NOAA Convenes with Indo-Pacific Partner Nations for Oil Spill Response Workshop

OCT. 2, 2023 — OR&R’s Emergency Response Division assisted with a Hawaii Oil Spill Response Workshop, sponsored by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), held in Honolulu on September 18-22.

Hawaii Oil Spill Response Workshop participants —from Sri Lanka, the Maldives, USINDOPACOM, and NOAA—visit the Battleship Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor. Image credit: USINDOPACOM.
Hawaii Oil Spill Response Workshop participants —from Sri Lanka, the Maldives, USINDOPACOM, and NOAA—visit the Battleship Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor. Image credit: USINDOPACOM.

The workshop was conducted with two key Indo-Pacific partner countries, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Thirty-two spill responders from Sri Lanka and four responders from the Maldives were sponsored to attend. Participants spanned from multiple agencies including those representing the military, disaster management, environmental protection, and wildlife and fisheries. 

The NOAA scientific support coordinator (SSC) for the Pacific Islands presented an overview of the role of OR&R’s scientific team in oil and hazardous material spill response and planning activities.

NOAA’s USINDOPACOM liaison officer arranged for the participants to visit the NOAA Inouye Regional Center on the last day of the workshop, where the SSC provided a tour of the center’s atrium exhibits, including the Science on a Sphere. 

Last updated Friday, October 6, 2023 8:54am PDT