“Sharing of good practices for the carcasses management”: within GIAS project, a day dedicated to the security of navigation combining different competences
The workshop “Sharing of good practices for the carcasses management” takes place at University Campus of Savona, of the University of Genoa, on February 11th. The workshop is within the GIAS project, co-funded by the Interreg Italy-France 2014-2020 Programme and led by ARPAL. The goal is to improve the security of navigation in the cross-border area, in particular in Pelagos Sanctuary, and to support the emergency management in case of pollutants spill.
The maritime area of interest is subject to many anthropic pressures, potentially in conflict with each other. On one side, there is an intense marine traffic, on the other, the coasts are densely inhabited and base a big part of their economy on tourism, and therefore on the quality of the marine environment. This can be potentially damaged by events of massive pollution, such as happened in 1991, when the oil tanker M/S Haven foundered in the Gulf of Genoa. Moreover, the area has a unique ecosystem for the conservation of several species of marine mammals, that is the Pelagos Sanctuary, and various marine protected areas.
Through the cooperation of bodies for the environmental protection and research centers, the GIAS project aims to combine a secure navigation allowing economic development with the environment safeguard. Therefore, the project will develop modellistic procedures for the forecasting of meteorological events currently difficult to forecast (for example, fog and anomalous waves), and it will also develop tools for tracking large objects, such as cetacean carcasses (in particular baleen and sperm whales). The collision with carcasses represents in fact a danger for the navigation, and the impact has an economic cost for the companies in terms of reparations and delays.
Collisions are the focus of the workshop. The speakers, coming from French and Italian institutions, will give an overview of the current situation of carcasses management, on ongoing projects and on the risk perception by sailors (here the complete program of the day). Together with the partners of the projects, there will be many other stakeholders dealing with policy and marine mammals conservation, such as ACCOBAMS and Pelagos (with representatives of Pelagos International and Pelagos France) and security bodies such as Italian Port Authority and French Maritime Prefecture. Sea operators caring for sea environment and biodiversity protection, such as Corsica Sardina Ferriers, will also be present.
“The workshop represents a fundamental moment for the discussion of good practices used in the Italian and French territories. The bodies intervening are different but with the common goal of making the procedures as cross-border as possible”, says Massimiano Rosso, project manager for CIMA Research Foundation. “The strength of GIAS is in this cooperation: the partnership of different competences could allow us to make the development of maritime activities sustainable”.