the third sea alarm conference · pdf fileparticipants of the third sea alarm conference ......

THE THIRD SEA ALARMCONFERENCE

proceedings

Balbriggan (Ireland)November 1 - 3, 2004

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No part of this text may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or means electronic, mechani-cal, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the Sea Alarm Foundation.

© Sea Alarm Foundation, Brussels 2005

Cover photograph: View from Balbriggan Harbour, Ireland

Participants of the third Sea Alarm Conference

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Marine wildlife knows no national boundaries and the welfare of birds and sea mammals in theevent of a spill is the responsibility of all countries. It is also a primary interest to the media, ofteninfluencing the public’s perception of the effectiveness of the government’s response. WithinEurope, wildlife response usually relies on the dedication of individuals and volunteer groups wit-hin the local community. However, these often lack the resources and, in some cases, the expe-rience, to mount a prompt response by themselves.

To improve this situation the conference strongly urges that:

1 Plans for wildlife response should be developed and integrated into existing local, national and regional contingency plans and arrangements for responding to spills of oil and other substances within European waters.

2 The IPIECA Guide for Wildlife Response Planning (IPIECA Report Series Volume 13) should be distributed widely to government agencies responsible for pollution response,nature conservation and environmental protection, as well as to relevant international and regional organisations (e.g. the IMO, European Commission, Bonn Agreement, Helsinki Agreement) to ensure that this topic is addressed as a matter of urgency.

3 The Guide should also be made available to wildlife groups within the local community who are key players in oil spill response, to encourage a higher level of pre-planning, and to facilitate cooperation and assistance by other national and international groups in a major incident.

4 The experiences of wildlife responders should be widely communicated:- In detail, to ensure that lessons learned are shared, and- In summary, to increase the level of attention and understanding given to this topic

throughout Europe.

5 The Sea Alarm Foundation is well placed to facilitate the above development as a conse-quence of its excellent links with national wildlife response groups within Europe, with international animals welfare organisations (e.g. IFAW), international industry organisations(e.g. IPIECA, ITOPF, OSRL/EARL Global Alliance, P&I Clubs) and intergovernmental organisations (e.g. IMO, IOPC Funds, European Commission).

Done at Balbriggan,Wednesday November 3, 2004

Balbriggan Declaration

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Balbriggan Declaration ........................................................................................................ 3

Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 5

Opening Session .......................................................................................................... 5

Official launch of the IPIECA Guide ..................................................................................... 6

Key note address 1: Views from ITOPF .............................................................................. 7

Session 1: Case studies of some recent incidents ....................................................... 8

Key note address 2 : The Role of the Salvage Industry ................................................... 9

Session 2: Examples of Progress towards the Development of National Plans ................ 10

Session 3: Role and Activities of Some International Organisations ............................. 11

Session 4: Backgrounds and International Cooperation .................................................. 12

Closing Session: Conclusions and Final Declaration ......................................................... 13

Conference conclusions ........................................................................................ 14

Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 16

Colophon .................................................................................................................... 16

Annex 1 List of Participants ............................................................................... 18

Annex 2 Opening session (Speeches) ................................................................ 20

Annex 3 Launch IPIECA Guidelines (Speeches) ................................................... 26

Annex 4 Key note addresses (Summaries) ........................................................ 30

Annex 5 Session 1 (summaries of presentations) .............................................. 32




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Table of contents

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On 1-3 November 2004, 26 organisa-tions from eight European countriesgathered in Balbriggan, Ireland to

discuss the theme “Towards GreaterPreparedness for Oiled Wildlife Responses inEurope” at the Third Sea Alarm Conference.

The Conference was organised by Sea AlarmFoundation together with the Irish SealSanctuary, who acted as the local host.Fairy©, ITOPF and the WWF-NL sponsoredthe Conference, together with Fingal CountyCouncil, the Heritage Council, Dublin Port andNational Car Rental.

Opening Session

Welcome addresses were given by Mr. PeterCoyle, Caithearlaigh of Fingal County Council;Mr. Roelf de Boer, Chairman of Sea AlarmFoundation; Mr. Brendan Price of the IrishSeal Sanctuary, and Mr. Trevor Sargent,leader of the Green Party. The openingaddress from Captain Dimitri Mitsatsos ofHelmepa was read by Mr. Hugo Nijkamp. (SeeAnnex 2 for the texts of all the speeches.)

