Countries in yellow have completed CWRPs
Sea Alarm is very pleased to announce that it has completed and published its 100th Country Wildlife Response Profile. To responders and response planners, these Profiles are broadly respected and often a crucial source of information on each country’s apparent capacity to deal with an oiled wildlife incident. Read more…
The Helsinki Commission (HELCOM)
Of the nine coastal states in the Baltic Region, five have developed plans for oiled wildlife response and others have made progress toward this goal, according to a HELCOM report. Read more…
GOWRS Table-top Exercise – Facility plan development
Phase two of the Global Oiled Wildlife Response System (GOWRS) project recently kicked off in Belgium providing another two years in which to further the objective of developing and improving international cooperation and preparedness for oiled wildlife incidents. Read more…
Photo credit: NOAA (www.arctic.noaa.gov/maps.html)
The European Parliament (EP) Resolution of 16 March 2017, An integrated EU policy for the Arctic (2016/2228(INI)), includes wording suggested by Sea Alarm encouraging all Arctic states to develop oiled wildlife response plans. Read more…
EUROWA partners at a training session.
After two years of working together, Sea Alarm and its project partners concluded the EU-funded EUROWA project at the end of 2016. The project has broken much new ground in European oiled wildlife response. Read more…
Training has always been an important component of Sea Alarm’s work, and in the last few years, the organisation has concentrated on assisting wildlife responders, governments and industry with developing their skills and knowledge in a variety of training formats. Read more…
An example of a completed assessment, showing areas of strength and those needing improvement
How prepared are we for oiled wildlife response?
This is a question regularly considered by the HELCOM Response (Baltic Sea Area) Expert Working Group on Oiled Wildlife Response (EWR-OWR), chaired by Sea Alarm.
To help with making an accurate assessment of their level of preparedness, the Working Group decided to develop a self-assessment tool to aid countries in gauging and reporting on their progress toward preparedness for response to oiled wildlife. Read more…
The GOWRS Steering Group (from left to right, Claude Velter – Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend, Charlie Hebert – Focus Wildlife International, Sascha Regmann – PRO Bird, Dr. Heidi Stout – Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research Inc., Paul Kelway – Sea Alarm Foundation, Dr. Valeria Ruoppolo – Aiuká, Dr. Stephen van der Spuy – SANCCOB, Barbara Callahan – International Bird Rescue, Dr. Mike Ziccardi – UC Davis Wildlife Health Center, Louise Chilvers – Wildbase, Massey University and Adam Grogan – RSPCA) joined by Lisa Smith, Executive Director of Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research Inc. (far right) and Danene Birtell, Tri-State’s Oil Programs Manager (6th from right).
The third meeting of experts involved in the Global Oiled Wildlife Response System (GOWRS) project took place last month in Delaware, USA.
The project– a two-year initiative funded by the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) as part of the Oil Spill Response Joint Industry Project (OSR-JIP) – aims to design an international system for oiled wildlife response expertise that can be mobilized for assistance in complex oiled wildlife scenarios. Read more…
The Sea Alarm team were shocked and saddened by recent events in Brussels. Our thoughts are very much with the victims, their families and friends. We and our families were lucky – we are all safe, but we have been overwhelmed by a great number of messages from people all over the world checking in to see if we were OK. We sincerely thank everyone who has been in contact for showing their support and sending good wishes. Solidarity and friendship means a lot to us in difficult times like these. Wishing you all a peaceful and happy Easter period – Paul, Hugo and Saskia.
The JIP20 team, pictured with Aiuká staff and other Brazilian stakeholders
The second in-person meeting of ‘JIP20’, an oil-industry-funded project to develop a system for mobilising international oiled wildlife response resources, was held in Brazil in February. Aiuká, one of the participating organisations, hosted the meeting at their oiled wildlife response facility in Praia Grande, near Santos. Read more…