Netherlands Oiled Wildlife Contingency Plan

Representatives from the coastal municipalities, national authorities, rehabilitation centres and scientific institutes will get together on 9th April in the Hague to officially sign the Netherland’s national oiled wildlife contingency plan. Sea Alarm has been invited to give an introduction to oiled wildlife response, and additional scheduled events include a practical demonstration on bird cleaning techniques and the collection of dead animals.Sea Alarm extends its congratulations to the Netherlands which now joins Belgium, France and the UK, as the only European countries to have a formalised plan in place. Sea Alarm first raised the issue of oiled wildlife response with the Dutch authorities in 2005 and, as an advisor, has been closely involved with the development, drafting and revisions of the plan.
The national contingency plan calls for regular training events to train volunteers in the rehabilitation centres across the Netherlands. In addition, the deployment and operational procedures will be tested every two years. The first training event is scheduled to take place on the island of Texel on 22nd – 24th October. Sea Alarm will continue to support these preparedness processes in the Netherlands.