The exercise was an important element in ensuring our National and State readiness to deal with such an emergency.
The three day exercise was well attended by over 130 people, and hosted by AMSA and the South Australian Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, as control agency for coastal marine pollution. The exercise scenario was based on a hypothetical shipping incident involving the release of oil pollution in the Spencer Gulf near Adelaide.
The event provided an excellent opportunity to improve participants understanding, capability, and ability to manage and deal with such a scenario using and integrating national and state emergency management arrangements.
The exercise also provided an opportunity for the wider SA emergency management sector to gain further exposure to maritime environmental emergencies. It reinforced the arrangements and relationships under the National Plan and provided for valuable face-to-face interaction of National Response Team members, AMSA advisors, and state staff.
South Australian participants were able to put their training into practice, share experiences with each other, and identify processes that worked well as well as opportunities for improvement.
The first day was a panel discussion format which highlighted the national and state context, and exploring of how State, National and other jurisdictions and organisations to work together under the National Plan.
Days two and three were a functional Incident Management Team (IMT) exercise, to work and continue to build state and national capability in management and strengthening the interfaces and linkages for such scenarios.
National Response Team (NRT) members actively participated in the workshop which also provided an opportunity to trial the use of AMSA advisors to the Incident Management team. Attendance of representatives from the International Tank Owners Pollution Federation Limited (ITOPF) provided an excellent opportunity to share expertise and knowledge.
As with all exercises, there were plenty of learnings for all involved.