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December 2011

Sea Alarm (Hugo Nijkamp) chaired a one day seminar in Poland for BRISK. Hugo also gave a presentation on ways to strengthen oiled wildlife preparedness mechanisms in the Baltic Region.

Sea Alarm prepared guidelines on oiled wildlife impact assessment and developed a draft Annex on Oiled Wildlife Preparedness and Response to the Black Sea Regional Contingency Plan for the Black Sea Commission.

Statoil, BP and Saudi Aramco have approached Sea Alarm regarding development of their oiled wildlife preparedness strategies.

Sea Alarm attended the OSRL shareholder meeting to update the organisation on progress and development of Sea Alarm’s programme on oiled wildlife preparedness and response.

November 2011

The RSPCA and Sea Alarm met to discuss a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two organisations to allow for cooperation on wildlife preparedness and during oil spills.

Sea Alarm (Hugo Nijkamp), along with ProBird Germany and Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend, went to Ireland to provide a one day training  to staff and volunteers of the Shannon Port Authority and the Irish Seal Sanctuary. The training included lectures and practical demonstrations of recently purchased oiled wildlife response equipment

October 2011

Sea Alarm (Saskia Sessions) and Vanessa Strauss of the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), gave a joint presentation to a conference of the Global Initiative for West and Central Africa (GI WACAF), which is a public/private partnership between the International Maritime  Organization (IMO) and the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA). The presentation explained what oiled wildlife response entails and the importance of wildlife response planning, and described South Africa’s successful planning model.

Sea Alarm made a series of presentations to ITOPF, one of Sea Alarm’s key partners, to provide an overview of oiled wildlife preparedness and response. They used a case study, based on a joint response by the organisations, to demonstrate Sea Alarm’s role within the overall oil spill response.

The Arctic Council’s Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response (EPPR) Working Group invited Sea Alarm (Saskia Sessions) to present a proposal to develop Guidelines on Oiled Wildlife Response Planning for Arctic countries.

June 2011

Sea Alarm (Saskia Sessions) attended the OSRL shareholder meeting and the IPIECA Oils Spill Working Group (OSWG) meeting in San Francisco USA to present updates on Sea Alarm activities to both groups.

May 2011

Sea Alarm organised a meeting of oiled wildlife response groups in conjunction with the International Oil Spill Conference in Portland, Oregon, USA, to talk about international cooperation between the groups at a global level.

Sea Alarm (Hugo Nijkamp) chaired the first dedicated wildlife session of the International Oil Spill Conference in Portland, US. Saskia Sessions presented on the structural oiled wildlife response and preparedness instruments developed in Europe. Sea Alarm shared OSRL’s exhibitor space in the main exhibition hall.

The Bonn Agreement’s OTSOPA adopted the oiled wildlife response chapter, prepared by Sea Alarm and the Bonn Agreement Secretariat, for their Counter Pollution Manual.

REMPEC (Regional Emergency Centre for the Mediterranean Sea) and Sea Alarm signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Under the MoU, Sea Alarm can assist REMPEC countries in developing their wildlife response plans and training programmes, in addition to providing assistance during a wildlife emergency.

April 2011

ITOPF has funded Sea Alarm’s wish list project of analysing ring recovery data from oiled birds treated and released from the main rehabilitation centres in Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK between 1980 and 2010. The study will  look at trends in the length of post release survival as a result of improved rehabilitation protocols. Scientists from the Institute of Forest and Nature Conservation (Belgium), the Royal NIOZ (Netherlands) and the British Trust for Ornithology (UK) will analyse the data for publication in 2012.

Sea Alarm hosted the Dutch national oiled bird rehabilitation network (SON- Stichting Olievogels Nederland) board meeting on April 16th. Sea Alarm serves as advisor and observer in SON.

March 2011

Sea Alarm assisted in organising a response to the oil spill on the Tristan da Cunha Islands in the South Atlantic.

Sea Alarm (Saskia Sessions) presented a paper on the specific challenges of Arctic oiled wildlife response at the IMO/World Maritime University Conference on Oil Spill Risk Management in Sweden.

Sea Alarm mourned the loss of Jim Conroy, a strong supporter and former Sea Alarm board member, who helped to ensure the future of the organisation in many ways.

February 2011

Sea Alarm assisted in a small-scale oiled wildlife rehabilitation operation in Norway by Friends of the Earth Norway after a vessel (Godafoss) ran aground spilling 500t of fuel oil. Sea Alarm enabled ProBird to care for oiled swans being rehabilitated.

January 2011

Stichting Olievogelopvang Nederland (SON), a Dutch network of wildlife rehabilitators, was assisted by Sea Alarm in responding to a small oiled wildlife incident in Amsterdam. Sea Alarm tightened up the response coordination and wrote the successful claim for funding of the work.

Sea Alarm was saddened by the loss of Alesandro Barisich, a former chairman of the Sea Alarm board, who worked hard to bring the organisation into active wildlife response within Europe, leading the effort to get recognition from government and EU agencies.

 

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