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November 2009

The EMPOWER network, founded by Sea Alarm and 8 other organisations in Europe, was opened to general membership on November 18th. The first application was received within 24 hours.

October 2009

Sea Alarm successfully passed a routine EU audit of its financial and administrative structure, a standard procedure, as a participant in the European Commission’s Operational Grants to NGOs scheme.

Sea Alarm (Hugo Nijkamp) attended a workshop based around the launch of a training manual for oiled seabird response in the Netherlands. Sea Alarm was involved in the development of the manual.

The 10th Effects of Oil on Wildlife Conference is held in Estonia, which was organised by Sea Alarm, the Estonian Fund for Wildlife and Oil Spill Response. The Conference is highly successful with many side events including courses before and after the official programme.

In the wake of the EOW, Sea Alarm led a debrief on the Full City oil spill in Norway, co-led a planning workshop for oiled wildlife response in the Baltic countries and taught at a training program for Estonian Fund for Nature (ELF) volunteers.

Saskia Sessions, a marine environmental scientist, joined Sea Alarm as Senior Technical Advisor. Saskia had previously worked for the European Maritime Safety Agency and Oil Spill Response.

Sea Alarm organised a meeting of Turkish NGOs to discuss national capacity for oil spill response.

Sea Alarm (Roser Gasol) gave a presentation on developments in international oiled wildlife response at the Black Sea Commission’s Environmental Safety Aspects of Shipping Advisory Group meeting in Turkey.  This was Sea Alarm’s first invitation to attend a meeting under the Bucharest Convention.

September 2009

Sea Alarm, in cooperation with WWF Finland and the Estonia delegation, presented a proposal to include wildlife response in the HELCOM manual at the September meeting of HELCOM. The proposal was adopted in principle.

August 2009

A Sea Alarm team provided expertise and support to the Norwegian Oiled Wildlife Response Network (NOW) during the Full City oil spill in southern Norway.

July 2009

Sea Alarm moved into new, larger offices in Brussels.

June 2009

Sea Alarm (Hugo Nijkamp) presented on integrating oiled wildlife response into both at-sea and on-shore oil spill response at a joint meeting of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and DG Environment in Lisbon.

Sea Alarm (Roser Gasol) attended the 9th meeting of Focal Points for Specially Protected Areas in Malta, organised by the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas. Discussions were held on cooperative actions in the event of an oil spill in the Mediterranean.

Sea Alarm assisted a group of Portuguese NGOs in developing an oiled wildlife response plan for Portugal.

May 2009

Sea Alarm (Hugo Nijkamp) reported on European oiled wildlife response developments to the OTSOPA meeting in Rotterdam. As a result of his input, OTSOPA decided to include a chapter on oiled wildlife response in the Bonn Agreement.

The EMPOWER Steering Group met in Brussels, hosted by Sea Alarm, to determine how to set up and coordinate the activities of the work programme.

Sea Alarm’s new brochure was released, providing an overview of the organisation’s objectives and main activities.

Sea Alarm (Hugo Nijkamp, Rosalie e Silva, Roser Gasol) attended Interspill 09, in Marseille, France. In addition to manning the Sea Alarm booth at the exhibition hall, Hugo Nijkamp co-chaired a conference session and attended Eurospill’s first AGM and Rosalie e’Silva gave a presentation at the International Spill Control Organisation AGM, describing Sea Alarm’s work.

April 2009

Sea Alarm attended the UK National Standing Environment Group Chairs meeting as an invited observer and reported on international developments in oiled wildlife preparedness and response.

Sea Alarm published the Reducing the Impact of Oil Spills (RIOS) Action Plan, developed at an April workshop, in preparation for making it available at the Effects of Oil on Wildlife Conference in October.

Baron Leo Delwaide assumed the role of Chairman of the Sea Alarm board. Sea Alarm thanks outgoing Chairman Mr. Roelf de Boer for his three years of service during which he was instrumental in securing funding and forging strong alliances with the oil industry.

Officials from various agencies in the Netherlands signed the country’s national oiled wildlife response plan. Sea Alarm has been a key advisor in the development of this plan since 2005.

March 2009

Sea Alarm (Hugo Nijkamp) met with WWF Finland and Estonian officials in Estonia to develop a proposal to integrate wildlife response into the existing HELCOM Oil Spill Response Manual. The proposal was submitted to HELCOM at its September meeting.

February 2009

An oil spill in Ireland prompted the Irish Seal Sanctuary to request assistance from Sea Alarm in drawing up a temporary plan for response to the incident.

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