2012 Sea Alarm oiled wildlife preparedness activities
Sea Alarm is a partner in the launch of new oil spill preparedness website for the Mediterranean and in updating oiled wildlife guidelines to reflect knowledge gained over the last 10 years.
New Mediterranean oil spill preparedness website (POSOW) launched
The Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC), in partnership with the Centre of Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution (CEDRE), the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) and the Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) and Sea Alarm, has launched the Preparedness for Oil-Polluted Shoreline clean-up and Oiled Wildlife interventions (POSOW) website.
POSOW is an EU co-funded project working to develop train-the-trainer courses to be offered to convergent volunteers (individual members of the public with no previous experience who offer to assist with oil spill clean-up activities). Sea Alarm will develop the training course and manual for oiled wildlife response. Train the trainer courses for identified focal points in each country are scheduled to take place during May 2013. Manuals will be made available on the POSOW project website.
Other partners will create similar materials for volunteer management, shoreline assessment and shoreline clean-up. While the project, launched in 2012 and scheduled for completion at the end of 2013, is focused on making the courses available to countries in the Mediterranean region, the courses will have value for response programmes in other areas.
New IPIECA guidelines on good practice oiled wildlife response preparedness
Sea Alarm is part of a working group developing one of the guidelines in a new report series of the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA). The Guidelines on Oiled Wildlife Response Preparedness aim at identifying good practice in preparing for oiled wildlife response. The report, which takes into account insights gained and improved response methods that have evolved as a result of recent wildlife response experiences, will help to set a more modern standard for oiled wildlife response preparedness.
IPIECA initiated the Oil Spill Response-Joint Industry Project (OSR-JIP) to undertake these updates in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon incident in the US and the Montara incident in Australia to review operational aspects of offshore operations and operator ability to respond in the event of a spill or oil well blowout.
The guidelines will replace those presently found at the IPIECA website.
