The European Module for Oiled Wildlife Emergency Response Assistance (EUROWA) project, introduced late last year, got off to a strong start with a weeklong meeting hosted by the RSPCA, a project partner, at their Mallydams Wood Wildlife Centre.
A very productive three-day meeting of representatives from leading European wildlife response organisations included review of the response management guidelines that Sea Alarm helped to produce. Experts from the UK, Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Spain, The Republic of Ireland, and the Netherlands attended the meeting, as well as observers from ITOPF and OSRL.
In October, Hugo Nijkamp attended and chaired the board meeting of Oiled Bird Rehabilitation Netherlands (Stichting Olievogelopvang Nederland-SON). Sea Alarm is advising and assisting SON in firming up its coordinating role in preparedness and response activities in the Netherlands.
In November, Hugo Nijkamp of Sea Alarm attended a meeting at the brand new European Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) in Brussels.
The meeting aimed to inform the European marine pollution community about the European Union’s new Civil Protection Mechanism, including related opportunities for European co-funding of projects and activities.
Ten leading oiled wildlife response organisations from around the globe, all with significant histories of international oil spill response, attended a workshop in Brussels in October 2013. The meeting, organized by Sea Alarm and sponsored by the Oil Spill Response Joint Industry Project (OSR-JIP), furthered cooperative efforts begun at Interspill 2012.
The WRC Ostend hosted the last 2013 meeting of the European oiled wildlife response team from 19-21 November. At the meeting, the Joint European Protocol for Seabird Rehabilitation, which is in final preparation for printing, was reviewed in detail.
Having just reported that HELCOM Response was recommending stronger oiled wildlife response targets, Sea Alarm is pleased to note that on 3 October, the 2013 Copenhagen Ministerial Meeting of HELCOM, the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, has agreed on those targets.
In anticipation of the decisions by the HELCOM Ministerial Meeting, Sea Alarm has asked Agni Kaldma from Estonia to work on a project to identify the possibility of creating more and closer regional cooperation between leading NGOs in the Baltic countries.
Sea Alarm has been asked to assist the States of Guernsey in reviewing and updating their arrangements for oiled wildlife preparedness and response. As part of the process, an oiled wildlife preparedness training event and stakeholder meeting was held in mid-September in conjunction with an Oil Spill Response (OSRL) shoreline cleanup training course.
Following Hugo Nijkamp’s presentation of a joint Sea Alarm and WWF-Finland paper, HELCOM Response has recommended strengthening targets for integrating wildlife response into Baltic area oil spill response planning.
In March Wildtierstation Hamburg hosted the European Oiled Wildlife Responders’ meeting, which was attended by Sea Alarm, the RSPCA, ProBird and Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend. A highlight of the meeting was a tour of the new rehabilitation facility outside of Hamburg, which Wildtierstation Hamburg is in the process of refurbishing.
In March, Sea Alarm (Saskia Sessions, Claude Velter) visited two French wildlife rehabilitation centres, Alca Torda Wildlife Recovery Centre and the Wildlife Care Centre (Le Centre Vétérinaire de la Faune Sauvage et des Ecosystèmes (CVFSE)) at Nantes Atlantic College of Veterinary Medicine, Food Science and Engineering (ONIRIS) to discuss oiled wildlife response in France.