European oiled wildlife response developments

Sea Alarm hosted the 3rd meeting of key European wildlife response organisations at its office in Brussels in April. The group, which includes Sea Alarm, the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Animals (RSPCA), the Ostend Wildlife Rescue Centre (Belgium), and ProBird (Germany), meets twice a year to evaluate and further optimise their joint international response preparedness.The group is now working on mobilisation procedures, guidelines on setting up rehabilitation facilities and other aspects of wildlife response that provide a firm basis for responding internationally. Also the development of training modules and establishing international training opportunities for European wildlife responders has been scheduled as part of this programme. Sea Alarm is proud to have worked with all of these organisations during past spills and will continue to organise meetings of this team to help strengthen its capability further.