The members of Cedre's Strategic Committee met for the 14^th year running in Brest on 28 November for the 28^th session. After evoking Cedre's main activities over the past 6 months, this meeting was mainly centred around the presentation of 40 proposals for the 2009 technical programme and expressions of interest on behalf of the committee members. The session sparked off rich discussions, both in relation to the activity overview and the project proposals, affirming Cedre's orientations, but also highlighting the growing demands of its partners in terms of output. Generally speaking, the proposals presented for 2009 were favourably received and the support anticipated should enable total or partial realisation of most of the actions put forward.

This day, held on 27 November 2008, was designed for Strategic Committee members as well as a wider audience and was dedicated to Cedre's involvement, on the one hand, in research projects on the behaviour of chemicals and, on the other hand, in the improvement of the of running and the tools available to the drift prediction committee. The first theme was the opportunity to present the work of a PhD student carried out at Cedre. The second was the chance to demonstrate the complementary contributions of the different members of the drift prediction committee during the Prestige spill and to encourage meetings of the members at times other than in the event of a major spill.

We would like to inform you of the recent release of a publication on the operation of tankers (oil tankers, chemical tankers, gas carriers), covering topics ranging from the physical properties of their cargos to their polluting potential, their classification, the fire hazards involved, the toxicological risks, construction standards, washing and degassing of tanks and the incompatibility of different products. The book is entitled "L'exploitation des navires-citernes" and is published in French by S. Laignel for INFOMER - editor (424 pages).

On 25 October 2008, Cedre took part in the RAPACE project closure meeting, part of the PRECODD programme (coordinated by ADEME and funded by the French National Research Agency), held in the presence of all the technical and financial project partners, in Cassis on the premises of Géocéan, the project leader. A positive overall project review was presented as well as the prototype of an autonomous airborne detection vehicle which can be deployed from a vessel, to which it is attached by an umbilical cable.

In response to a request from the Total Lebanon branch, an engineer from Cedre's Contingency Planning Department spent a week in Beirut. Total Lebanon owns an oil depot (petrol and diesel storage) at the oil plant of Dora, located north of the commercial port of Beirut. In a bid to respond to a specific issue concerning unloading via a sealine, Cedre was made responsible for drafting a maritime contingency plan, identifying potential spill scenarios, response techniques for such scenarios, as well as technical recommendations of equipment to purchase. On the last day of the mission, a conference was held on response to marine oil pollution (principles, techniques, international conventions and contingency planning) for around 40 people representing several Lebanese authorities and administrations as well as industry.

The website of the International Tankers Owners Pollution Federation announces the forthcoming retirement of its Managing Director Tosh Moller in May 2009 and states that he will be replaced by Karen Purnell. Currently one of three Technical Team Managers, Karen Purnell has been working for ITOPF since 1994. She and Tosh Moller share not only their height, but the high esteem in which they are held by Cedre. We wish Tosh Moller a happy retirement and every success to Karen Purnell in her new role.

Sabotage and theft continue to make Nigeria one of the world's oil spill black spots: the website allAfrica.com announces, in an article dated 29 October 2008, that the National Spill Detection Agency reportedly recorded 418 oil spills of varying volumes during the first half of 2008. If we compare this with the yearly averages for the periods 1976-1996 and 1997-2007, for which the figures are respectively 422 and 419, it appears that the frequency of spills has doubled… or perhaps it is the efficiency of the information collection system which has doubled.

You are no doubt familiar (without, of course, ever having triggered them) with the concept of products which colour the water around swimmers who relieve themselves in the swimming pool. The site cleantechnica.com announced in an article dated 1^st October 2008, the development by the University of Lausanne of a bacteria which glows blue when in contact with oil and could therefore be used to detect illicit discharge. The article does not however comment on how the inventors propose to introduce a sufficient quantity of the bacteria into the marine areas needing monitoring.