News

Sea Alarm has been placed on the shortlist of the Seatrade Awards 2008

Encouraged by many in the world of shipping and oil spill response, Sea Alarm has submitted an entry to the 2008 Seatrade Awards in the category Protection of the Marine and Atmospheric Environment. Mid February it was announced that Sea Alarm’s entry has been selected by the judges and placed on the shortlist. At the Seatrade Awards Gala Dinner event, which will take place in London in the evening of April 21, 2008, the Award winners will be announced.
The Seatrade Awards are amongst the most important and prestigious awards that can be won in the Maritime sector. Being short-listed is already a great achievement.

Another oiled wildlife incident stretches capacity in Germany

Sunday 3 February 2008, the first oiled birds were reported from the island of Föhr, Germany. In the days to follow, several hundreds of oiled birds, mainly common scoters, were picked up from beaches along the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost German Federal State. To date the cause of the oil spill, which was identified as heavy fuel oil, remains uncertain. The Havariekommando, the central German authority responsible for oil combat at sea worked together with the Schleswig-Holstein authorities to deal with the spill. An integrated oiled wildlife response was allowed to take place, including attempts to capture and rehabilitate live animals. The organisation of this oiled wildlife response was left to the Working Group on Oiled Wildlife Rehabilitation, which is a Sea Alarm initiated umbrella under which all the German wildlife responders and coastal response centres are cooperating.
This incident was not easy for the Working Group to manage. An internal protocol on how to get organised and set up internal communication in case of an incident did not yet exist. The main centre on Föhr, the Tierhuus, with only limited capacity to stabilise birds was immediately under pressure with several tens of birds being admitted every day. Of the two permanent centres in Schleswig Holstein, the Westküstenpark had a limited capacity of 50 birds due to regulations connected to bird flu. The other centre, Weidefeld in Kappeln (Baltic coast) had a capacity of 120 birds but was not well prepared. The Workgroup decided to attempt rehabilitation of 65 birds in Kappeln and to transport any surplus of animals to the Netherlands, for which the authorities had provided a permit. In the course of several days and three transports, over 250 birds were brought to Fûgelpits in the North of the Netherlands. The centre in Kappeln had to be modified quickly after the birds had arrived, a process for which Sea Alarm organised assistance from Oostende (Belgium). Although time became the biggest enemy in this centre, threatening the condition of the birds, all technical problems could be dealt with and by 18 February. A total number of 45 birds were washed and put on pools, the majority expected to be released soon. At the Fûgelpits (NL), washing and rehabilitation also is proceeding well.
The incident has challenged the Working Group in many ways. Despite good intentions, mistakes were made by many and the internal communication at some crucial points during the response failed. Sea Alarm has already been requested to help with an evaluation process in order learn lessons and see how cooperation between the groups can be reinforced. A main conclusion from this incident is that it came too early: an agreed response plan was not in place and the Work Group was still exploring how to get organised and speak with one voice. The way forward in Germany is the development of regional wildlife response plans in each of the Federal States, in which the role and activities of the Working Group and communication processes are well described. In several Federal States, i.e. Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, the authorities have already started working on such plans. No doubt that the learnt lessons from this latest incident should and will provide a new impetus to these developments.

An EU scientific project titled Reducing impact of Oil Spills (RIOS) has been granted by the European Commission since April 2007. The project, in which Sea Alarm, Nordeconsult (Sweden, www.nordeconsult.com) and Zoomarine (Portugal, www.zoomarine.pt) are involved as partners, will focus on minimising the negative impacts of oil spills on the wildlife.
The main objective of RIOS is to develop an action plan for future research in the area of oiled wildlife rehabilitation and to stimulate the contacts and future co-operation between scientists and other stakeholders in this area. As part of the project, a workshop will be organised in Algarve, (Portugal) aiming to bring together scientists to discuss research concerning oil spills and their effects on wildlife.

This next edition of the Conference aims to present state of the art tools for oiled wildlife preparedness and response in Europe. Decision support systems, planning, training, stocks of equipment, response strategies and more will be presented and discussed. The set up of the conference will provide multiple opportunities for participants from governmental agencies, industry and NGO’s to exchange and discuss expertise, experience and approaches. The fourth edition will aim to bring together 150 participants mainly from Europe but also from other parts of the world.
The Conference will be held at the Thermae Palace Hotel in Ostend, Belgium, the coastal city where in 2003 thousands of birds were treated in the aftermath of the Tricolor incident. At present a provisional programme agenda is being drafted. Block these dates in your agenda!

