Sea Alarm’s vision is government, industry and non-governmental organisations working together to create innovative, sustainable, multi-stakeholder solutions to optimise the prevention of, preparedness for and response to marine wildlife emergencies.
We seek to achieve our vision by facilitating and motivating strategic alliances among non-governmental organisations (NGOs), governmental organisations and the oil and maritime industries to:
- be prepared for an oiled wildlife emergency as part of any oil spill response contingency planning; and
- respond professionally and effectively to oiled wildlife incidents according to best international standards.
What does this mean in practice?
A marine wildlife emergency does not happen every day. National stakeholders in such an emergency situation are not used to dealing with such a stressful situation as a matter of routine. Sea Alarm deals with the issues of preparedness and response every day and therefore is able to bring to the table the necessary expertise and skills in support of what leading national stakeholders wish to achieve.
Sea Alarm acts as an independent and impartial facilitator for the large variety of stakeholders that may potentially be involved. Before an incident happens, we aim to know the key players in every coastal country and establish good working relationships with them. When necessary and requested, Sea Alarm assists these parties to put in place an effective response infrastructure and ideally an agreed response plan.
In the immediate aftermath of an incident, Sea Alarm can liaise and work with all these parties to organise and become effective as quickly as possible under the given circumstances. This is good for the animals in distress, good for the people that wish to reduce their suffering, good for scientists who wish to measure impact, and good for the authorities that would like to deliver a safe and effective response.
Being prepared for oiled wildlife emergencies is based on connecting people and capacity building. Our preparedness activities focus on communicating good practice, building international expert networks, evaluating past responses, initiating and reporting on new developments, organising events and designing training modules and exercise scenarios.