Sea Alarm recently presented at the annual meetings of three Regional Sea Conventions on the importance of the EUROWA project and the Self-Assessment Tool in improving oiled wildlife response preparedness.
Sea Alarm’s participation in HELCOM RESPONSE concentrates around various topics intended to ensure wildlife response is well-integrated into overall oil spill response in the Baltic region.
In cooperation with the Swedish Coast Guard, Sea Alarm facilitated the use of the Self-Assessment Tool (SAT) by the Contracting Parties of the Bonn Agreement.
The Expert Working group on Oiled Wildlife Response (EWG-OWR), which Sea Alarm chairs, recently held its 10th meeting.
Sea Alarm is pleased to announce that it has recently renewed its MoU with REMPEC, formalising plans to continue their collaboration for a further two years.
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.
Sea Alarm’s Saskia Sessions-Puplett presented at the 12th meeting of the Focal Points of REMPEC, which was held May 2017 in Malta.
Of the nine coastal states in the Baltic Region, five have developed plans for oiled wildlife response and others have made progress toward this goal, according to a HELCOM report.
How prepared are we for oiled wildlife response?
This is a question regularly considered by the HELCOM Response (Baltic Sea Area) Expert Working Group on Oiled Wildlife Response (EWR-OWR), chaired by Sea Alarm.
To help with making an accurate assessment of their level of preparedness, the Working Group decided to develop a self-assessment tool to aid countries in gauging and reporting on their progress toward preparedness for response to oiled wildlife.
Sea Alarm led a very well-attended training course in Brussels, which was kindly hosted by the European Commission’s Emergency Response Coordinating Centre (ERCC), introducing attendees to the complexities of oiled wildlife response and the importance of detailed planning for such responses.
Sea Alarm is providing its oiled wildlife planning course, free of charge, to European authorities who have responsibility for this issue in their country. Registration is still open for the course which will be held on 16-17 April at the Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) in Brussels.
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.