A Sea Alarm organised meeting on the design and development of training opportunities for oiled wildlife responders took place at the premises of Oil Spill Response East Asia Response Ltd in Southampton (UK) on 16-18 April 2007. The meeting, which was attended by representatives of Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN), International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC), International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty (RSPCA), Tristate Bird Rescue Research Center, International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF), OSRL/Earl, Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend and Sea Alarm, assessed existing training programmes and their applicability in an international capacity building programme.

In the framework of an EU project lead by The Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), a workshop on Seabird Population Impact Assessment took place on 7-9 September 2006 in La Coruña. The workshop aimed to define best practices with regards to the collection of dead oiled seabirds in the aftermath of an oil spill incident and the subsequent necropsy and data analysis. Also it was discussed which data on (seasonal) seabird distribution would be needed by oil spill managers in the early stages of an incident, to be used in the decision making process on environmental protection. The main objective of the EU project, in which also University of A Coruña and Sea Alarm are involved as partners, is to develop a Handbook on Seabird Population Impact Assessment. In total, 38 participants attended the workshop, including scientists, regulators and NGOs amongst which 20 formally appointed delegates from 11 European countries. The first day of the workshop was dedicated to provide an overview of the subject.
Lectures were given on various related subjects, including methodologies to trace the origin of oiled seabirds (e.g. by biometry or genetic fingerprinting); case studies of past spills (Prestige, Tricolor, Erika, Estonia spills); the cooperation between NGO’s and governments (Canada, UK); international compensation regimes, issues connected to certain regions (Baltic), and structures for international cooperation and exchange. The second day, he contents of the envisaged Handbook was discussed in more detail in subgroups. The proceedings of the workshop are in preparation. The Handbook, to which all participants have been invited to contribute, will be developed during the first half of 2007 and published on the internet. Further information by clicking here.

In the framework of an EU project lead by Zoomarine, a Workshop on Best Practices for Oiled Wildlife Cleaning and Rehabilitation took place on 21-23 October 2006 in Albufeira. This workshop aimed at discussing backgrounds and principles of the cleaning and rehabilitation of oiled wildlife in the aftermath of an oil spill incident and tried to identify good practices that could be made available to wildlife responders throughout Europe. The workshop programme included a series of lectures, subgroup discussions and a table top exercise. The lectures were dealing with subjects such as fate and effect of oil, effects of oil on wildlife, setting up a temporary wildlife hospital, health and safety, animal welfare principles, and international cooperation. The participants discussed how to define animal welfare principles and how to translate these principles into the practice of oiled wildlife rehabilitation.
The decision making of an ordinary oiled wildlife rehab centre in the early days of an oil spill incident was simulated during a table top exercise that was specially developed for the workshop. In total, 41 participants attended the workshop including regulators, scientists and rehabilitators, amongst which 29 formally appointed delegates from 18 European countries. The project, in which also IFAW, ICRAM and Sea Alarm are involved as partners, aims to deliver a Handbook in which the best practices are described. The Handbook will be written during the first months of 2007 and will be published on www.oiledwildlife.eu

The European Oiled Wildlife Response Planning workshop, led by Sea Alarm, took place on 12-15 June 2006, at CEDRE, Brest (France). The project, in which also CEDRE (F), IFAW (UK), SYKE (Fin), ICRAM (I), OSRL (UK) and ITOPF (UK) are involved as partners, brought the unique opportunity of bringing authorities from European Coastal States together to discuss the lessons learnt from past oiled wildlife incidents and to explore national and international solutions for effective preparedness to future incidents in Europe. In total, 18 countries attended the workshop, including authorities responsible for oil spill management, authorities responsible for animal welfare issues and recognised NGO’s.
Presentations and discussions at the workshop covered a broad overview of the key issues of oiled wildlife response preparedness. One of the main conclusions of the workshop was that the level of preparedness in Europe can be improved, and a number of activities, such as making effective pre-spill arrangements at national levels, have been identified and listed as recommendations. The organisers will present the workshop outcomes to the EU Management Committee on Marine Pollution and will bring them under the attention of regional cooperation platforms such as Helcom, Bonn Agreement and Barcelona Convention.
The Follow up work that has been agreed at the workshop includes the development of an internet portal and a dedicated web-site (www.oiledwildlife.eu) which will be hosted by Sea Alarm. This website will become the main European portal with access to key information sources.

