“Adriatic 11” exercise

The exercise was attended by the Croatian Coast Guard ship Faust Vrancic, water tanker ship and Pilatus airplane, which is used for reconnaissance for the Coast Guard, the crew of the Port Authority and the Ministry of the Interior, National Protection and Rescue Directorate – Regional Office for Protection and Rescue Split / County Centre 112, National Centre for Coordinating Search and Rescue – Rijeka, Split County Operations Centre and other government bodies responsible for safety at sea.
Nearly two-hour exercise was held on the north side of Lora Naval Base, and its participants demonstrated actions and procedures, communication and the ability of joint actions of the state administration in case of marine pollution due to the explosion on the tanker, and material and human resources.

Head of the exercise was Captain Boris Matošić from the Port Authorities Office Split – Commander of the County Operations Centre Split, and the exercise was monitored by the Commander of the Coast Guard Captain Marin Stosic, Commander of the Norwegian Coast Guard Commodore Arild Skram with colleagues, Captain Josko Nikolic, Director of Safety Navigation and Sea Protection in Ministry of Sea, Transport and Infrastructure and representatives from BiH, Albania Montenegro Slovenia, Italy and Greece.

After the exercise the commander of the Norwegian Coast Guard Commodore Skram stressed that each country must be ready to react in case of such situations and that this exercise was important not only for Croatia but also for all countries that have sea. He noted that in case of contamination, the most important was prevention, and concluded that any such exercise was a challenge and new experience.

The commander of the Croatian Coast Guard Captain Marin Stosic said that this kind of threat to the sea must be placed in the first place. The Coast Guard, as he noted, has the biggest capabilities to prevent these types of pollution, especially in the open sea. According to him the ship Faust Vrancic, has all the necessary maritime capabilities and it is planned to equip it with modular equipment. “Today we demonstrated willingness of all stakeholders in the prevention of marine pollution. The reaction was very fast and on time”, Stosic said. He pointed out very good cooperation in this field with Norway, and the importance of subregional cooperation, since, as he said, Adriatic was our destiny.