The IOPC Funds approved the continuation of Sea Alarm’s observer status at the March 2022 meetings of the governing bodies. The International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC Funds) provide financial compensation for oil pollution damage that occurs in Member States…
Sea Alarm chaired, and participated in, the HELCOM Expert Group on Wildlife Response (EG Wildlife) on 7 February 2022.The group had recently renewed its Terms of Reference and mandate until the end of 2023, and also updated the recommendation on…
Baltic countries are continuing their efforts to look at oiled wildlife issues in the framework of regional cooperation and capacity building. Sea Alarm, who hold observer status at HELCOM, took part in the online HELCOM Response meeting on 29 September…
Sea Alarm successfully contributed to a sub-regional online workshop organised by REMPEC between 7 and 8 September 2021 within the framework of its efforts to further develop and harmonise national oil spill response preparedness across Mediterranean countries. This workshop was…
Baltic countries are continuing their commitment to improving oiled wildlife response through the HELCOM Expert Working Group on Oiled Wildlife Response (EWG-OWR),and most, recently via an online seminar on the role of euthanasia within oiled wildlife response.
The first half of the year has been promising for the recognition of oiled wildlife preparedness and response as a priority in Europe. In May, Sea Alarm participated in important meetings organised by the Bonn Agreement and REMPEC where this topic was raised.
HELCOM maintains its position as the most advanced Regional Agreement in Europe when it comes to oiled wildlife preparedness and response policy. This year, Expert Working Group Meetings have continued, an online seminar on cross border cooperation in wildlife incidents was held and a number of important proposals have been discussed and adopted by HELCOM Response.
In 2020, as part of our ongoing work to provide information on oiled wildlife response preparedness in all the coastal countries of the world, we updated 11 Country Wildlife Response Profiles (Mozambique, China, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Vietnam, Panama, Singapore, Romania, Spain and the USA) and created new profiles for Lebanon, our 107th, and Malta, our 108th.
Sea Alarm has played an active role in motivating European Coastal States to explore the issue of Oiled Wildlife Response and Preparedness via the three major Regional Agreements: “Bonn”, “HELCOM” and “Barcelona”. This article provides an overview of these efforts, and what has been achieved over the years.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, conferences everywhere are being cancelled, however, the Arctic Preparedness Platform for Oil Spill and Other Environmental Accidents (APP4SEA) elected to hold a Twitter conference, at which Sea Alarm was an invited participant.
We are pleased to announce that our MoU with the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC) has been extended for a further two years.
In February 2020, Sea Alarm’s Hugo Nijkamp attended the 27th HELCOM Response meeting in Vejle, Denmark where the integration of all aspects of at sea response, shoreline response and wildlife response was a key topic.