Sixteen experienced oiled wildlife responders from different European countries attended a Sea Alarm training event in Brussels on 13 and 14 November 2006. The meeting was organised to start training a group of European experts according to internationally agreed standards of good practice with regards to oiled wildlife incident response. Together with other organisations that attended the meeting, including Oil Spill Response Ltd, the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty, the invited experts discussed best practices and their needs for specific training modules.
The training needs that were identified in Brussels will be subject of a series of follow-up meetings that will be organised by Sea Alarm and involve the internationally leading wildlife response organisations who together aim to design an international training programme based on already existing modules.
Sea Alarm, in cooperation with Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) has accredited the European experts to be on call for assistance in oiled wildlife emergencies where local groups are facing limited capacities and in which an oil company offers to facilitate the mobilisation of an international assistance. The training of the experts is co-financed by the oil industry through the Agreement between Sea Alarm and OSRL. Sea Alarm is developing other financial resources in order to provide for a more international training programme that can be made available to authorities and interested wildlife response groups.

On 12 January 2007, the Greek tanker MS Server in heavy storms hit the island of Fedje, N-NW of Bergen, Norway, and broke into two. The tanker lost 300-600 t (max) heavy fuel oil and some diesel. The incident took place close to wintering areas of seabirds. At present, WWF-Norway is working with the authorities to mobilize their voluntary oil combating brigades in order to assist with the clean-up operations. The Norwegian Coastal Administration and wildlife responders (SWAN) have been discussed the oiled wildlife response.
SWAN, a local organization in charged of the animal care and rehabilitation has set up a bird holding facility on the island of Fedje, on of the most affected areas, where oiled birds from the island are stabilised. Another facility has been built near Bergen, where all birds will be transported to for further treatment, until they are ready to be released. Search and collection is carried out by another contractor (NNI). So far, 21 are in care including mainly seaducks, but also gulls, shags, cormorants and black guillemots.

Birds are one of the most visible and distressing casualties of a major coastal oil spill, with the numbers affected sometimes running into thousands. Their rescue and rehabilitation is often poorly organised and usually relies on voluntary groups that lack the training and resources to carry out a fully effective operation over a sustained period. This is all set to change thanks to a long-term commitment entered into by the oil industry and an international charity. A joint programme, agreed between the Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) and East Asia Response Limited (EARL) Alliance and the Brussels-based Sea Alarm Foundation, will ensure that the skills and experience of the oil industry and relevant environmental groups are combined to safeguard marine birds, mammals and reptiles threatened by oil pollution.
Roelf de Boer, Chairman of the Sea Alarm Foundation commented, "This co-operation is an international breakthrough and demonstrates that industry and non-governmental organisations complement each other in the field of oiled wildlife response preparedness and management. We look forward to working with the highly experienced staff of the OSRL/EARL Alliance to increase the level of professionalism and co-ordination in this field around the world."
Archie Smith, Chief Executive of the OSRL/EARL Alliance added, "We very much value the high level of expertise and commitment that Sea Alarm brings to this relationship. As a result we are now able to offer all our customers a more comprehensive package of response services, although the ultimate beneficiary of this co-operation will be marine and coastal wildlife."
The joint programme developed between the OSRL/EARL Alliance and Sea Alarm includes:

• training and co-ordination of dedicated wildlife response teams, as well as responders in individual companies, countries and regions;
• establishment of a 24/7 emergency response centre;
• activities to increase the level of international preparedness to such incidents, including the incorporation of wildlife response plans into national oil spill contingency plans;
• development of an international database of wildlife response organisations, national authorities and other relevant country information.

The main aim of this joint programme is to ensure that the response to future oiled wildlife incidents is faster and more effective, with better documentation of results and lessons learned. The partners in this new co-operation invite relevant national and international authorities, Non Governmental Organisations and other relevant groups to lend their support by participating in this important initiative.

