February
A weeklong meeting and work session in Ostend, Belgium kicks off Phase II of the Global Oiled Wildlife Response System project, the multi-year Joint Industry Project supported effort to coordinate and improve oiled wildlife response internationally.
March
HELCOM Expert Working Group-Oiled Wildlife Response (EWG-OWR), chaired by Sea Alarm, publishes the Report on the status of National wildlife response plans in the Baltic Sea, using a Self-Assessment Tool created by Sea Alarm.
Wording suggested by Sea Alarm is used as part of the European Parliament (EP) Resolution An integrated EU policy for the Arctic (2016/2228(INI)) to encourage all Arctic states to develop oiled wildlife response plans.
April
Sea Alarm publishes its 100th Country Wildlife Response Profile (Costa Rica).
May
Sea Alarm attends the 2017 International Oil Spill Conference in California, USA
Saskia Sessions-Puplett of Sea Alarm attends REMPEC focal points meeting and presents on Sea Alarm’s role in assisting Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention in their preparation for, and response to, oiled wildlife incidents
August
UNDP-GEF sponsors a Sea Alarm training event in Arctic Russia on oiled wildlife prevention, preparedness and response. Training includes an oiled wildlife preparedness and response awareness course and the EUROWA Basic oiled wildlife responder course.
Sea Alarm asissts the Dutch authorities (Rijkswaterstaat) with a small-scale oiled wildlife response on the island of Bonaire, in the Caribbean. Assistance is provided remotely, advising on the response and facilitating mobilisation of a responder from the Dutch group Stichting Olievogels Nederlands (SON) to Bonaire.
September
As part of its contract with Rijkswaterstaat, Sea Alarm provides an abbreviated EUROWA Basic Responder Course and integrates an oiled wildlife search and collection exercise, delivered by EUROWA partners, into a three-day oil spill response exercise on the Wadden Sea in the Netherlands.
Sea Alarm attends the second in-person project meeting of the GOWRS Project (Phase II) at Mallydams Woood in the UK focusing on future goals for cooperation between project partners beyond the current project (2017-18), Phase II readiness deliverables, and exercises to train on and further refine the GOWRS Tier 3 (international) standard operating procedures.
Paul Kelway of Sea Alarm attends the Industry Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC) 2017 meeting in Plymouth, UK, organized by Oil Spill Response Limited and hosted by Plymouth Marine Laboratory, providing a presentation on wildlife response within the context of new industry good practice guidelines on oil spill preparedness.
October
Hugo Nijkamp of Sea Alarm leads a HELCOM EWG-OWR meeting. Sea Alarm leads a one-day wildlife response manager’s course prior to the meeting.
Rijkswaterstaat, the national authority for oil spill response and preparedness in the Netherlands contracts Sea Alarm to lead a five-year (2017-2022) oiled wildlife preparedness programme.
EUROWA project partners meet at RSPCA Mallydams Wood in the UK to continue the work of strengthening oiled wildlife response capability in Europe, building on the results of the 2015-16 EU-funded project
Sea Alarm provides a training session for OSRL duty managers and a lunch and learn presentation to staff at OSRL’s Southampton base in the UK.
Paul Kelway of Sea Alarm serves as coach to the Statoil wildlife branch personnel during a large-scale table-top exercise, organised by Statoil’s global incident management team, focusing on a fictitious oil spill scenario in the Barent’s Sea in Bergen, Norway.
November
Sea Alarm is granted observer status in the IOPC Funds Convention, which will increase its ability to highlight animal welfare and marine conservation issues to the participants.
A workshop is held in Spain on sea turtle response during marine emergencies, lead by Sea Alarm. The workshop, funded by Saudi Aramco, is one of three that explore ways of coordinating response to marine wildlife emergencies.
Sea Alarm, in collaboration with Germany’s oiled wildlife response organisation ProBird, presents lectures on integration of wildlife into spill response at a two-day workshop for authorities and key stakeholders in Germany.
December
IPIECA/IOGP publishes Key principles for the protection, care and rehabilitation of oiled wildlife, developed as part of the Global Oiled Wildlife Response System project, a Joint Industry project coordinated by Sea Alarm.
Sea Alarm attends an in-person working session of the Global Oiled Wildlife Response System project in Belgium, focused on activities needed to continue the collective process after the current project ends in 2018.