Dutch oiled bird responder network meets in Brussels
On Saturday April 16 Sea Alarm hosted the board meeting of the Dutch national oiled bird rehabilitation network (SON – Stichting Olievogels Nederland) at its offices in Brussels.
European oiled wildlife response developments
Sea Alarm hosted the 3rd meeting of key European wildlife response organisations at its office in Brussels in April. The group, which includes Sea Alarm, the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Animals (RSPCA), the Ostend Wildlife Rescue Centre (Belgium), and ProBird (Germany), meets twice a year to evaluate and further optimise their joint international response preparedness.
Visiting wildlife responders west coast of US
In the days following the HAZWOPER course, Hugo visited various wildlife organisations based on the West Coast of the US, including Focus Wildlife, International Bird Rescue (formerly International Bird Rescue Research Center), Oiled Wildlife Care Network and WildRescue.
Meeting European response team
Sea Alarm organised a second meeting with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend and ProBird Germany, to discuss wildlife response issues, especially the rehabilitation of oiled birds. The meeting took place in September at Mallydams Wood, one of RSPCA’s wildlife hospitals, and was attended by various people from the different key organisations mentioned. An earlier meeting in April 2010 demonstrated that it is useful to have regular exchanges of the details of the oiled bird rehabilitation protocols that each of the organisations uses.
Project with WWF NL
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…
Developments in international preparedness
Sea Alarm has taken further strong steps forward in the development of a set of instruments that can be used for an international mobilisation of oiled wildlife response experts in case of an incident. Sea Alarm’s 24/7 notification and information centre is permanently available for Oil Spill Response Members, which include the globally operating oil companies, but also for any other party in need of advice or expertise.
Oiled wildlife response and responders in the UK
Sea Alarm attended the 2010 meeting of UK Standing Environment Group chairs in London on 3 June. Saskia Sessions was able to make a presentation introducing Sea Alarm to the SEG Chairs new to their posts, explaining our role, recent developments in oiled wildlife response in Europe and to explore possible UK activities in oiled wildlife preparedness.
Developments in Ireland
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.
ProBird volunteer course
Sea Alarm was invited by the ProBird group in Germany to attend and lecture on a volunteer course they were organising last April. The course took place in Rastede, in one of the wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centres in the North of Germany, and was attended by ca 20 new volunteers.
EnSaCo activities 2010
Saskia Sessions was invited to the recent ENSACO workshop that took place on 13-14 April in Helsinki, Finland. She was requested to lecture on integrated oiled wildlife response and planning and moderate a Sea Alarm table top exercise on wildlife response planning processes.
Breaking news – wildlife response operations following the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
Leading US wildlife response groups have been mobilised to the Gulf of Mexico to help local responders deal with oiled wildlife following the oil spill from the Deepwater horizon drilling rig, which sank following an explosion and fire on 20 April.
Training for WWF Finland volunteers
During his recent visit to Helsinki, Hugo Nijkamp gave a two hour lecture to more than 30 volunteers of WWF Finland. The volunteers are trained to assist in oil spill incidents in Finland where they play a main role in the shoreline cleanup and wildlife response, as part of a programme which is coordinated by WWF Finland, in close cooperation with Finland’s National Environmental Institute (SYKE) and the Rescue Departments.