Planning Guidance For MOSPA Exercises

Abstract

The Agreement on Cooperation on Marine Oil Spill Preparedness and Response in the Arctic (MOSPA Agreement) aims to strengthen emergency cooperation and coordination of Arctic oil spill response operations amongst the eight Arctic States (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States). In order to focus the preparedness activities undertaken to enhance response coordination under the MOSPA Agreement, EPPR created the Marine Environmental Response Experts Group (MER EG) in 2016. MER EG is a group working under the direction of the EPPR with a focus on promoting the implementation of EPPR initiatives specific to the MOSPA Agreement, as well as future initiatives as determined by consensus of the EPPR membership. While there are many aspects of marine oil spill preparedness, this guidance has been prepared specifically for the planning of joint emergency response exercises referred to in both Article 13 of the MOSPA Agreement and Section 9 of the Operational Guidelines, which address joint exercises and training.