December 2012
Sea Alarm organized an information day in the Netherlands as part of the Dutch oiled wildlife exercise programme 2011-2016. The event, which was attended by local and national authorities and NGOs, focused on best practices in an oiled wildlife incident, and the role of local authorities in case of an incident.
Sea Alarm’s Claude Velter provided an oiled wildlife rehabilitation course for Dutch coastal wildlife centres, at a training event held at the facilities of EcoMare, Texel – the Netherlands.
November 2012
Sea Alarm facilitated the EU oiled wildlife responders group to meet in the UK continuing their work on coordinated response to oil spill incidents. At the meeting the groups (RSPCA, Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend, and ProBird) finalised their joint protocol.
October 2012
Sea Alarm (Saskia Sessions) attended California’s Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN) conference Oilapalooza, delivering an invited presentation on Sea Alarm’s European and global work, and learning about how OWCN’s multi-organisation network functions.
Sea Alarm Board elected Mr. Chris Morris as Chairman and Mr. Alan Higgins to take his former position as Vice-Chairman.
September 2012
Sea Alarm is contracted by IPIECA to coordinate the development of a new IPIECA guideline to good practice for oiled wildlife preparedness which will be written by a large number of technical contributors, to be completed in spring 2013.
Sea Alarm (Hugo Nijkamp) presented at the Conference on Oil Spill and Ice Management in Arctic Operations (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) regarding the challenges of responding to oiled wildlife under Arctic conditions.
August 2012
Sea Alarm (Hugo Nijkamp and Claude Velter) were invited as expert observers at the annual Balex Delta oil spill response exercise held in Helsinki, Finland. This exercise had an integrated oiled wildlife response component. Hugo Nijkamp attended as a member of the EU Civil Protection Team that was organized and coordinated by the European Commission (Monitoring and Information Centre).
July 2012
Chris Battaglia (Focus Wildlife) visited the Sea Alarm team in Brussels, to discuss cooperation and joint activities based on a recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Sea Alarm and Focus Wildlife. This MoU creates a base of shared knowledge and expertise which can be readily mobilised for improved international oiled wildlife response and preparedness.
June 2012
Sea Alarm organised and facilitated an oiled wildlife event in the Netherlands as part of its contracted support to the national exercise programme for oiled wildlife preparedness. The event, which was attended by authorities, private entities and NGOs , included search and collection field exercise, a table top incident simulation and a discussion.
A workshop was organised by Sea Alarm and OSRL as a follow-up to the recent Interspill lunch meeting of organisations concerned with professional global oiled wildlife response. The workshop aimed at developing the terms of reference for a project to start 2013.
Sea Alarm met with OSRL staff in Singapore for a ‘Lunch and Learn’ session where Sea Alarm gave an update on developments in oiled wildlife response and Sea Alarm activities.
Sea Alarm enabled the EU oiled wildlife responders Tier 3 group, including RSPCA, Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend and ProBird, to meet in Ostend to continue their work on standards for coordinated response within the EU.
April 2012
A Baltic States Wildlife Response Workshop is organised by Sea Alarm and WWF Finland in conjunction with WWF Poland, and the Institute of Oceanography of the University of Gdansk, as part of the HELCOM RESPONSE Oiled Wildlife Preparedness Working Programme 2011-2014.
March 2012
Sea Alarm (Saskia Sessions) and International Bird Rescue presented a paper on Reasonable Oiled Wildlife Response at the Interspill Conference. Sea Alarm was present on the exhibition floor, manning an information booth shared with OSRL.
Sea Alarm, SANCCOB, OWCN and IBR presented a pre-conference course “Wildlife Response” for Interspill attendees.
OSRL and Sea Alarm organised a lunch meeting at Interspill with representatives of the oil and tanker industries, global government organisations and members of the wildlife response community to discuss the need and way forward for a professional global oiled wildlife response and preparedness system. The meeting resulted in an invitation to draft a terms of reference for a project.
February 2012
Sea Alarm met with OSRL staff in the UK for a ‘Lunch and Learn’ session where Sea Alarm gave an update on developments in oiled wildlife response and Sea Alarm activities.
Sea Alarm attended the kick-off meeting of the EU POSOW project. In partnership Sea Alarm, REMPEC, CEDRE and ISPRA develop several train-the-trainer courses for shoreline and wildlife response for use in the Mediterranean.
January 2012
Sea Alarm (Hugo Nijkamp, Saskia Sessions and Claude Velter) made several presentations at the 11th Effects of Oil on Wildlife conference in New Orleans. Sea Alarm sponsored a number European colleagues’ attendance at the conference.
Sea Alarm organised a meeting with the leading wildlife response organisations, in conjunction with the Effects of Oil on Wildlife Conference, to discuss global cooperation .
At the Effects of Oil on Wildlife conference, Sea Alarm and the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This MoU signifies the the friendship and mutual trust between the organisations and aims to create a professional basis for international wildlife response and preparedness built on shared knowledge and expertise which can be readily mobilised.
Sea Alarm, in conjunction with the RSPCA, Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend, ProBird and OSRL held a two-day meeting of the EU oiled wildlife responders group, which included an equipment readiness exercise.