The first half of the year has been promising for the recognition of oiled wildlife preparedness and response as a priority in Europe. In May, Sea Alarm participated in important meetings organised by the Bonn Agreement and REMPEC where this topic was raised.
The first half of the year has seen Sea Alarm and EUROWA-2 project partners make a start on a wide range of activities which will result in big strides forward in European oiled wildlife preparedness.
In July 2021, Sea Alarm and collaborators from Belgium and South Africa delivered presentations on oiled wildlife response at a webinar organised as part of the Global Initiative for West, Central and Southern Africa (GI-WACAF) webinar series.
Sea Alarm and EUROWA experts team up with the International Fund for Animal Welfare to deliver a series of introductory online training events for countries in the Red Sea region.
On 28 January 2021, Hugo Nijkamp, General Manager of Sea Alarm, took part in a webinar on oiled wildlife preparedness and response, organised by Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL).
We are very pleased to report that the EUROWA-2 project will begin in January, marking an important milestone in development of oiled wildlife preparedness in Europe. EUROWA-2 will be a 2-year project co-funded by the European Commission’s Civil Protection Financial Instrument.
We are very pleased to announce that Sea Alarm has signed a new multi-year agreement with Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL), ensuring our continuing cooperation for the coming years.
We are very happy to report that Christophe Blazy, a marine biologist born in France, has joined the Sea Alarm team as a Technical Advisor.
Three Sea Alarm staff participated in a workshop organised by Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) and the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), to explore and exercise various elements of oil spill preparedness and response.
Sea Alarm has continued to share its knowledge with the oil company members of OSRL during 2020. Our staff took part in the summer webinar series organised by OSRL for its members and also participated at the Members Day in October.
Sea Alarm’s coordination of preparedness building in the Netherlands saw the development of a new national wildlife response plan and further strengthening of the NGO network governance.
HELCOM maintains its position as the most advanced Regional Agreement in Europe when it comes to oiled wildlife preparedness and response policy. This year, Expert Working Group Meetings have continued, an online seminar on cross border cooperation in wildlife incidents was held and a number of important proposals have been discussed and adopted by HELCOM Response.