Mr. Peter Coyle

“The benefits andprofits of oil bringgreat responsibilityto us all, allowing forno carelessness, nocost cutting, inhandling it safelyand taking fastremedial action,when out of control”

Mr. Roelf de Boer

“The IPIECA Guideis the strongestproof yet of theclose relationshipthat oiled wildliferesponders havebuilt up with the oilresponse industry. Iam sure that thisConference will

develop a set of recommendations that cannotbe ignored by authorities in Europe”

Mr. Brendan Price

“We, producers, dis-tributors, users andwildlife respondersmust remedy theproblems of oil spil-ls, little and large,and mobilise worldopinion in our sup-port”

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Introduction

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At the Conference, the new IPIECA Guide forOiled Wildlife Response Planning was laun-ched. The Guide was handed over by Mr. Roelfde Boer (Sea Alarm) and Mr. Chris Morris (IPIE-CA) to Mr. John Østergaard (IMO) and Mr.Aurelio Caligiore (European Commission). Mr.de Boer and Mr. Morris encouraged the IMOand the European Commission to promote theGuide to national authorities in Europe andelsewhere. Mr. Østergaard said that the Guidewould be distributed by the IMO and used inIMO’s oil spill management courses. Mr.Caligiore said that the European Commissionwill encourage the Member States in develo-ping a wildlife response plan, which should bepart of each National Contingency Plan to dealwith marine pollution emergencies at sea andon the coast (See Annex 3).

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Official launch of the IPIECA guide

From left to right: Mr. de Boer, Mr. Morris, Mr. Caligiore.

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Dr. Tosh Mollerof ITOPF described the four cornerstones ofthe conference:

- the risk of oil spills; - preparedness for dealing with oiled wildlife; - the development and maintenance of part-

nerships; - and seeing oiled wildlife issues in their proper

perspective.

He pointed to the increasing oil transport fromthe Former Soviet Union and the Caspian Seathrough many of Europe’s coastal waters,altering oil transportation patterns. He stres-sed that adequate risk assessment and oilspill preparedness are the main keys to a suc-cessful response.

Whilst oiled wildlife response is increasinglyrecognised (e.g. in the international compen-sation regimes), preparedness in this fieldneeds further development. In this contextnetworking and partnerships are key issues. Itis the opinion of Dr. Moller that oiled wildliferesponse practices should be based on ascientific approach in order to arrive at opti-mum results (See Annex 3 for a summary).

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Key note address 1: Oiled wildlife response in Europe

From left to right: Mr. de Boer, Mr. Morris, Mr. Caligiore, Mr. Østergaard

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In the first session, case studies of the Erika(France 1999, by Ms Sophie Le Dréan-Quénec’hdu) , the Prestige (Spain 2002, byMr. Antonio Sandoval Rey), the Tricolor(Belgium 2003, by Mr. Claude Velter), the FuShan Hai (Sweden 2003, by Mr. Jan Hillarp),the Rockness (Norway 2004, by Mr. PaulKelway) and a mystery spill (Germany 2004,by Mr. Sascha Regmann) were presented(See Annex 5 for summaries), with particularreference to the lessons learned, and the suc-cess and failures in these responses.

Discussion:The most important conclusion from this ses-sion was summarised by an industry repre-sentative.Oiled wildlife responders increasingly demon-strate that they are able to respond profession-ally and that a common view is shared interna-tionally on what constitutes “good practice”.

Some of the presentations however showedthat the wildlife response is still ignored by theauthorities in many situations.

The success of such a response should notbe measured solely in terms of survival of indi-viduals: an incident always impacts a localcommunity, and a well organised responsecan allow local people to direct their (emotion-al) energy in a positive, constructive way.Cooperation is a crucial success factor. Whenit is lacking, groups are left to develop theirown, often isolated activities, and failure isalmost inevitable. In most cases, the successof an operation (despite frequent serious prac-tical or technical drawbacks) can be traced toexcellent pre-existing relationships betweenkey individuals and organisations (both gover-nmental and non-governmental).

