Sea Alarm has developed a portfolio of training and exercise modules that will help individuals, organisations and response teams to develop the necessary knowledge, skills and experience. We focus on continuous development of materials including table top exercises, field exercises, instruction manuals, visuals, and simulation software, to create a realistic picture of what the key challenges are and how to deal with them. Our expertise can help oil companies or governmental agencies in their efforts to develop consistent training and exercise programmes to train key staff positions in an oiled wildlife or marine emergency response.
Sea Alarm can facilitate the design, planning and delivery of training and exercises, either as standalone events or integrated into a larger oil spill response set-up.
Training
For wildlife and oil spill response managers
Wildlife managers are often marine conservation experts, biologists, or veterinarians that work for an authority. Because marine wildlife emergencies do not occur frequently, training is often not a high priority and the function of a wildlife response coordinator is not identified.
Oil spill response managers are experts in government, oil or shipping companies that are trained to coordinate marine pollution response activities. Although they are generally familiar with many areas of oil spill response, the different needs of a wildlife response are often not so well known.
Sea Alarm has developed training modules for these two groups at an international level. Two course packages are available:
Oiled Wildlife Awareness Course
Wildlife Branch Course
For hands-on wildlife responders
Hands-on responders are responsible for capturing affected animals, transporting them to specialised centres and treating them according to pre-spill defined objectives. They include search and capture specialists, wildlife rehabilitators and veterinarians. Ideally, some hands-on responders should also have managing skills enabling them to train and manage groups of responders and/or volunteers.
Responder trainings by Sea Alarm are always based on internationally agreed best practices, e.g. protocols and guidelines published by the leading response organisations.
Together with partners from the EUROWA network, Sea Alarm has been involved in developing (and delivering) courses for basic, advanced and specialist responders, as well as veterinarians and wildlife response managers. In collaboration with the NIOZ institute, scientists can also follow training on the the skills required to perform a population impact assessment.
Sea Alarm/EUROWA also facilitate the training of experienced oiled wildlife responders that are able to respond abroad, as part of an international EUROWA team.
More information on hands-on EUROWA training courses that Sea Alarm / Eurowa can provide can be found here.
Wildlife Response Exercises
In a marine wildlife response, a large number of individuals and organisations need to work together according to proven techniques and strategies to be effective. The best way to test and train this cooperation is to have an exercise that concentrates on a specific part (or parts) of a response.
Depending upon the objectives, the size of an exercise may range from a small to large-scale event. Small-scale exercises may include notification tests to check a plan’s contact lists or table-top exercises to practice the decision making process in a wildlife response facility. Larger-scale exercises can include an equipment mobilisation exercise or the mobilisation of a whole response system including people, facilities and equipment.
Sea Alarm’s own emergency response system is also regularly tested as part of oil industry exercises in which Oil Spill Response is involved. In these cases an oiled wildlife scenario runs as part of a larger oil spill response set-up, and Sea Alarm is contacted as part of the response plan to advise and/or assist in the mobilization of response teams or equipment.
Serious games – WildX and OneX
Experience has shown us that different training formats are needed to visualise complexity in an oiled wildife incident or other marine emergency. Sea Alarm has developed two different tabletop exercise packages based on serious games: the WildX and OneX packages. WildX games focus on the nature of wildlife aspects in a marine pollution scenario. OneX focuses on the evolution of marine incidents and helps players get to grips with the consequences of those marine emergency scenarios both at sea and on the shoreline.
OneX and WildX invite participants to discuss response options, and in the process, to develop new insights about their own role and that of other stakeholders.
More information can be found in the dedicated Serious Games page here.