A major part of Sea Alarm’s work is assisting coastal governments, NGOs and other agencies in preparedness for an oiled wildlife response. Regular meetings, trainings and exercises of response plans ensure on-going readiness to respond to wildlife threatened by oil spills.
Sea Alarm recently has started work on a five year contract with Rijkswaterstaat, the Netherlands, to assist with the coordination, development and management of an exercise programme on oiled wildlife response and preparedness in the Netherlands.
After a long period of quiet, the issue of oiled wildlife response planning became active again in Ireland. This followed on from a letter by the Irish Coast Guard to all 20 coastal Counties with a request to send in their shoreline response plan. Already a few years ago the Coast Guard had requested the Counties to develop such a plan according to a standard format. In that format there was also a paragraph on integrated oiled wildlife response planning.
During a recent visit to Helsinki in the framework of HELCOM Response, Sea Alarm’s Hugo Nijkamp met with Vesa Numinen and Tomi Rask of the Helsinki City Rescue Department (HCRD) to discuss oiled wildlife response preparedness.
Sea Alarm has been invited to assist the Belgian authorities to set up and run an exercise to test the Belgian Oiled Bird Response Plan and in particular the role of the Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend (WRCO). It is the second time that the plan will be tested and the second time that Sea Alarm will be involved in the design of the exercise.
Sea Alarm will continue to assist the Netherlands in 2010 with maintaining their national preparedness for oiled wildlife incidents. An important activity scheduled for this year is a tabletop exercise to test the function of the key roles in the plan’s crisis committee, which is responsible for setting up and running the temporary oiled wildlife rehabilitation centre during an incident.
Authorities in Estonia, Finland and Sweden have launched the EnSaCo Oil Spill Project, which aims to strengthen cross-border oiled wildlife and shoreline response, for easier transfer of resources between countries during an incident.
On December 16 last year a delegation from Lower Saxony paid an informal visit to the Netherlands to discuss planning for oiled wildlife response. The three person German delegation, all working for the Animal Health and Veterinary Task Force, was led by Josef Huesmann, who is responsible for developing an oiled wildlife response plan for Lower Saxony. Its mission was to learn more about the recently agreed Dutch response plan for oiled wildlife and from the representatives from Rijkswaterstaat who developed that plan.
In order to develop a better understanding of current nature conservation and protection issues in the Mediterranean, Sea Alarm’s Roser Gasol attended the Ninth Meeting of Focal Points for Specially Protected Areas (SPAs) in Malta on the 3-6 June 2009. This biennial meeting is organised by the Tunisian-based Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA), whose primary role is to assist the Contracting Parties in the implementation of the Protocol on Specially Protected Areas and Biodiversity within the framework of the Barcelona Convention.
Sea Alarm attended the UK National Standing Environment Group Chairs Meeting, which took place in London on 29 April. Organised annually by the Maritime and Coastal Agency (MCA), the purpose of the meeting is to inform Environmental Group Chairs and key individuals about eventual changes in the UK National Oil Spill Plan or related documents and procedures, and discuss recent developments, case histories and relevant current topics. This is the second time Sea Alarm has been invited to the meetings as an observer, taking the opportunity to report on relevant international developments in the field of oiled wildlife preparedness and response.
Representatives from the coastal municipalities, national authorities, rehabilitation 
centres and scientific institutes will get together on 9th April in the Hague to officially sign the Netherland’s national oiled wildlife contingency plan. Sea Alarm has been invited to give an introduction to oiled wildlife response, and additional scheduled events include a practical demonstration on bird cleaning techniques and the collection of dead animals.
Due to the heavy seas caused by Cyclone Hamish off the coast of Queensland, Australia, the Pacific Adventurer lost thirty-one containers holding ammonium nitrate on 10th March, puncturing two fuel tanks in the process. The subsequent oil spill, estimated to be up 42 tonnes, contaminated pristine beaches in a large area of south-east Queensland.
Fortunately, the spill seems to have had a minimal effect on birdlife.