Equipment inspection exercise
The oiled wildlife response equipment that is stockpiled at the Oil Spill Response‘s warehouse in Southampton (UK) was recently inspected by leading European responders, including Sea Alarm.
The Fedra spill
The cargo ship Fedra ran aground on 10 October 2008 off the east side of Gibraltar’s Europa Point with 370 tonnes of fuel oil on board. Within hours, the Oil Spill Response team was on site in Gibraltar to assist and advise local teams. Sea Alarm was put on standby, in case a wildlife emergency emerged.
Sea Alarm joins EuroSpill
Sea Alarm is pleased to have joined EuroSpill in November 2008 as a founding member.
HELCOM Developments
HELCOM RESPONSE is moving swiftly forward to integrate oiled wildlife response in its activities. Sea Alarm and WWF-Finland have been an integral part of the process.
The RIOS Project
The Reducing the Impact of Oil Spills (RIOS project), which is funded by DG Research and started in April 2007, is in its final stage of completion. The main objective of the project is the development of an action plan for future research in the area of rehabilitation of oiled animals.
Developments in Portugal
Leading environmental groups and rehabilitation centres in Portugal have joined forces to be better prepared for an oil spill incident. Cooperation between these organisations was first explored at a meeting that was held immediately following the RIOS workshop in April. Since then, two further meetings, in June and October, have taken place. Sea Alarm moderated all three meetings.
New Zealand oiled wildlife expert on fact-finding mission
Bill Dwyer, the technical expert of the New Zealand Wildlife Health Centre recently visited the Sea Alarm offices as part of a fact-finding mission taking him to Switzerland, Belgium, France, Finland, and San Francisco. The purpose of Bill’s tour of several weeks was to identify outstanding features of other oiled wildlife response facilities, to assess the relative standard of preparedness in New Zealand and to pick up new ideas and insights.
OTSOPA
Sea Alarm gave a presentation to OTSOPA Contracting Parties on its work in Europe and its cooperation with OSRL/EARL. OTSOPA is the technical working group under the Bonn Agreement, the regional cooperation on oil spill prevention, response and mutual assistance for the North Sea and the North East Atlantic.
Sea Alarm joins ISCO
Sea Alarm is pleased to announce that it joined the International Spill Control Organization (ISCO) in 2008.
ISCO is a non-profit-making organisation incorporated in London in 1984 that is dedicated to improving world-wide preparedness for response to oil and chemical spills.
Developments in the Netherlands
The issue of euthanasia within a wildlife response plan was recently examined in the Netherlands. Hugo Nijkamp (Sea Alarm) accompanied the North Sea Directorate, the national authority for oil spill and oiled wildlife response, to a specialist company in Amsterdam that deals with large scale euthanasia of poultry. Devices for the euthanasia of birds by means of CO2 were examined.
Sea Alarm runner-up at the Seatrade Awards 2008
The Seatrade Awards are amongst the most important and prestigious awards that can be won in the Maritime sector. Sea Alarm was honoured to be one of two runners-up in the Protection of the Marine and Atmospheric Environment category for the “highly commended contribution” it has made.
Developments in Sweden
Together with Animal Welfare Sweden (Djurskyddet), Sea Alarm organized a national workshop on oiled wildlife response and planning, on 4 April 2008 in Stockholm, Sweden.