Chichester Harbour Master Jo Cox explained, “The purpose of this exercise was to test our oil spill contingency plan and prepare our teams to be fully ready to respond to any incidents in the harbour. This was the first exercise of this nature involving both Chichester and Langstone Harbour authorities and demonstrated excellent cross agency working between the harbour authorities and other organisations.”
Representatives from agencies including Havant, Hampshire, Portsmouth, Chichester and West Sussex authorities, Natural England, The Maritime Coastguard Agency and Coastal Partners took part in the exercise, providing specialist advice and expertise.
“It was a great opportunity for our teams and boats to work together” said Billy Johnson, Langstone Harbour Master, “we used our work boat ‘Delilah’ as a platform to deploy our internal oil spill response capability and worked with our specialist contractor, Adler and Allan. The weather conditions made deploying booms challenging but all teams worked brilliantly together showing their passion for the harbour.”
Harbour teams trained in oil spill management practiced the deployment of specialist equipment from patrol RIBs and work boats. Sorbent booms and other equipment was used to simulate the process of containing and corralling the oil towards the shore, enabling shoreside recovery and safe disposal.
Protecting habitats and wildlife
Both Chichester Harbour and Langstone Harbour are important protected sites for nature, as well as being active harbours for water users.
“Langstone Harbour contains important protected saltmarsh habitat in close proximity to the exercise site” said Langstone Environmental Officer Meg Roberts, “this gave us the opportunity to test our strategic response to how we would manage the protection of sensitive sites, over wintering migrant birds and local wildlife in the event of an oil spill in the area.”
Chichester Harbour Ecologist, Pete Hughes added, “Both harbours are internationally important for their wildlife and habitats and are home to protected birds, seals, fish and other marine life. These fragile environments could be severely damaged in the event of an oil spill and training exercises like this event are important in practising our approach to managing potentially environmentally damaging incidents.
Sustainable boating
The RYA Green Blue website provides advice for boaters on preventing oil and fuel spills. Chichester Harbour Conservancy provides oil disposal facilities at Itchenor. Langstone Harbour Board offer separate containers for the disposal of waste oil, oil filters, and oily rags for boat-generated waste at the harbour office.