Thursday February 2, 2006, Sea Alarm was notified about an oiled wildlife incident that was currently happening in Estonia. Thousands of birds were oiled following an illegal discharge of oil in the Gulf of Finland. Local responders had called for assistance, and the message reached Sea Alarm by e-mail via Sweden and the UK.
Sea Alarm immediately liaised with the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Emergency Relief Team (IFAW ER, US) and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty against Animals (RSPCA, UK) and the three organisation set up a joint international effort to provide support to the Estonian response, which was lead by the Ministry of Environment and supported by the Estonian Fund for Nature (ELF).
Within 24 hours, Sea Alarm (Hugo Nijkamp) and IFAW (Ian Robinson) were on site, advising and assisting the authorities and local responders, while experts from Europe and other parts in the world were mobilised. Under the Sea Alarm umbrella, Bird Protection Flandres (B), Project Blue Sea (D) and Royal Nioz (NL) sent experts to Estonia. IFAW mobilised its Emergency Response Team and RSPCA sent 3 experts.
The first experts who arrived were sent to the remote bird holding centres to assist with animal care. Meanwhile, a temporary wildlife hospital was built in Keila, using IFAW's Southampton based equipment which was put on transport by Oil Spill Response Ltd. As soon as this hospital was operational (February 8), all birds were transported there to bring them under one roof. In the Keila Wildlife Hospital, foreign experts are working together with Estonian responders to rehabilitate as many animals as possible.
The start of the Keila Wildlife Hospital marked the transition from emergency management to project management. From the ca 500 birds that had been captured, ca 150 made it to the wildlife hospital, of which ca 100 were considered fit enough to be treated (Feb 9). Also the birds that had been collected dead on beaches were brought to the wildlife hospital for necropsy (set up by Royal Nioz), in order to collect data for a wildlife impact analysis.
As part of the project management, a training programme has been designed to train a core group of managers, rangers, volunteers and scientists who would form a national crisis team for a future incident. The project also includes a strategy for downscaling the response and demobilising foreign experts.
Together with the authorities, a response plan is now being developed to prepare for a potential new oiled wildlife incident in spring 2006, because much of the spilled oil is still sitting under the ice and needs to be cleared up.
Immediately after the incident, the authorities were able to recover 8 t of oil from the coast, before ice started growing over it (due to night temperatures are as low as 15 to 20 degrees below zero). How much oil is still left under the ice no-one knows. After the ice will melt in Spring, aerial surveys should be able to detect the oil. There is a window of opportunity to clean the coast from oil, before sunshine heats up the oil on the sea bottom and it starts to mobilise again, threatening birds.
The approach jointly taken by Sea Alarm, IFAW and RSPCA in this response can be seen as a milestone in the history of European wildlife response, marking the start of a new era of effective, cost efficient cooperation between experienced wildlife responders. This spill also demonstrated the need of local preparedness and the importance of existing pre-spill arrangements between the key players from the authorities and NGO's.
A dedicated website is now being built by the Estonian authorities. As soon as it is ready, you will find the link here.

Meeting in the Wildlife Response Centre	Mute swans are among the victims

Tour pour la Mer is an independent bike ride set up to raise money for charitable organisations within the maritime industry, and raise awareness of maritime issues. The ride, which is supported by P&O, Vships, MTI, Intertanko, Lloyd's List, Tradewinds and PanScandinavian, will be held 12-14 May 2006 and aims to raise GBP 250.000 for two selected charities. Sea Alarm and the Mission to Seafarers (www.missiontoseafarers.org) are organisations that will benefit from this very first edition of the promising initiative. If you are a supporter of Sea Alarm's activities and seek for a sportive way of sponsoring us, please look at www.tourpourlamer.org how you can get involved as a sponsored rider or as a sponsoring organisation! Sea Alarm will use the raised sum for increasing the ability of wildlife responders to respond to oiled wildlife incidents, e.g. by organising regional training programmes.

During a ceremony in Ostend on July 14, 2005, a new Oiled Wildlife Response Plan has been signed in Belgium, by two responsible Federal Ministers and the Governor of West Flandres, and is therefore now operational. The plan is a product of a project group that was formed to evaluate the wildlife response in the aftermath of the Tricolor incident (2003) in which over 5000 live seabirds washed upon the Belgian beaches and were treated in Belgium, Netherlands and the UK. The project group, lead by the Belgian authorities and including wildlife responders, scientists and NGO's, asked Sea Alarm to assist with developing an effective response plan. The new and agreed Plan consists of three sections (Strategy/Policy, Operations, Data) and describes the envisaged roles for all involved stakeholders. The Plan provides a tiered approach which enables a tailor made response with respect to the size of an incident. The operational section of the plan describes the Tier-3 (crisis) activities. In case of the Tier-3 mobilisation, the Governor of West Flanders Province will lead the response as chairman of the Policy Group. His involvement guarantees a smooth integration of the oiled wildlife response activity into Belgium's existing oil spill contingency planning because he also chairs the policy groups of the Provincial Environmental Contingency Plan (oil clean-up) and the North Sea Contingency Plan (maritime accidents). The new Plan is the first national plan which has been developed according to the guidelines provided by the IPIECA Guide to Oiled Wildlife Response Planning.

