The TC Beirne School of Law’s Marine and Shipping Law Unit convened and facilitated a workshop on Transboundary Maritime Environmental Pollution from 20th-22nd May 2015 on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), and in conjunction with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA). The Workshop was held as part of Australia’s support for the Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum (EAMF) Expanded ASEAN Seafarers’ Training (EAST). The workshop was co-chaired by Australia (Mr Jamie Storrie, Acting General Manager, Marine Environment, Australian Maritime Safety Authority) and Vietnam (Mr Le Dai Thang, Deputy Director, Bureau of Marine Resources Control and Marine Island Environment Protection, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment).
The workshop was designed and delivered by Professor Craig Forrest (MASLU) and Mr Jamie Storrie. It featured a number of keynote speakers, including Ms Colleen O’Hagan, Technical Officer, International Maritime Organisation (IMO); Mr Alex Hunt, Technical Team Manager, International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) and Mr Said Faisal, Director, ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre). Participating delegations were form Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Vietnam, Korea and United States.
The workshop examined existing international, regional and national mechanisms for co-operation in transboundary marine pollution incident and considered other regimes, mechanisms and good practice that may enhance this existing regime and further cooperation in transboundary marine pollution incidents. A number of pollution incidents were examined and reviewed for lessons learned, beginning with the Torrey Canyon spill in 1967 and moving through to more recent spills such as the Prestige, Rena, Deepwater Horizon, Montara and spills caused during Typhoon Haiyan.
