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ProSea develops, organizes and provides international sustainable shipping courses, Dutch sustainable shipping courses, custom-tailored sustainable shipping courses, sustainable fishing courses for both fishing schools and the fisherman’s unions in the Netherlands, stakeholder communication workshops, and incident response workshops for coastal communities. Most of these courses and workshops fall under the rubric marine awareness training.
In 2001 ProSea was founded to create an independent position from the initiators and developers and to take over, continue, improve and expand the marine awareness course, at that time still limited to environmentally sustainable shipping. ProSea’s mission was to increase the awareness and understanding of the importance of protection of the marine environment and sustainable development by providing information and education to those who have a very special responsibility to the sea: the marine professionals, also known as the human factor. Following its mission ProSea continued to provide maritime marine awareness courses in the Netherlands and simultaneously looked to expand the marine awareness course to other countries and to other professionals who worked at or with the sea. Sustainable Shipping (course descriptions)
In 2006 ProSea developed two custom-tailored marine awareness courses, also called dedicated courses, one for BP Shipping, London and one for Smit Salvage, Smit International. BP Shipping, London has had eight dedicated courses since and ProSea has conducted similar courses for Eletson Cooperation in Greece and KOTC in Kuwait. In these courses ProSea provides a marine awareness course that is tailor-made to the specific problems or interests of a company. ProSea has also developed and conducted preparatory international marine awareness workshops for NYK Line, Europe and Clipper Marine Services. A preparatory marine awareness workshop is an introduction to the concepts involved in marine awareness training for companies interested in a full custom tailored course. Sustainable Fishing (course descriptions)
Other Activities (activity descriptions) In addition to courses and workshops on sustainable shipping and fishing, ProSea also develops educational materials and provides conference workshops that introduce people to marine awareness and the role of the human factor, expand knowledge of marine awareness, and connect marine awareness, the human factor and sustainable use of the oceans. One of ProSea’s projects is working to gain international recognition for the role of the human factor in sustainable shipping. Since 2007 the IMO, International Maritime Organization, has been working on a revision of the STCW code, Standards of Training, Certification & Watchkeeping code. ProSea is cooperating with the Dutch government to include marine awareness training as an integral part of a seafarers training and competence in the revised IMO STCW code (expected in 2010).
In 2006 ProSea developed background material for STC, a Dutch shipping academy, on the effects of shipping on the environment that complement the Dutch marine awareness course and can be included in the shipping academies curriculum. In 2005 ProSea and KIMO International organized a symposium on international marine awareness in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The goal of the symposium was to draw the attention of the international maritime world to the importance of marine awareness to achieve sustainability in the maritime industries. A resolution, agreed to by all delegates was written and published. (link to resolution)
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The first environmentally sustainable shipping course, known as the Marine Awareness Course, was initiated and developed by Ecomare (Centre for wadden and North Sea), Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and the Royal Association of Netherlands’ Ship owners in 1998 in response to a Dutch study which found that too little attention was given to the integration of environmental issues in maritime education. The course was conducted for the Amsterdam Shipping College in 1999 and was received so well that it was awarded the Dutch Environmental Award for Shipping (Milieuprijs voor de Scheepvaart) in 1999. This marine awareness course for shipping was the forerunner of the current ProSea marine awareness courses for all professionals connected to the sea.
Since the original marine awareness course in 1999, thirty-six (36) Dutch marine awareness courses have been held. These courses have been provided for both HBO and MBO levels (Dutch higher education levels) for ten shipping academies. Twenty-six (26) of the courses were HBO level and ten courses were MBO level. The Dutch Ministry of Transportation supported the development and expansion of these courses until 2006. Starting in 2008 the Dutch Ministry of Transportation has been actively promoting marine awareness internationally and, in this effort, has chosen to support ProSea financially to provide marine awareness courses to all Dutch shipping academies for the next four years. All ten Dutch shipping academies will be participating. 
ProSea stepped into the international arena in 2002 as part of the EU-Save the North Sea (SNS) project where ProSea had the opportunity to develop an international marine awareness course. The first international course was conducted in November 2002 in the Netherlands. In these courses shipping academy students from different countries interact with business participants. Since 2002 eight international marine awareness courses have been held in three different countries, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. ProSea won a 2007 NYK CSR-award and was short-listed for the 2007 Thor Heyerdahl Environmental Award for these international marine awareness courses. 
ProSea began working with Dutch professional fishermen and Dutch fishing colleges in 2003. ProSea first developed a course for fishing colleges, Fishing with a Future. In 2003 ProSea presented an introductory version of the course to the teachers from the fishing colleges to test the viability of the course, provide teachers with advance information and stimulate teacher involvement in the course program later that school year. All fishing colleges in the Netherlands participated in the Fishing with a Future courses that school year. The courses were so successful that the Dutch fishing colleges have included attendance at a Fishing with a Future course as a graduation requirement. In consequence, ProSea provides five sustainable fishing courses for the Dutch fishing colleges every two years.
After the first two Fishing with a Future courses, ProSea provided a sustainable fishing orientation and information program for the two Dutch fisherman’s union officers and leaders. The purpose was to get the current working fishermen involved and to see if they would be willing to attend a sustainable fishing course in the future. The answer was yes. In February 2007, ProSea organized and provided the first marine awareness sustainable fishing course to the leaders of the two Dutch fisherman’s unions. Currently the EU, through its member states, is attempting to compel the fishing sector to make a transition to sustainable fishing. ProSea has entered a sustainable fishing project proposal for that program to create a special course program for Dutch fisherman’s union leaders and a marine awareness course for active fishermen. 
ProSea developed an incident response workshop for coastal communities in 2004. In an emergency on the coast many different organizations need to cooperate. Often, it is not clear which organizations are involved, what each organization’s responsibilities are, who needs to communicate with whom and when all this needs to happen. ProSea provides a course in which coastal communities learn which organizations need to be involved and what the communication lines need to be, and can practice with several realistic cases. ProSea has conducted four workshops since 2004, two for coastal communities and two for the Dutch Ministry of Transport.