Canada’s 37th Arctic Marine Oilspill Program Technical Seminar features special wildlife session

Canmore, Alberta was the site of the first ever, full day wildlife session to be held as part of the Arctic Marine Oilspill Program (AMOP) Technical Seminar. Co-chaired by Dr. Sherri Cox of the University of Guelph and Patrick O’Hara of the Canadian Wildlife Service, this 2014 session featured speakers from the Europe, Australia, the US and Canada.

Paul Kelway presented a joint Sea Alarm/Oil Spill Response (OSRL) paper on quality oiled wildlife planning and preparedness from a global perspective, highlighting ongoing cooperative efforts among professional oiled wildlife responders to improve and standardise preparedness for responding to oil affected wildlife.

Sea Alarm also supported the RSPCA’s attendance at the conference, allowing them to present two papers. The first discussed advances in oiled guillemot rehabilitation and the other addressed a polyisobutylene (PIB) spill in the UK that killed thousands of seabirds, emphasising the growing concern over non-oil Hazardous and Noxious Substance (HNS) spills.

AMOP, an Environment Canada program begun in 1978, was formed to improve the knowledge and technology necessary for effective response to oil in marine and Arctic environments. The Technical Seminars began a series of specialist meetings on various aspects of spill response but, as understanding of the need for integrated response grew, the separate seminars were combined to allow greater sharing of information.