Port accessThe Port extension waters were the scene of the first mock drill of the year in the anti-marine pollution fight in the Port of Bilbao, which was coordinated by the Port Authority. Its aim was to put to test the Internal Maritime Plan for accidental marine pollution, the coordination among the different agents responsible for the same and the response action in an accidental pollution scenario in the Port’s waters.
Craft belonging to the mooring and tug companies, and to the Port Authority took part in the drill, and the first action was to place a 400-metre long containment barrier. Later, other containment means together with mechanical hydrocarbon collection were employed in the sea.
Bilbao is one of the ports in Europe, which has at its disposal more of its own means to face this type of emergency. For example, in order to combat marine pollution, the Port Authority, has four containers with different types of containment barriers, which together total 1,650 metres. To this must be added the barriers belonging to industrial companies located in the Port of Bilbao like Petronor, Tepsa and Esergui, as well as those of the Ibaizabal mooring and tug operating company. Furthermore, the Port of Bilbao, is the leader within the Spanish port system with regard to its capacity to respond to possible emergencies caused by hazardous goods.
