In October, Sea Alarm, in cooperation with the Oiled Wildlife Response Network (OWRN, Ireland), Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend (WRCO, Belgium) and ProBird (Germany), facilitated two one-day training courses focusing on the early stages of oiled wildlife response.
Claude Velter, who has worked half time for Sea Alarm since 2012, has left his position as Senior Technical Advisor as of 1 May 2015 to take on an expanded role at the Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend (WRCO).
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).
The European Module for Oiled Wildlife Emergency Response Assistance (EUROWA) project, introduced late last year, got off to a strong start with a weeklong meeting hosted by the RSPCA, a project partner, at their Mallydams Wood Wildlife Centre.
A very productive three-day meeting of representatives from leading European wildlife response organisations included review of the response management guidelines that Sea Alarm helped to produce. Experts from the UK, Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Spain, The Republic of Ireland, and the Netherlands attended the meeting, as well as observers from ITOPF and OSRL.
Sea Alarm recently was informed by the European Commission that the EUROWA proposal (European Module for Oiled Wildlife Emergency Response Assistance) has been selected for European funding.
In October, Hugo Nijkamp attended and chaired the board meeting of Oiled Bird Rehabilitation Netherlands (Stichting Olievogelopvang Nederland-SON). Sea Alarm is advising and assisting SON in firming up its coordinating role in preparedness and response activities in the Netherlands.
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.
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.
Having just reported that HELCOM Response was recommending stronger oiled wildlife response targets, Sea Alarm is pleased to note that on 3 October, the 2013 Copenhagen Ministerial Meeting of HELCOM, the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, has agreed on those targets.
In anticipation of the decisions by the HELCOM Ministerial Meeting, Sea Alarm has asked Agni Kaldma from Estonia to work on a project to identify the possibility of creating more and closer regional cooperation between leading NGOs in the Baltic countries.