Final seminar on 25 August 2015 in the context of the IMISS 2015 seminar, part of the Maritime Safety Week

The project’s final seminar will be held in Kotka at Maritime Centre Vellamo on 25 August, in the context of the international IMISS 2015 seminar. The seminar coincides with the Maritime Safety Week that will see a wide range of events organised in Kotka and Helsinki. Project results will be discussed by Project Director Olli-Pekka Brunila from Turku University’s Brahea Centre for maritime training and research in a presentation entitled ”Ports’ environmental management in the Baltic Sea”.

INTER final seminar 2 December 2014

Development work on the Research Facilitator operational model was carried out as a survey. The aim of the survey was to identify the existing resources, needs and implementation possibilities of the Kymenlaakso region’s research support services.

The survey was implemented as a purchased service, and drew participants from eight of the region’s RDI organisations. The implementation and results of the survey have been explained in a separate document and appended to the final report (Support services for project preparation in the Kymenlaakso region, Oxford Research Oy). The survey results were presented to the region’s actors in a seminar on 2 December 2014, which laid the groundwork for the organisation and resourcing of a common project preparation arrangement. The seminar was organised in collaboration with the KyGlo, Fifi and Bridge-Moct projects.

RescOP project presented in Brussels

The results of the RescOP project were presented on 7 October at an ENPI CBC programme workshop, organised in the framework of the EU Open Days 2014 event in Brussels. Researcher Floris Goerlandt (Aalto University) discussed the results and good cooperation practices, which are invaluable when working across borders.

Gastropod unknown to science discovered in Finland

Less than half a centimetre in length, dainty and translucent, small gastropods discovered over the past year in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Hamina have received astonished reactions and international interest. The species in question, which has never been observed before, is likely to be an introduced species possibly transported to Finnish waters by maritime traffic. The gastropods were found during field research conducted in the framework of the EU-ENPI-funded Russo-Finnish TOPCONS project, and were also observed in hard seabed samples taken by divers from the Metsähallitus Nature Service and research vessel Muikku. The depth of the discoveries ranged from a few metres to ten metres.
Work undertaken in the context of the TOPCONS project complements a wider-ranging project (the VELMU programme) mapping the biodiversity of Finland’s underwater marine environment.

Genetic testing and morphological analysis carried out by international experts on marine gastropods could not, however, connect the new discovery to any known species, implying that the newly found gastropod may be unknown to science. It belongs in the family Murchisonellidae, found in all of the world’s oceans, with some related species also observed in Europe. The closest individual sightings of species belonging to the family in question have been reported in the southern Baltic Sea, around the Danish straits. While the gastropod’s origin remains unclear, this is likely to be a brackish environment, as the water off the coast of Hamina only has a salinity level of about 0.4%. They have so far not been found in comparable environments in the western parts of the Gulf of Finland or elsewhere along the Finnish coast. Off the coast of Hamina, however, dozens of individuals were observed, with population densities of up to 500 individuals per square metre.

A description of the new species is being worked on at the Stockholm Natural History Museum, but is expected to take some time. Experts with knowledge of the gastropod family in question from Japan, New Zealand, Chile, Russia and Ukraine have also been involved.

Picture: Katriina Könönen/Metsähallitus

WINOIL Final Seminar

The final seminar for the WINOIL project was held on 30 September in St. Petersburg’s Central Marine Research & Design Institute (CNIIMF). Download the programme here.

Baltic Sea Oil Spill Conference 20-21.11.2013

Baltic Sea Oil Spill Conference 20-21.11.2013 Vellamo, Kotka

Moderator: Mikael Panelius, TallinkSilja
Programme of the English-language conference:

11:45 Registration
11:55 Lunch
12:30 Welcome: Tommi Arola, Finnish Transport Agency
12:45 Oil spill prevention and cooperation along the Baltic Sea: Hermanni Backer, HELCOM
13:15 OILRISK: Riikka Venesjärvi, Helsinki University
13:45 Forecasting of oil transportation and insight in ship’s crew: Olli-Pekka Brunila, University of Turku
14:15 Coffee break
14:45 Can illegal actions cause oil spills?: Mirva Salokorpi, Kymenlaakso University of Applied Sciences
15:05 Contributors to a grounding accident – What does evidence tell: Arsham Mazaheri, Aalto University
15:35 Assessing the consequences of collision and grounding accidents: Kristjan Tabri, Tallinn University of Technology
15:45 Smart Response Web – enabling dynamic situation awareness: Robert Aps, University of Tartu
16:15 Estimating length of oiled coastline after a spill: Kim Dahlbo, Finnish Environment Institute
16:30 The HELCOM oil drift forecast system Seatrack Web: Anette Jönsson, SMHI
17:00 A metamodel for evaluating measures to minimize oil spill risks: Annukka Lehikoinen, University of Helsinki

17.20 A risk governance framework to improve maritime safety: Päivi Haapasaari, University of Helsinki
18:00 Conclusion
19:00 Dinner at Fransmanni, Keskuskatu 21 (at own expense)

Thursday 21 November 2013

9:30 Oil spill risk management in the Baltic Sea: Agoshkov, Institute of Numerical Mathematics, Moscow
9:45 Optimum ship routes – a risk theory based solution: Agoshkov, Institute of Numerical Mathematics, Moscow
10:00 The Baltic Sea circulation and assessment of marine pollution: Zalesny, Institute of Numerical Mathematics, Moscow
10:15 Baltic cooperation for oil spills: Jonas Pålsson, Baltic Maritime Science Park
10:35 Oil Spill Recovery in Ice: Esa Ritari, Aker Arctic
10:55 Coffee
11:15 Baltic cooperation for authorities: Ojars Gerke, Latvian Coast Guard
11:45 Concluding remarks: Pentti Kujala, Aalto University
12:00 End of the conference

CAFE at European Maritime Days

Results of the CAFE project were presented at the European Maritime Days event that took place in Malta on 21 and 22 May. The event gathers European maritime experts and constitute an important forum for the transmission of project results.