Wildlife response in new IOPC Funds Claims Manual

In October 2004, the Assembly of the 1992 Fund Convention adopted the text of a new Claims Manual, which now also includes a short section on the treatment of claims for the cleaning and rehabilitation of oiled wildlife. This section of the Manual provides guidance for those who have been involved in the response to an oiled wildlife incident caused by a tanker spill and would like to be reimbursed for the costs they incurred during the cleanup. This new Manual was published May 2005 and is downloadable from www.iopcfund.org.

The Third Sea Alarm Conference took place in Balbriggan, Ireland, November 1-3, 2004, and was organised by Sea Alarm and the Irish Seal Sanctuary. The conference, which was sponsored by Fairy, ITOPF, WWF, Fingal County Council, The Heritage Council, Dublin Port and National Car Rental, was attended by 37 delegates from 26 organisations and 8 countries. The theme of the Conference, "Towards greater preparedness for oiled wildlife response in Europe" was discussed in four sessions:
- Recent incidents and lessons learnt, with presentations on the Erika incident (France, 1999), Prestige incident (Spain, 2002), Tricolor incident (Belgium, 2003), Fu Shan Hai incident (Sweden, 2003), Rocknes (Norway, 2004), Mystery Spill (Germany, 2004).
- National preparedness, with examples from Shetland, Ireland, Belgium, France
- Preparedness at an international level, where the activities of internationally operating organisations were presented, including IPIECA's Oil Spill Working Group, Oil Spill Response Limited, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Sea Alarm, International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund.
- Final session, in which conclusions were drawn. A Final Declaration was adopted.

The proceedings of the Conference have been published May 2005.

John Ostergard (IMO) receives the IPIECA report from Roelf de Boer (Sea Alarm). Chris Morris (IPIECA) watches.

Aurelio Caligiore (European Commission) receives a report from Roelf de Boer.

The latest issue in IPIECA's Report Collection on Oil Spill Preparedness and Response (Volume 13) has been published and is now available via www.ipieca.org. Chris Morris, General Secretary of IPIECA writes in the inside front cover: "This volume in the IPIECA report series was prepared under contract by the Sea Alarm Foundation (Director: Hugo Nijkamp) and was funded by contributions from BP, Total and IPIECA. … The document represents a unique stage on the road to integrated,consistent, oiled wildlife contingency planning, and has required many disparate organisations and agencies to reach a consensus on best practices, techniques and approaches for oiled wildlife response. The result is a tribute to the flexibility and cooperation of all the contributors, as well as the Sea Alarm Foundation for creating an environment in which this could occur." During the Third Sea Alarm Conference in Balbriggan (read more), the Guide was presented, and first copies were given to the European Commission and the International Maritime Organisation.

October 2003, Sea Alarm has sent out a questionnaire to over 140 recipients all over Europe, mainly organisations and individuals that are active in wildlife rehabilitation. In this way, Sea Alarm hopes to encourage rehabilitators in 19 countries to join forces and work towards a greater preparedness to respond to oiled wildlife incidents in Europe. By responding to the questionnaire, recipients could express e.g. how they feel about Sea Alarm, Sea Alarm's work, and the way they would like to participate in the initiative themselves. Another part of the questionnaire aimed at shedding a light on the already existing preparedness at the recipient's own national level. The information will become part of Sea Alarm's information system. Click here to learn more about the backgrounds of the questionnaire and how you can download the questionnaire.

