Recent years have witnessed alarming oil spill incidents in Mediterranean waters, emphasising the urgency of proactive operational preparedness and rapid response mechanisms. For instance, a significant oil spill in October 2018 resulted from the collision of the Ulysse and CSL Virginia ships. Similarly, in February 2021, a massive ecological disaster struck when vast quantities of tar washed onto Israel's Mediterranean coast. In such events, international institutions scramble to deploy the best available technologies to mitigate damages. Given the increasing hydrocarbon activities in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and augmented maritime transport post the Suez Canal expansion, the urgency for preventative measures against oil spills, especially in regions like the coastal area of Crete and the North Aegean Sea, cannot be overemphasised.

Addressing this, FORTH and MEEO have developed a DTO for monitoring oil spills around Crete. Leveraging the COASTAL CRETE platform, this pilot solution merges advanced forecasting techniques with Earth Observation (EO) data to predict and counteract oil spills in real-time. This DTO intends to bridge gaps present in existing tools, offering real-time forecasts, visualising pollution hazards, simulating the impact of various mitigation strategies, and providing comprehensive operational pictures for response deployments. Simultaneously, DUTH is crafting a similar DTO for the North Aegean Sea, which will incorporate machine learning for satellite image scanning and advanced oil spill modelling.