Sea Alarm starts the new year with visits to key stakeholders
In the beginning of February, the Sea Alarm team went to the UK to visit key stakeholders in the oiled wildlife response community. Sea Alarm aims to create a more professional and coordinated response to an oiled wildlife incident. An effective oiled wildlife response needs preparation and effective coordination between the different stakeholders.
On day one, we visited the Secretariat of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC), an intergovernmental organisation which provides compensation for oil pollution damage resulting from spills from oil tankers. Sea Alarm is an official observer to the IOPC, where we help to raise awareness, prepare decisions and develop the field of oiled wildlife response and preparedness. During our meeting we discussed case studies of oiled wildlife response and how the international compensation mechanism works to cover the costs of these activities following an incident.
Next, we visited the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) – the United Nations agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine and atmospheric pollution by ships. The meeting was a useful exchange of perspectives on changing risk profiles and future challenges for oil spill preparedness and response. We explored how wildlife response good practices could be globally advocated via existing channels such as IMO courses and guidelines.
On day two, the team moved to Southampton to visit the Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) base. OSRL is the largest international industry-funded cooperative which exists to respond to oil spills across the world, by providing preparedness and response services. Sea Alarm has a long-standing working relationship with OSRL in which the main aim has been to make the world better prepared for wildlife emergency response. For the OSRL members, Sea Alarm provides guaranteed advisory services in the aftermath of an oil spill incident across the globe.
During the day, we held a ‘Sea Alarm Café’ interactive session which allowed OSRL staff to learn more about oiled wildlife preparedness by joining a series of interactive tabletops.
The trip was a success, with many fruitful discussions, innovative ideas and furthering of our collaboration with these key organisations. We look forward to many more years working together.
For further info, contact secretariat@sea-alarm.org