In January 2003, the sunken autocarrier Tricolor leaked oil after a series of collisions by passing coasters and a salvage vessel. The oil was spilled in an important wintering area for seabirds and the effect was immediately clear. Many thousands of casualties reached the French and Belgian coasts alive, thousands of seabirds died and washed ashore in four countries around The French Channel. The Dutch Seabird Group (NZG) became involved when numerous casualties and large quantities of oil washed ashore in the Delta area (Zeeland and Zuid-Holland). With a team of volunteers, 2 tonnes of oiled birds were collected and dissected to obtain important data on the species, sex and age composition of the casualties. The first impression was that the worst fears had become true: mainly adult birds in excellent condition, the vital part of any breeding population, had been killed.
With a one-day symposium, the NZG plans to evaluate the impact of the Tricolor spill and this announcement is a first call for papers. The meeting is currently planned for 18 October 2003, place of venue Waterland Neeltje Jans in Zeeland, The Netherlands (check http://home.planet.nl/~camphuys/Tricolor.htm for updates and changes). Participation is free of charge and the conference is open for all interested people.
Contributions for this symposium, either in the form of oral presentations or as posters, should be submitted not later than 31 July 2003. Submissions will be discussed and reviewed in August, so that a final conference programme should be available later that month.
Kees (C.J.) Camphuysen
Dutch Seabird Group, c/o Ankerstraat 20, 1794 BJ Oosterend, Texel, The Netherlands, kees.camphuysen@wxs.nl

This is second call for papers for the Seventh Effects of Oil on Wildlife Conference which will take place in Hamburg, Germany, October 14-16, 2003, hosted by International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). The Effects of Oil on Wildlife (EOW) is a multidiscipline conference whose goal is the mitigation of the effects of oil pollution on aquatic wildlife. This meeting is a forum for those working in fields related to oil pollution and its effects on wildlife. The specific aim of the conference is to facilitate an exchange of information among peers; biologists, veterinarians, rehabilitators, government wildlife representatives, environmental NGOs and any other individuals or organizations interested in improving the planning prevention and response to oil pollutions impacts on wildlife.
Planned sessions include:
* Resources at risk
* Planning and prevention
* Chronic oiling
* Rehabilitation: management & techniques
* Marine mammals and reptiles
* Wildlife response case histories (Prestige, Tricolor, Treasurer)
* New technologies for wildlife response
* Evaluation and post release studies
Communications, in English, are invited as oral or poster presentations. Authors should submit an abstract utilizing the attached guidelines by E-mail to Curt Clumpner (curtc351@aol.com)
Curt Clumpner
Program Committee Chair, International Bird Rescue Research Center, PO Box 5574, Lynnwood, WA 98046, USA, Tel 206 527-0376

Between 17 and 20 October 2002, scientists, oiled wildlife responders and maritime experts gathered in Porto Torres, Sardinia (Italy), for a conference dealing with the threat of oil spills to biological diversity. Organised by Medmaravis, the Asinara National Park and the International Fund for Animal Welfare, speakers addressed various threats to the Mediterranean marine biodiversity, in particular oil spills. Six conference sessions were scheduled around the following subjects: The importance of oil spillages, Oil pollution prevention, Impact and conservation of coastal and marine biodiversity, Role of port and local authorities, Oiled wildlife rehabilition, Post spill research and follow-up programme. One of the products of the Conference was a call for action, the Asinara Declaration. The proceedings of the Sardinia Conference will be published shortly, in English and Italian. More information: medmaraxm@wanadoo.fr

14/15 March 2003, Inverness
Each year since 1991 an event has been held in Inverness for all people
working with orphaned and injured wildlife. Initially the Forum was aimed
largely at people working in Scotland but now delegates and speakers come
from all over the UK and Europe.
The aim is to provide a forum for discussion and learning for everyone
working in the field of wildlife rescue and rehabilitation from large
organisations such as the RSPCA to the one person operation who works on a
small scale.
Topics covered over the years have included veterinary subjects, first aid,
accommodation for casualties, and release and monitoring. This year there
were many topical issues which needed to be discussed and so the programme
included an update on the Seal Virus, Bat Rabies, Zoonoses and the work of an
SSPCA inspector.
In addition the main part of the afternoon was an exercise led by Jim Conroy
of Sea Alarm on how we would react to an oil spill - co-ordination of
response; finding out what wildlife is effected and potential survival;
setting up emergency facilities; bringing in volunteers and problems with
accommodation, etc. All these aspects are vitally important in improving
response in any emergency situation and by conducting this exercise all
delegates gained a better insight into the whole problem rather than just the
narrow view of their own special expertise.
For more information on the Wildcare Forum 2004 please contact Grace Yoxon,
Skye Environmental Centre, Broadford, Isle of Skye, IV49 9AQ. Email:
iosf2@aol.com

