NAMEPA Part I: It’s good to talk…
Posted on | February 15, 2010 | No Comments
I am off to Houston this week for MareForum USA, where I have been asked to talk about the development of NAMEPA [North American Marine Environment Protection Association], so I thought this would be a great time to share this information with my blog readers.
The mission of NAMEPA, now in its 3rd year of existence, is to bring together like-minded individuals and organizations in the maritime and environmental communities, to promote “best practices” and a greener marine environment, throughout North America, from the Arctic to the Caribbean, and including the rivers, lakes, and inland waterways of the continent.
Part of its guiding vision can be summarized in the word “partnership” – - industry, local and national governments, environmental organizations and concerned individuals acting together as preventers and responders. NAMEPA, with more than 80 members and growing, supports the mission of the United States and Canadian Coast Guards in, as one Coast Guard officer has put it, “putting responders out of business.” But it is not always possible to anticipate or prevent a spill or other incident.
When a spill or other incident occurs, government often finds that it needs an interlocutor. In the highly political atmosphere that surrounds such diverse incidents as Hurricane Katrina, the EXXON VALDEZ oil spill, the COSCO BUSAN allision, first responders and those who work with them often find themselves in the direct line of fire from the media, representatives of the public, politicians, bloggers and critics of other kinds.
For many years, the environmental community, trade unions and government agencies, as well as the maritime industry in general, have understandably found it difficult to communicate with one another, and across the barricades and battle lines of organized outrage.
One consequence of this climate has been a failure to give credit to so-called first responders and other agencies, such as coast guards and other agencies such as NOAA, that contribute so much to prevention and remediation. It is also true that our industry as whole, including classification societies, port authorities, flag states, and private organizations, such as salvors, perform functions that are often unclear to the public and academic communities.
There is a high price to be paid for the famous phrase: “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
Nowhere is this more true than in the period of investigation and remediation after an environmental incident.
Coming up later this week…. what next for NAMEPA.
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