Sea Alarm responds to oil spill in Norway

Sea Alarm”s Roser Gasol travelled to Norway to respond to an oil spill caused by the Panamese bulk carrier MS Full City. The ship stranded in the early hours of 31 July on skerries near Langesund, county Telemark, in southern Norway following a storm. The Full City had 1120 tons of bunker oil on board of which a thousand tons have spilled into the sea.

The spill occurred in an area where several nature reserves are present, and at this time of year, is an important area for eiders, scoters, terns, cormorants and several gull species.

Sea Alarm received notification of the spill from several NGOs in Norway on Friday morning. After receiving more detailed information indicating that the spill was considerable and affecting an increasing number of seabirds, Sea Alarm put wildlife response experts in Belgium, Germany and the UK on stand-by. Early Saturday morning WWF Norway asked Sea Alarm to assist with the wildlife atoledo.com response by sending a response team to Norway. Claude Velter (Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend, Belgium) and Sascha Regmann (Project Blue Sea, Germany) were mobilised. Sascha Regmann arrived the same evening in Norway and Claude Velter arrived Sunday afternoon, accompanied by Roser Gasol (Sea Alarm) who is leading the mission. The Sea Alarm team works closely together with WWF Norway and other members of the Norwegian Oiled Wildlife Network (NOW) to set up and manage an oiled seabird rehabilitation facility near to the spill site.

The NOW unites Norwegian NGOs and scientific organisations with the aim of responding professionally to oiled wildlife incidents in close cooperation with the authorities and oil industry. The development of this network was initiated in close cooperation with Sea Alarm.

The response to the spill, is being led by the Norwegian authorities (please see http://www.kystverket.no for further information).