Following to Interspill 2018, the MOIG Management Committee was very delighted to welcome the new technical partner, the Adriatic Training and Research Center for Accidental Marine Pollution Preparedness and Response (ATRAC).
The institution was established by Primorje-Gorski kotar County within the EU financed project Strengthening common reaction capacity to fight sea pollution of oil, toxic and hazardous substances in Adriatic Sea“ – HAZADR.
ATRAC’s key role is to provide training and education to the personnel from all Adriatic countries in all matters related to oil spill preparedness and response and its main goal is to improve cross-border cooperation and communication, so as to prevent the risk of oil spills and manage the crisis situation resulting in marine pollution.
The Centre strives to harmonize national legislations within the region, by continuously monitoring all the activities related to prevention, preparedness and response to accidental marine pollution in the whole Adriatic-Ionian region.

ATRAC’s main activities include:

1. Education of personnel involved in national and regional systems for preparedness and response to oil spills and spills of hazardous and noxious substances (HNS);
2. Preparation and organization of oil spill response exercises, of all scales;
3. Studying different response strategies and techniques;
4. Publication of relevant technical papers and documents related to fighting oil pollution at sea;
5. Gathering and processing useful information for improvement of national/regional preparedness and response;
6. Networking between institutions and experts involved in existing preparedness and response system in the region systems;
7. Offering technical advice to responders in case of an incident;
8. Writing, revision and update of contingency plans;
9. Preparing operational agreements in order to improve local/regional, national and cross-border cooperation in case of an incident;
10. Advising the local, regional and national authorities in case of an incident;
11. Research of methods and techniques for combating oil spills at sea and on shore;
12. Testing and developing response equipment for combating oil spills at sea and on shore.

ATRAC provides service to:

1. Competent national, regional and local authorities responsible for oil spill prevention, preparedness and response;
2. Coast Guards from all Adriatic countries;
3. Navy and Ministry of Defence involved in national preparedness and response system;
4. Civil protection services of all Adriatic countries;
5. Public and private companies specialized in combating oil spills;
6. Ports and port authorities;
7. Oil and chemical industries;
8. Coastal power plants;
9. Other coastal industries;
10. Maritime / charter sector, including shipowners, Marines;
11. Tourism sector, including coastal objects;
12. Fisheries and aquaculture sector;
13. Volunteers and NGOs involved in protecting the Adriatic Sea from pollution;

All other stakeholders interested in protecting the Adriatic Sea from pollution.
MOIG will benefit through ATRAC accession the technical support in the form of technical assistance, knowledge transfer and capacity building on oil spill preparedness and response, receipt of ATRAC newsletters and other benefits.
The MOIG Management Committee would like to thank ATRAC for agreeing MOIG request to be a technical partner. For more information about ATRAC, please visit the website on www.atrac.hr