In most cases, the structural involvement of theauthorities in the oiled wildlife response signifi-

cantly assisted to the success of response. The psychological effects that are often evi-dent in those individuals (often volunteers)that have become involved in dealing with ani-mals received much attention during the dis-cussion. It was agreed that this aspect(“human welfare”) deserves more attention inthe planning and management of a response.Another item highlighted was the fact that theattitude of governmental organisations insome cases can be very counter productive oreven obstructive to the success of the opera-tion. The clearest example came fromGermany, where the wildlife service hired ran-gers to kill animals while groups of wildliferesponders were working in the same area torescue and rehabilitate animals. Although par-ticipants of the Conference agreed that theposition of governments on the treatment ofanimals (to rehabilitate or euthanasia) shouldbe respected at all times, they agreed thatgovernments at least have the responsibility toprevent adverse and controversial (unaccep-table) situations from happening. TheEuropean Commission and IMO could be ins-trumental in passing this message to gover-nments. Further it was suggested that reportsof oiled wildlife responses should, where pos-sible, be published in internationally peerreviewed papers, so that lessons are learntand made easily available to many readersaround the globe.

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Session 1: Case studies of some recent incidents

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Mr. Hans van Rooij (Smit International, International SalvageUnion, see Annex 4) highlighted the importantrole of the salvage industry in the early days ofan incident. If notified in time, salvage couldprevent oil spills from happening and saveconsiderable sums of money that would other-wise have to be spent on clean-up and dama-ge compensation. He observed that nowa-days, Europe (by means of the newly esta-blished European Maritime Safety Agency[EMSA]) tends to invest in oil combat resour-ces rather than in an effective network of sal-vage capacity. In this way Europe seems to

ignore the window of opportunity that a salva-ge operator has, to prevent an incident fromescalating into a major oil spill or other envi-ronmental emergency. Lack of investment inthe salvage sector would also cause a drain ofexperience from this sector. Several remarksof support were expressed from the audiencefollowing Mr. Van Rooij’s address. It was stres-sed that the salvage industry can play a keyrole in preventing wildlife and the environmentfrom becoming oiled.

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Key note address 2: the role of the salvage industry

From left to right: Mrs. Callahan, Mrs. ‘t Hart, Mr. Sandoval Rey, Mr. Heubeck.

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This session described some promising initia-tives by governments, in cooperation withnon-governmental organisations and/or indus-try, to develop a national oiled wildlife respon-se plan. Examples came from France,Belgium, UK (Shetland) and Ireland (SeeAnnex 5 for summaries).

Mr. Ivan Calvez(Cedre, France) explained how the experien-ces with oiled wildlife in the aftermath of theErika, i.e. the lack of coordination betweenadministrations, authorities and NGO’s, trigge-red the development of guidelines for the pre-paration of oiled wildlife response plans.These were published in 2003 and are usedby working groups in the different coastaldepartments to develop their own specificAnnex [11.5 of the Polmar (Land) Plan].

Ms. Kathy Belpaeme(Co-ordination point ICZM, Belgium) descri-bed a similar process in Belgium, where theexperience with the Tricolor incident led to thedevelopment of a formal Intervention Plan forOiled Birds. She highlighted the importance ofinvolving all relevant stakeholders in the deve-lopment of such a plan and the different issu-es that it should address, including clear finan-cial procedures, updating procedures and thesmooth integration of the plan with existingones for oil spill response.

Mr. Eugene Clonan(Marine Pollution & Salvage Manager, IrishCoast Guard) gave a presentation on oil pollu-tion preparedness and response withinIreland. The presentation outlined the func-tions of the Irish Coast Guard and describedbriefly the recent incidents in the Irish PollutionResponsibility Zone. An oiled wildlife plan cur-

rently does not exist in Ireland, but the CoastGuard has called on the County Councils (whohave the responsibilities for shoreline clean-up activities) to initiate processes to developsuch a plan.

Mr. Martin Heubeck(SOTEAG) provided an historic overview of thedevelopment of Shetland’s oiled wildliferesponse plan. This is embedded in solidcooperative agreements between administrati-ve (Shetland Island Council), commercial (oilindustry) and wildlife/conservation bodies, andhas been developed as a precautionary meas-ure connected to the presence of intensive oiltransportation activities to and from Shetland’sSullom Voe oil terminal. The plan, seriouslytested during the Braer incident in 1993, wassubsequently improved and is subject to annu-al updates, for which the Wildlife ResponseCoordination Committee (in which all stakehol-ders are represented) is responsible.

