2010 - Page 2 of 4

Sea Alarm seeks cooperation with ECSA

December 23, 2010

Following an earlier discussion in 2009, Benoit Loicq from the European Community Shipowners Association (ECSA) visited the Sea Alarm offices in Brussels last September. The aim of this meeting was for both organisations to present their activities and look at areas of common interest. Mr Loicq explained the setup and programme of ECSA, which is an international association made up of the national shipowner associations in each EU Member State. ECSA works to promote and represent European shipping interests though specialised committees, including an Environment and Safety Committee.

EnSaCo seminar and workshop

December 23, 2010

From 14-17 September an international seminar and workshop were held in Estonia as part of the ENSACO project. This project focuses on the cooperation between Estonia, Finland and Sweden in the areas of shoreline cleanup and wildlife response. Sea Alarm was invited to the event and assisted with the international seminar and a volunteer training on oiled wildlife response.

Gulf of Mexico spill

August 6, 2010

On April 20 2010 an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico caused the deaths of 11 people and also a fire which finally destroyed the platform. The safety valves on the sea floor failed to work and did not close the well that had been drilled, out of which thousands of barrels of oil started flowing into the marine environment.

Project with WWF NL

August 6, 2010

Shortly after the Deepwater Horizon spill started, WWF The Netherlands contacted Sea Alarm and asked if Sea Alarm could help them following the developments. WWF was very concerned with the spill happening so close to the Mississippi Delta and all…

Developments in international preparedness

August 6, 2010

Sea Alarm has taken further strong steps forward in the development of a set of instruments that can be used for an international mobilisation of oiled wildlife response experts in case of an incident. Sea Alarm’s 24/7 notification and information centre is permanently available for Oil Spill Response Members, which include the globally operating oil companies, but also for any other party in need of advice or expertise.

Oiled wildlife response and responders in the UK

August 6, 2010

Sea Alarm attended the 2010 meeting of UK Standing Environment Group chairs in London on 3 June. Saskia Sessions was able to make a presentation introducing Sea Alarm to the SEG Chairs new to their posts, explaining our role, recent developments in oiled wildlife response in Europe and to explore possible UK activities in oiled wildlife preparedness.

Revamp of oiledwildlife.eu

August 6, 2010

As part of an internal project that had started already in 2009, Sea Alarm has been working to develop a total remake of the existing www.oiledwildlife.eu. A new design was developed and some exciting facilities were added. The website now looks totally different and will have many surprises for those of you who frequently visited the old version.

Recommendation on oiled wildlife response planning adopted

August 6, 2010

At the recent Ministerial Meeting in Moscow, Ministers from all contracting parties to the Helsinki Convention have adopted a new Recommendation called “Integrated oiled wildlife response planning in the Baltic Sea Area”. This Recommendation was developed by Sea Alarm in close cooperation with Estonia and WWF-Finland.

OTSOPA 2010

August 6, 2010

Sea Alarm worked closely together with the Bonn Agreement Secretariat to prepare a paper for the OTSOPA 2010 meeting with a proposal for a new chapter on wildlife response in the Counter Pollution Manual. OTSOPA (Working Group on Operational, Technical and Scientific Questions Concerning Counter Pollution Activities) had requested such a proposal at their previous meeting in 2009. Sea Alarm and the Secretariat designed a questionnaire which was sent to all Bonn Agreement Contracting Parties, in order to get an updated overview of current wildlife response arrangements in the area of the Agreement.

Developments in Ireland

August 6, 2010

After a long period of quiet, the issue of oiled wildlife response planning became active again in Ireland. This followed on from a letter by the Irish Coast Guard to all 20 coastal Counties with a request to send in their shoreline response plan. Already a few years ago the Coast Guard had requested the Counties to develop such a plan according to a standard format. In that format there was also a paragraph on integrated oiled wildlife response planning.

Sea Alarm at the Adriatic Oil Spill Conference

August 6, 2010

Sea Alarm was invited to make a presentation at the 1st Adriatic oil spill conference organised by OSEC, which took place on 12-14 May in Opatija, Croatia. This was the first regional conference of this kind and brought together stakeholders and experts in oil spill response from all six countries bordering the Adriatic – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Montenegro and Slovenia.

Turkey IBRRC training

August 6, 2010

Sea Alarm’s Saskia Sessions made a presentation during a training course on oiled wildlife rehabilitation in Ankara, Turkey on 3-7 May. This training was for wildlife rehabilitators, scientists, veterinarians and environmental NGOs on techniques and key considerations for hands-on rehabilitation of oiled wildlife. The training course was hosted by BTC (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) pipeline company, as part of their ongoing efforts to improve preparedness for an oil spill from the pipeline.