Bulgaria was the first country in the Black Sea region to take the new VTOPIS system (Vessel Traffic Oil Pollution Information System) into use, Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) said on November 21.

The system would be publicly presented on November 22, a Transport Ministry media statement said.

The system was unique, not only in the region, but at a European level.

First results from the use of the system would be presented to the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).

VTOPIS consisted of six sub-systems, each with different functions. Functions included among others the processing of information about waste from ships in the Varna and Bourgas harbours, processing and control of permitted environmentally hazardous operations, like fuelling, loading and unloading of cargo and others, processing of received warnings about pollution, real time following of maritime traffic, and modelling of movement of pollution based on data from hydro-meteorological sensors.