Polar Star in the frozen Bering Sea on Jan. 30, 2021. Photo Credit: U.S. Coast Guard / Cynthia Oldham

Environment USA8. March 2021

Russian and U.S. Sailors on the Same Mission

The United States and Russia have updated their joint plan to address maritime pollution in the seas that serve as international boundaries between the two countries.

The agreement “promotes the protection of our shared interests in these environmentally and culturally significant trans-boundary waters,” says Vice Admiral Scott Buschman, U.S. Coast Guard deputy commandant for operations.

Both the U.S. Coast Guard and Russia’s Marine Rescue Service intend to hold joint training exercises to prepare for future pollution response in the Chukchi and Bering seas. First established in 1989, the Joint Contingency Plan now includes search-and-rescue missions and countering illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. With this renewed agreement, incidents can be prevented. “Like many other things in the Arctic, the most important thing to do is to prevent, because the response piece of anything in the Arctic is always extra difficult and expensive,” says Troy Bouffard, director of the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience at University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Source:
Arctic Today

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