Progress at latest HELCOM Expert Working Group meeting
The Expert Working group on Oiled Wildlife Response (EWG-OWR), which Sea Alarm chairs, recently held its 10th meeting.
Sea Alarm granted IOPC Funds observer status
At its most recent meeting in, November 2017, the IOPC Funds Assembly granted Sea Alarm’s request for observer status in the convention.
Three-day Baltic Oiled Wildlife Event
In October 2017, the HELCOM Expert Working Group on Oiled Wildlife Response organized a three-day event which included a working group meeting, wildlife response manager training and a stakeholder exchange of current activities and good practices.
Wildlife preparedness event in Germany
Sea Alarm’s Hugo Nijkamp attended a workshop for authority representatives on the existing arrangements for oiled wildlife response preparedness.
Progress on the GOWRS project
During 2017 considerable further progress has been made in the Beta-phase of the GOWRS (Global Oiled Wildlife Response System) project.
The EUROWA team meets again
The EUROWA project partners met at RSPCA Mallydams Wood in October 2017 for the first in-person meeting since the end of the EU-funded aspect of the project.
Putting international collaboration to the test
Phase two of the Global Oiled Wildlife Response System (GOWRS) project recently kicked off in Belgium providing another two years in which to further the objective of developing and improving international cooperation and preparedness for oiled wildlife incidents.
Paving the way for international oiled wildlife response assistance
The third meeting of experts involved in the Global Oiled Wildlife Response System (GOWRS) project took place last month in Delaware, USA.
The project– a two-year initiative funded by the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) as part of the Oil Spill Response Joint Industry Project (OSR-JIP) – aims to design an international system for oiled wildlife response expertise that can be mobilized for assistance in complex oiled wildlife scenarios.
Technical discussion day at ITOPF
In January, Sea Alarm visited the International Tanker Owners Oil Pollution Federation (ITOPF) in London for a full day of oiled wildlife response discussions with the members of ITOPF’s team.
Multi-stakeholder ‘Joint Industry Project’ explores global oiled wildlife preparedness and response
A week-long meeting held in Brussels in September 2015 marked the beginning of a multi-stakeholder oiled wildlife response project to address the gap between oil spill response preparedness and wildlife response preparedness on a global scale.
EUROWA equipment inspection and exercise
In October Sea Alarm and partner organisation Pro-Bird co-hosted a wildlife response equipment exercise in Hamburg, Germany to review an existing stockpile of equipment, practice mobilising it, and make recommendations for improvements.
Oiled wildlife response cooperation in the Netherlands progressing well
In March, the annual meeting between key wildlife response organisations and Rijkswaterstaat took place, bringing together responders and authorities who cooperate on implementing and updating the national plan for response to oiled birds (Samenwerkingsregeling Besmeurde Vogels or SBV).