The unit responded to the fictitious spillage by putting into action a sea recovery response plan which involved making arrangements for a boom and skimmer to be towed through the affected area to recover as much oil from the surface as possible.

The Marine Response Centre also deployed its protecting booming plan, where orders were given for a boom of up to 700m in length to be laid across the spillage area of the water to prevent the oil from spreading further.

The capacity to deal with an emergency is vital at the busy port due to the large number of ships and small vessels which use its facilities for berthing, repair conversion, refuelling, and the loading and unloading of cargo.

Falmouth is the third deepest natural harbour in the world and its Number Two dock is the third largest dry dock in the UK.

The Marine Response Centre must regularly make sure that it is prepared to cope with any incident involving any vessel with any problem at any time.

It is made up of ship repair and conversion specialists A&P Falmouth, Falmouth Harbour Commissioners and Falmouth Oil Services, with input from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Emergency Planning Department of Cornwall County Council.

A&P Falmouth occupies 45 acres of the 75 acre Falmouth Docks site and runs a considerable port and dock operation in addition to ship repair. The company's Port Operations Manager, Mike Reynolds, said about this fourth major exercise in the last two years, 'In a real emergency there is no margin for error, which is why training exercises like this are so valuable. We can iron out any wrinkles in the plan to make sure that in a real incident Falmouth would receive the first rate response service that the port needs.'

MJ Information No: 18511