An Oiled Bird Rehabilitation course for volunteers in the Netherlands

In the event of an oil spill incident in the Netherlands, the care of oiled birds is delegated to the Oiled Bird Foundation Netherlands (SON) as part of the integrated oiled bird response plan. Comprised of the five coastal rehabilitation centres in the Netherlands, SON is incorporated in the Netherlands as a Foundation. Sea Alarm regularly attends SON’s bi-annual board meetings as an observer, the last of which was held 29 May at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in Ostend.

The main agenda item at the last meeting was the development of a training course manual for volunteers. The development of this course has been facilitated through a grant from Rijkswaterstaat, the oil spill response and preparedness authority responsible for the integrated oiled wildlife response plan. The manual is being developed by the education section of Ecomare, one of the SON members, with contributions from all the other members. It will be used by the rehabilitation centres to train volunteers that might become active in a temporary wildlife response centre in the event of an oil spill. The manual is in a final draft and will be formally launched during a two-day SON event at Ecomare on the island of Texel in October 2009.