It is 20 years ago today that the Prestige incident (Galicia, Spain) took over the headlines in Europe and the rest of the world. Articles like this one will be published in the days and weeks to come. Incredible advances…
The ability to make a positive contribution in a response to an oiled wildlife emergency has always been a key objective in our work. In our 20 years we have responded to quite a few incidents in different countries under many different circumstances. This article will revisit some of these incidents to share what we’ve learned and to explain why real-time incidents have always been the main driver of our preparedness work.
A new oiled wildlife preparedness project, which builds on the previously EU-funded European Oiled Wildlife Response Assistance (EUROWA) training and preparedness programme, is underway.
Sea Alarm was active in the month-long response to wildlife affected by the Bow Jubail oil spill in Rotterdam Harbour, the Netherlands, coordinating the work of Dutch, European, and global responders in the care of more than 500 oiled swans.
In the wake of the sinking of the Flinterstar authorities in Belgium and the Netherlands activated plans to respond to any oiled wildlife. Sea Alarm assisted wildlife responders and authorities in both countries for several weeks following the incident.
Sea Alarm was busy over the Christmas period in the response to an oil spill incident in Nigeria. The incident occurred on December 21st at an FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Off-loading) Unit operated by an OSRL member in the Bonga oil field, 120 kilometres off the Nigerian coast.
Probably the worst “worst case” scenario that you could imagine: on 16th March the bulk carrier MS Oliva ran aground off the Tristan da Cunha Islands, a UK territory dubbed one of the remotest places on earth.
Sea Alarm assisted in a small-scale wildlife rehabilitation operation in Norway, following the grounding of the containership Godafoss on 17th February. The vessel ran aground at the mouth of the Oslo Fjord near to the Ytre Havel marine park.
Sea Alarm is assisting with cost recovery procedures for a small oiled wildlife incident in the Netherlands. In early January, a collision between two oil tankers caused a leak of approximately 1000m3 of fuel oil into Mercury Harbour, Amsterdam.
In the early hours of 8 October, a chemical tanker YM Uranus collided with a bulk tanker some 100km southwest of the island of Ouessant, off the Brittany coast. At the time of the incident, in addition to an unreported amount of bunker fuel, the Uranus was carrying a cargo of 6000 tonnes of pygas solvent, a type of heavy gasoline. Although a lighter type of oil (and therefore less persistent once spilled), this type of product can still pose a risk to seabirds through interfering with feather waterproofing and causing skin burns or irritation.
On April 20 2010 an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico caused the deaths of 11 people and also a fire which finally destroyed the platform. The safety valves on the sea floor failed to work and did not close the well that had been drilled, out of which thousands of barrels of oil started flowing into the marine environment.
Shortly after the Deepwater Horizon spill started, WWF The Netherlands contacted Sea Alarm and asked if Sea Alarm could help them following the developments. WWF was very concerned with the spill happening so close to the Mississippi Delta and all…