The US Coast Guard is often one of the first emergency responders to an oil spill. With a growing fleet of small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (sUAS), oil spill response is an important mission within the USCG. The remote sensing capabilities sUAS can bring to a response greatly enhance safety, streamline data collection, and provide important documentation of impacts to the environment. With that in mind, the USCG Great Lakes Oil Spill Center of Expertise (GLCOE) funded two workshops in partnership with NOAA to help develop training material and skills with a single cadre of pilots.

The first workshop held in St. Ignace, Michigan, was meant to expose the pilots to flying in the cold while also building a solid foundation with the Skydio X10D, the newest USCG sUAS platform. Pilots also learned about oil spill response, Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) and how UAS can be utilized, as well as data management and sharing using NOAA’s Data Integration Visualization Exploration and Reporting (DIVER).

The second workshop was held in Santa Barbara, CA. This workshop was more hands on and included simulated SCAT on a beach and operating from a USCG cutter while underway in order to capture oil on open water coming from natural seeps.

Throughout both workshops, training materials were created, pilots were surveyed based on knowledge learned, and USCG Short-Range UAS policy was revised by the sUAS training division, including the adjustment of the underway checklist for the X10D platform’s launch and retrieval, mitigating risks and ensuring success.

The USCG pilots involved came from various units and districts, and the skills they learned are applicable to any geographical location. They will be able to take their lessons learned and help train other sUAS pilots at their home units. Collaborating with and including the sUAS division as well as Marine Environmental Response personnel ensured that further training and policy could be enhanced by these workshops.