Baltic Sea, BALEX, is held in accordance with the 1992 Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area (the Helsinki Convention). The Convention mandates cooperative responses and preparedness among the Baltic Sea States for large-scale accidents.
The general objective of the BALEX exercises is to ensure that every Contracting Party is able to lead a major response operation.
BALEX exercises are hosted by the Contracting Parties according to a schedule agreed on by the HELCOM Response Working Group. BALEX has been held every year since 1989.
Contact
Johanna Laurila
Communications Advisor, HELCOM
Johanna.laurila@helcom.fi
Tel +358 40 647 3996
Markus Helavuori
Deputy Executive Secretary, Professional Secretary (WG Maritime, WG Response, WG Sea-based pressures)
Markus.helavuori@helcom.fi
Tel +358 40 162 6520