Discussion:The discussion in this session concentratedon how a higher level of international coope-ration could be developed, in support ofnational initiatives. In case of an oiled wildlifeincident, it should be possible that both exper-tise and equipment can be sourced quickly(for example through the international databa-se held by Sea Alarm) and made available tolocal responders. International sourcingshould be an integrated part of a national con-tingency plan. It was mentioned that OSRL, incooperation with IFAW, has stored a containerwith basic equipment for an oiled wildliferesponse. In principle, the costs of transport(equipment), travel and subsistence (experts)should constitute justifiable costs that can berecovered from the P&I Clubs and FundConvention as part of a claim.

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Session 2: examples of progress towards the development of National plans

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In this session, the role and activities of anumber of organisations were presented (SeeAnnex 6 for summaries).

Mr. Patrick Joseph(International Oil Pollution CompensationFund) explained the IOPC Fund rules for com-pensation for oil pollution damage. These ruleshave recently been modified by the GeneralAssembly of the organisation and now explicit-ly allow for the compensation of ‘reasonable’costs connected with oiled wildlife response.

Mr. Jim Thornborough(BP Shipping Ltd.) described the efforts by theoil industry (IPIECA Oil Spill Working Group)to develop and improve standards. Tools andmethodologies for oil spill response manage-ment are developed and promoted, e.g.through the “Global Initiative”.

Dr. Rob Holland (Oil Spill Response Limited) highlighted theinternational preparedness of the oil industryby means of response capacity held by theGlobal Alliance. The Alliance, of which OSRLis a leading member, has a worldwide networkof warehouses and oil spill combat and cle-anup capacity, and is actieve in training, plan-ning and various consultancies.

Mr. Paul Kelway (International Fund for Animal Welfare) intro-duced the role and activities of IFAW’sEmergency Response Team. This, a jointundertaking by IFAW and International BirdRescue and Research Centre, is respondingglobally to oiled wildlife incidents and adviseson response planning.

Mr. Hugo Nijkamp (Sea Alarm Foundation) gave an overview of theactivities of the Foundation. He described thepromising relationships that have been develo-ped over the last five years with all key actors inan oiled wildlife response, i.e. wildlife groups inEurope, oiled wildlife response experts, industryand governmental organisations.

Discussion:Much of the following discussion concentratedon clarifications regarding the compensation ofoiled wildlife response costs. Mr. PatrickJoseph’s confirmation that such costs are, inprinciple, admissible and that a claim can besubmitted up until three years after a qualifyingincident from a ship (as defined in the FundConvention) was a revelation for many wildliferepresentatives. This means organisations thatthought that their wildlife claim was inadmissi-ble may have the opportunity to be reimbursedfor the incurred costs of their intervention. Forfuture intervention, it was advised that wildliferesponders consult representatives of theIOPC Fund and/or P&I Clubs early to increasethe probability of a successful claim. It is impor-tant, however, to recognise the distinctionbetween a tanker spill (liability regimes includethe admissibility of wildlife costs) and a non-tan-ker spill (a liability system not yet in place, alt-hough P&I Clubs get more sympathetictowards accepting a wildlife claim, as in theTricolor). Costs associated with scientificresearch on the impact of a spill on wildlife areonly likely to be partly admissible, at best, underthe IOPC Fund’s new claim guidelines. Thereis, however, the possibility to start a discussionwith the P&I Clubs and IOPC Fund in order todefine the exact limits of what they would con-sider as “response studies” (potentially admis-sible) and “scientific studies” (not admissible).Claims that are based on a fixed price per tre-ated bird will not usually be accepted.

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Session 3: role and activities of some international organisations

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Ms. Barbara Callahan (IFAW) identified the health risks posed by oilon animals, demonstrating at the same timethe many techniques that have been develo-ped by which these adverse effects can beminimised.

Mr. Hugo Nijkamp (Sea Alarm Foundation) assessed theprogress made so far in international coopera-tion on oiled wildlife issues. He reviewed theinformation that had been presented at theconference, distilled conclusions and madesome recommendations for continuation ofcooperative work.

