Sea Alarm was asked to present and train on a response procedure created in 2013 to representatives of SEA-PT, the Irish Coast Guard, and interested NGOs during a dedicated full day workshop held in Limerick on 16 May, 2014.
In November Hugo Nijkamp and Paul Kelway of Sea Alarm, in cooperation with staff from Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research, provided several days of training in oiled wildlife response in Trinidad. Local Trinidad press covered this event both in print and online (see links below). Included in the training were response planning and ‘train the trainer’ sessions.
In 2012 Sea Alarm attended conferences in various countries, presenting on the organisation’s activities and learning about advances in oiled wildlife response around the world.
Sea Alarm is continuing its efforts to help Baltic countries to develop their oiled wildlife preparedness by assisting with organisation of two international events in 2012. These events had been proposed as part of a HELCOM Work Programme on Oiled Wildlife Preparedness and Response, submitted by Estonia, Sea Alarm and WWF Finland and adopted in 2010.
Sea Alarm achieved two firsts last year: attending a regional conference of the Global Initiative for West and Central Africa (GI WACAF) and teaming up with SANCCOB to make a joint presentation on oiled wildlife preparedness and response at this event.
Sea Alarm was invited to present its views on European oiled wildlife preparedness and response at a national wildlife seminar in Norway. The seminar took place on 17 and 18th March in Oslo and was jointly organised by Friends of the Earth Norway and the Norwegian oil companies operating association (NOFO).
After their meeting at the EnSaCo workshop in September 2010, Heather Parker of the US Coast Guard invited Hugo Nijkamp to attend a HAZWOPER course in Everett, Washington, in late February 2011.
Sea Alarm was invited by DG Echo and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) to attend the Second joint Civil Protection and Marine Pollution Workshop on Co-ordinated at-sea and Shoreline Pollution Response on the 9th December in Brussels.
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.
Saskia Sessions was invited to the recent ENSACO workshop that took place on 13-14 April in Helsinki, Finland. She was requested to lecture on integrated oiled wildlife response and planning and moderate a Sea Alarm table top exercise on wildlife response planning processes.
In the Netherlands an important new step has been taken to increase the national preparedness to oiled wildlife incident. The Dutch authority for oil spill preparedness and response, Rijkswaterstaat, has provided a budget to the national oiled bird rehabilitation network SON to develop a manual that can be used to train groups of volunteers that can be called on in case of a larger oiled wildlife incident.
Sea Alarm and WWF Finland organised an international workshop on oiled wildlife response planning for countries bordering the Baltic Sea. The workshop took place in Tallinn on 5 October 2009, back to back with the Effects of Oil on Wildlife Conference which allowed participants to take advantage of both events. The Estonian Ministry of Environment hosted the workshop, which was attended by 20 participants, including 16 delegates from 6 Baltic Sea Countries. The main objective of the workshop was to familiarise participants with the elements of an oiled wildlife response and the various steps of a planning process.