NAMEPA to Present 2009 Marine Environment Protection Award to U.S. Coast Guard

Award dinner to coincide with 2009 World Maritime Day Parallel Event on October 16th.

September 21, 2009 Clay Maitland, Founding Chairman of the North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA), announced that the United States Coast Guard is the recipient of NAMEPA’s 2009 Marine Environment Protection Award. The award will be presented at NAMEPA’s Awards Dinner to be held in New York in conjunction with the 2009 World Maritime Day Parallel Event on October 16th. Commandant Allen will be present to accept the award.

The NAMEPA Marine Environment Protection Award is given in recognition of an individual or organization’s efforts on behalf of preserving the marine environment as exemplified by a commitment to a program which has specific objectives set for environmental performance and improvement, and which is innovative and goes beyond minimum environmental compliance. Eligible candidates include members of the commercial maritime industry, government agencies, and individuals.

“The United States Coast Guard has demonstrated such a commitment on behalf of the marine environment, and has been proactive in protecting the health of our seas” stated Mr. Maitland. “We are pleased to recognize such an able, and distinguished, partner in working to ‘Save our Seas’."

The first NAMEPA Marine Environment Protection Award was presented last year posthumously to the founder of the MEPA movement, George P. Livanos who created HELMEPA 27 years ago due to his interest and concern for the marine environment.

Highlights from performance measures show that in 2008 the United States Coast Guard conducted over 11,000 Port State Control Examination, which included examination of Ballast Water for elimination of aquatic nuisance species, testing Oil Water Separators so no oil is discharged into the ocean as well as other pollution prevention and vessel safety activities; investigated almost 4,000 pollution incidents; conducted nearly 17,000 facility safety inspection and 20,000 container inspections; and incorporated M/V COSCO BUSAN Incident Specific Preparedness Report (ISPR) lessons learned into an improved response policy, which aligns response planning at local, state, and Federal levels.

The North American Marine Environment Protection Association was officially launched in 2007. In keeping with the mission of MEPAs worldwide, its aim is to increase environmental awareness and motivation of the human element within shipping and land-based industries that have a vested interest in preservation of the marine environment. Specifically, NAMEPA has the goal of educating the seafarers, port communities, and the wider public and school communities about the critical importance of the world’s oceans to mankind and the maritime industry’s role and actions to preserve it. NAMEPA is a maritime industry led initiative to “Save the Seas”, and welcomes members who share this mission. For more information, go to www.namepa.net .