Upon request by the Government of the Bahamas, IMO sent two experts to Nassau, in early June, to assess the risks associated with the pollution from the rig Deepwater Horizon in case the slicks are pushed out of the Gulf of Mexico by currents. The Caribbean delegate and an expert from the regional RAC/REMPEITC centre in Curaçao visited the area to assess the Government's level of response preparedness, drawing upon its national spill contingency plan and the Government and oil industry's means available in the Bahamas. Recommendations were made on the surveillance and protection of the islands in the western Bahamas, most likely to be affected.

As part of the twinning project intended to support the Egyptian authorities in the improvement of their freshwater management (Newsletters n° 169, 171, 176, 177 and 179) and following several missions in Cairo and Aswan, we received, from 14th to 18th, a delegation of 10 Egyptian specialists representing different departments of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation. Our Egyptian colleagues spent 3 days in Brest where they held discussions with representatives of Cedre's different departments, attended the practical sessions of a training course organised for VNF, visited the Polmar stockpile and discovered Océanopolis. We then accompanied them to Paris, where the delegation was received by the 27th company of the Paris fire brigade as well as by Sycopol. The final project phase is due to be held in Cairo in September.

On 7 June, Mr Jean-Louis Borloo, the French Minister of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea, travelled to Brest for the inauguration of the new premises of the marine protected areas agency and the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Océanopolis, the ocean discovery centre in Brest. Cedre was involved in celebrating both these events.

On 15 and 16 June, an engineer from Cedre's duty team took part in the seminar on the 2011 changes in regulations on the transport (road, sea and air) of dangerous goods, held in the Holiday Inn, Porte de Pantin in Paris.

On 23 June, a national workshop on the NETMAR project (Open service network for marine environmental data), funded by the 7th European research and development framework programme, was held at Cedre. The aim of this workshop, which brought together Ifremer, SHOM, Météo France and Cedre was to review the existing tools and identify gaps and possible solutions.

On 15 June, OSR gathered together many of its partners in London to celebrate its 25 years of existence. The day of presentations and discussions on the actions conducted by OSR since its creation was followed by an evening reception for 200 people in the prestigious setting of Royal Naval College in Greenwich. Cedre was represented by its Director and once again wishes OSR every success in the future.

On 14 June, ITAC held its meeting in London, in which Cedre took part. A large proportion of the discussions revolved around the Deepwater Horizon accident and action taken to respond, on the one hand, to the flow of oil from the well and, on the other, to the pollution caused and its impacts on the environment.

From 6 to 11 June 2010, 3 agents from Cedre took part in the "33rd AMOP Technical Seminar on Environmental Contamination and Response" in Halifax. The aim of this seminar was to develop the knowledge base and technology for combatting Arctic and marine oil spills (AMOP – Arctic and Marine Oilspill Program). Cedre presented 5 conferences, including 3 during a special session on "hazardous and noxious substances" organised by Transport Canada. Alongside this event, an agent took part in a shoreline survey course (SCAT or Shoreline Clean-Up Assessment Technique) organised by Environment Canada and two others visited ECRC (Eastern Canada Response Corporation) spill response equipment stockpiles.