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Session 4: Backgrounds and International Cooperation

Mr. Luka and Mrs. Clarke

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The closing session immediately followedSession 4. The conclusions presented by Mr.Hugo Nijkamp (See Box page 14) were dis-cussed, and adopted as being a good reflec-tion of progress made by the Conference. Alsoa draft Final Declaration was discussed andadopted (see page 14).In their reactions to the conference, the parti-cipants were positive about the exchangesthat had taken place. It was noted that themajor international oil spill conferences (INTERSPILL, International Oil Spill Con-

ference, SPILLCON) rarely devoted muchattention to issues related to the rehabilitationof oiled wildlife. The representatives of the oilresponse industry identified the importance ofconferences, such as this organised by SeaAlarm, where wildlife issues are a centralissue, and the Foundation was encouraged toorganise similar events in the future. Nexttime, the value of attending such a conferenceshould be more clearly expressed to industry(oil companies, P&I Clubs, tanker owners) andgovernments.

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Closing Session: Conclusions and Final Declaration

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Part I: Experience and recent developments

- Success in an unprepared spill response can usually be attributed to pre-spill arrangements(friendships, collegiality, working relations)

- An unprepared response never leads to optimal results (rather, there is a high probability offrustration, counter productivity, low cost-efficiency)

- How to prepare for oiled wildlife incidents is now documented in an internationally availabledocument, produced by key individuals and organisations involved in wildlife response, that iswidely accepted as a standard (IPIECA Report Series Vol. 13: Guide to oiled wildlife responseplanning)

- The IOPC Fund’s recently modified claims manual now includes a section on specifically rela-ting to oiled wildlife response, which facilitates a more straightforward financial compensationof incurred costs

- The potential of salvage in the early days of a maritime incident needs full attention in nationalcontingency plans

Part II: Towards increased European preparedness

- While the risks of potential oil spills are increasing, Europe, as yet, is far from prepared to respond effectively to such incidents

- Oiled wildlife response plans need to be developed at the national, as well as at local, levels They need to be integrated into existing oil spill response plans

- Unacceptable and unworkable situations caused by unprepared or ignorant governments and organisations must be avoided

- At a European level, wildlife responders need to be enabled to:• set up a communication and information exchange system• develop an international response structure for mutual assistance in case of an emer-

gency, where possible using existing structures (EU, Bonn, Helcom, Rempec, etc.)• set up a central coordination and facilitation point for organising training and develo-

ping European response capacity- The main message from Balbriggan is that European governments should act and start the

processes of developing national wildlife response plans.

Part III Follow-up of the Conference?

A. The IPIECA Guide, accompanied by the “message of Balbriggan” should go to • Parties of the Bonn Agreement• European Commission and Management Committee on Marine Pollution• Helcom• REMPEC• Wildlife groups in Europe

Conference conclusions

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By sending the IPIECA Guide, but also through additional activities, it must be ensured that theissue of oiled wildlife response planning is placed high on the agenda at these governmentalfora. At national levels, wildlife groups should support these efforts by using the IPIECA Guideto put pressure on their governments.

B. Projects should be developed and realised to ensure:- That wildlife groups are trained to learn the specific skills required in an oiled wildlife response- That oil spill managers are trained so that they understand the priorities and requirements of

an oiled wildlife response- The development of tools and standards to enable or support preparedness, and profession-

al approaches- That international workshops are held to bring key actors together so that new initiatives,

based on common interest, can be initiated.

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We are indebted to the Sponsors of theConference, including Fairy, WWF-NL, ITOPF,Fingal County Council, The Heritage Council,Dublin Port and National Car Rental. Wethank BP Shipping Ltd. for providing addition-al funds for the production of theseProceedings.Sea Alarm would like to thank the Irish SealSanctuary, especially Pauline Beades andBrendan Price for the pleasant cooperation,and the warm welcome to Ireland. The ISSVolunteers, Aine Carroll, Heidi Bedell, JosySteinbach, Yvonne Martin, Madeleine Devitt,Loretta Wakely Cassidy, Mary Price did agreat job with assisting to make the conferen-ce to a success.

We also would like to thank the Bracken CourtHotel Staff, especially Mary Atherton andDaniel Jones, for their assistance and makingour stay in Balbriggan so pleasant. Paul andGrace Yoxon of the International OtterSurvival Fund generously offered to make thecredit card facilities on their website availablefor Conference Bookings. Last but not leastwe would like to thank the participants of theConference for their presentations, supportand enthusiastic discussions.

