In May, Tim Thomas gave an invited one day course on Oiled Wildlife Preparedness and Response for the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK) at their Marmara Research Centre in Gebze. The special wildlife day session was part of TÜBITAK’s ‘Maritime Accidents-Hazardous Waste Management, Restoration of Contaminated Areas and Wildlife Rehabilitation’ workshop.
In June, Hugo Nijkamp and Claude Velter provided Sea Alarm’s two-day Wildlife Response Planning Course to emergency response officers from Oil and Gas Operators in Brunei. This course looks at the various challenges that oil spills could pose to wild animals, and the various wildlife incident scenarios that could occur.
Today we were saddened to learn that Jay Holcomb, dedicated wildlife rehabilitator and pioneer in the field of oiled wildlife response, died yesterday at the age of 63 after a serious illness.
There are still places available at a two-day Oil Spill Response (OSRL) course which will introduce participants to the issues specific to responding to wildlife during a spill. The course will be held in Ostend, Belgium on 9-10 October 2014.
Mallydams Wood, an RSPCA wildlife rehabilitation centre and nature reserve, hosted the ninth European Oiled Wildlife Responders meeting on17-19 March, 2014. Sea Alarm staff, along with representatives from the RSPCA, ProBird, Estonian Fund for Nature (ELF) and Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend (WRCO), gathered to continue their work on the European Oiled Wildlife Response Manual.
Sea Alarm staff, in cooperation with personnel from Massey University’s Wildbase, provided the newly developed Oil Spill Response (OSRL) training course on Wildlife Response Planning, designed to help agencies and individuals involved in oil spill response to prepare for wildlife needs during an incident.
Sea Alarm will give a presentation on quality oiled wildlife planning and preparedness at the 2014 Arctic and Marine Oilspill Program (AMOP) seminar, held 3-5 June in Canmore, Alberta.
In May, Sea Alarm staff will travel to Savannah, USA for the International Oil Spill Conference (IOSC).
In November, Hugo Nijkamp of Sea Alarm attended a meeting at the brand new European Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) in Brussels.
The meeting aimed to inform the European marine pollution community about the European Union’s new Civil Protection Mechanism, including related opportunities for European co-funding of projects and activities.
Ten leading oiled wildlife response organisations from around the globe, all with significant histories of international oil spill response, attended a workshop in Brussels in October 2013. The meeting, organized by Sea Alarm and sponsored by the Oil Spill Response Joint Industry Project (OSR-JIP), furthered cooperative efforts begun at Interspill 2012.
The WRC Ostend hosted the last 2013 meeting of the European oiled wildlife response team from 19-21 November. At the meeting, the Joint European Protocol for Seabird Rehabilitation, which is in final preparation for printing, was reviewed in detail.
Two National POSOW trainings were held in Cyprus and Crete, Greece in December, 2013. Sea Alarm’s Claude Velter supported the Oiled Wildlife Response portions of both courses, which were given by local personnel who had attended the previous trainings in Brest in May.