USA: NAMEPA Announces Marine Environment Protection Awards

Maersk, NOAA, SUNY Maritime College and the American Salvage Association winners of NAMEPA’s Marine Environment Protection Awards; 5th Anniversary Awards dinner on November 14th follows Environmental Intelligence in Maritime Conference.

Clay Maitland, Founding Chairman of the North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA), announced the recipients of NAMEPA’s 2012 Marine Environment Protection Awards. Maersk is the winner of the Corporate Award; NOAA for the Government Agency category; SUNY Maritime College for Education; and the American Salvage Association (ASA) the non-profit/NGO category. The awards will be presented at NAMEPA’s 5th Anniversary Awards Dinner to be held at Chelsea Piers’ The Lighthouse in New York following NAMEPA’s Environmental Intelligence in Maritime Conference, which will feature “Greening the Marine Transportation System”, “The Arctic”, “Safety at Sea” and “Corporate Risk Management”.

“We are delighted that the North American Marine Environment Protection Association has awarded these groups with the respective 2012 Marine Environment Protection Awards,” said Mr. Maitland. “Our Award categories were expanded this year to reflect the many sectors that are engaged in the important business of “Saving our Seas”.

The NAMEPA Marine Environment Protection Award is given in recognition of groups efforts on behalf of preserving the marine environment as exemplified by a commitment to a program which has specific objectives set for environmental performance and improvement, and which is innovative and goes beyond minimum environmental compliance. Eligible candidates include members of the commercial maritime industry, government agencies, non-profit/NGOs and individuals and submissions are judged by the organization’s Board of Directors against the criteria behind the award.

The first NAMEPA Marine Environment Protection Award was presented four years ago posthumously to the founder of the MEPA movement, George P. Livanos who created HELMEPA 28 years ago due to his interest and concern for the marine environment. In 2009, the NAMEPA Award was presented to the United States Coast Guard; the 2010 winner was liner company APL and last year cruise giant Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Accepting their 2012 NAMEPA Marine Environment Protection Awards will be John Reinhart for Maersk, Dave Westerholm for NOAA, RADM Wendi Carpenter for SUNY Maritime College, and Tim Beaver for the American Salvage Association.

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Source: NAMEPA, September 20, 2012