"It has been a very useful, informative trip" so said Claude Velter after a visit to various RSPCA wildlife hospitals in early April. Claude, Belgium's wildlife response coordinator during the Tricolor spill, is the head of the Bird Rehabilitation Centre in Ostend. This small, rehabilitation centre is soon to be replaced by a new wildlife hospital. The trip, which Sea Alarm organised, was meant to study building and management concepts for the new Belgian facility. It was logical that Claude, responsible for developing the plan to be submitted to an architect, should look to the RSPCA for advice. The Society assisted in the Tricolor response, and has a long history of cleaning oiled birds, as well as in designing and building wildlife hospitals. The Belgian delegation visited facilities in Hastings, Kings Lynn and Cornwall. Each visit was also a small reunion with those RSPCA officers who had attended the Tricolor spill. "Building the new permanent rehabilitation centre in Ostend is only one of the activities that has been speeded up by the Tricolor" Claude said . "The spill also made the authorities aware that an oiled wildlife contingency plan must be developed. The Flemish Banks is amongst the most vulnerable bird areas in the North Sea. A similar incident may again happen in the future and then we should be better prepared".

The Prestige incident alarmed several European countries and made them examine their oil spill contingency plans. At a recent meeting in the Netherlands examined the oil spill contingency plan for the Wadden Sea Area.
At present neither a plan for the Wadden Sea or a regionally specific oiled wildlife contingency plan exist. This was the reason for the Wadden Sea authorities to organise the meeting and invite the important Dutch players to discusshow an incident such as Prestige might be dealt with. Although wildlife problems were not specifically addressed by the meeting, it became clear from the discussions that in the field of general response coordination much can still be improved. The organisers have set up a web site which contains some of the presented papers and a series of useful links (www.zwartgetij.nl, in Dutch).

The Tricolor, a Norwegian car carrier, sank following a collision in one of the major shipping routes of the North Sea off the coast of Dunkerque, France. After sinking in relatively shallow waters (30 m depth), the side of the vessel lies only a few meters below the surface of the sea at high tide. The wreck caused an immediate threat to shipping, in what is one of the busiest sea lanes in the world. The first incident happened within 48 hours of the Tricolor sinking, when the Nicola crashed into the wreck. She could, however, be pulled clear and appeared not to suffer serious damage. Two weeks later, on 1 January 1t, the Vicky, carrying 70,000 tonnes of highly flammable gas oil struck the submerged Tricolor. Some of its dangerous cargo was lost, but the Vicky was pulled clear and sailed to Rotterdam. On Friday, 23 January new serious problem arose when the lid of an oil compartment was damaged during an oil pumping operation being undertaken by salvage company Smit International. Some 170 tons of fuel oil leaked into the sea. Although a relatively small amount, when compared with international records on oil spill incidents, it quickly grew into one of the most serious incidents in Europe for birds. Thousands of birds were collected dead and alive from beaches in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Between 25 January and 27 February 2003, the Sea Alarm Foundation responded to the Tricolor oil spill in Belgium where an unusually large number of birds were recovered oiled. Sea Alarm responded to a request by the Belgian authorities. The Foundation's activities included a number of services to the Belgian wildlife response coordinator: general advice, strategy development, day to day management, coordination between parties, link to ITOPF and P&I Club, assistance with financial management, coordination of international assistance, international transportation of birds, animal welfare. Download the report (PDF, 63 kb).

On 13 November 2002, the tanker "Prestige" suffered hull damage near the coast of Galicia (Spain). It was towed to open sea where a few days later, on 19 November, the single hulled vessel broke in two and sank in water some 3.5 km deep, and about 275 km west of Vigo.
Until it sank, the tanker had lost 20,000 tons of heavy fuel oil, but after sinking continued to leak oil in amounts of ca 125 tons a day through a series of holes.
When the tanker broke in two, spilling ten thousands tons of oil west of Galicia, it was clear that bird and mammal populations were at risk along hundreds of kilometres of coastline. The Galician coast is well known for as a key site on the wintering migration routes of Atlantic seabirds. Some important internationally protected bird reserves, including RAMSAR sites are also located here. In addition, Galicia contains an important population of Eurasian otters, and is an area where dolphins and marine turtles occur. Within a few days of the start of the incident, oil landed on beaches and the first dead and live birds started washing ashore. Local authorities and specialist organisations became active to organise the necessary wildlife activities and international groups were offering their services.

Sea Alarm was invited by local parties in Galicia, Spain, and assisted between 23 November and 14 December 2002 in the organisation and optimisation of the response activities concerning oiled wildlife. Download the report (PDF, 159 kb).