Acknowledgements

Proceedings of the Third Sea Alarm ConferenceConference Chairs: Alessandro Barisich (opening session), Ian White (session 3), Jim Conroy

(session 1 & 4), Hugo Nijkamp (session 2)Report: Hugo NijkampEditors: Ian White, Jim Conroy, Hugo NijkampPhotographs: Pauline Beades (front cover), Karst van der Meulen (Group photo) and

Hugo NijkampLayout: Nancy SchrijversPrint: De Ridder (B)

Sea Alarm FoundationQuai aux Briques 221000 Brussels, Belgiumwww.sea-alarm.org

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17

Annexes

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20

Mr.

Pete

r C

oyle

Cai

ther

laig

h of

Fin

gal C

ount

y C

ounc

il

Ope

ning

add

ress

Th

e Iri

sh S

eal S

anct

uary

bro

ught

Sea

Ala

rm to

the

atte

ntio

n of

the

Loca

l Aut

horit

y in

thei

r ong

oing

edu

catio

n an

d tra

inin

g fo

r oil

spill

resp

onse

. Tha

nks

to P

aulin

e Be

ades

,w

ho s

pear

head

s th

e Sa

nctu

ary’

s ef

forts

in th

is re

gard

. For

her

tire

less

wor

k to

kee

pth

is is

sue

uppe

rmos

t in

our

min

ds a

nd o

n ou

r ag

enda

and

brin

ging

you

all

here

.Th

anks

to

the

Irish

Sea

l Sa

nctu

ary

for

inco

rpor

atin

g pl

ans

for

a N

atio

nal

Mar

ine

Con

serv

atio

n C

entre

, her

e in

Bal

brig

gan,

with

cap

acity

for

a N

atio

nal r

espo

nse

for

oile

d w

ildlif

e an

d lin

kage

s w

ith S

ea A

larm

and

the

inte

rnat

iona

l com

mun

ity.

Fing

al is

the

high

est s

pend

ing

per

capi

ta L

ocal

Aut

horit

y on

par

ks, a

men

ities

and

envi

ronm

enta

l pro

tect

ion.

In

Irela

nd w

e ha

ve a

hig

h am

enity

and

val

uabl

e co

astli

ne,

rich

in w

ildlif

e an

d di

vers

e ha

bita

t. W

e ar

e bi

g co

nsum

ers

of th

e pe

trole

um p

rodu

ctw

ith th

e co

untry

’s m

ain

airp

ort,

fishi

ng p

orts

and

mar

inas

, agr

icul

ture

and

indu

stry

on

the

coas

tal s

trip

and

in th

e hi

nter

land

and

som

e of

the

coun

try’s

maj

or ro

ads.

Fing

al L

ocal

Aut

horit

y tri

es to

take

a ‘c

radl

e to

gra

ve’a

ppro

ach

at lo

cal l

evel

, with

resp

ect t

o ou

r co

nsum

ptio

n of

the

blac

k go

ld. W

e ta

ke th

is o

ppor

tuni

ty to

impr

ess

on th

e in

dust

ry th

eir g

loba

l res

pons

ibili

ty to

pre

vent

ing

rele

ase

into

the

envi

ronm

ent

from

exp

lora

tion

to e

xtra

ctio

n to

dis

tribu

tion

to c

onsu

mpt

ion

and

disp

osal

.Th

e in

dust

ry h

as r

espo

nsib

ility

to e

duca

te fo

r be

st p

ract

ice

at e

very

sta

ge o

f thi

spr

oces

s, to

ens

ure

wis

e, ju

st a

nd ra

tiona

l use

, and

saf

e ha

ndlin

g.

We

wel

com

e th

e in

dust

ry’s

initi

ativ

e he

re to

day

in la

unch

ing

and

adop

ting

prot

ocol

sfo

r wild

life

vict

ims

of o

il. W

e w

elco

me

the

reha

bilit

ator

s an

d ot

her a

genc

ies

wor

king

toge

ther

to ta

ke re

med

ial a

ctio

n, w

hen

oil e

scap

es in

to th

e en

viro

nmen

t. Th

ese

are

brav

e fir

st s

teps

and

Sea

Ala

rm a

nd th

e Iri

sh S

eal S

anct

uary

are

to b

e co

mpl

imen

-te

d fo

r fac

ilita

ting

your

val

uabl

e w

ork

and

inde

ed it

has

bee

n gr

atify

ing

for u

s to

hel

psp

onso

r thi

s pi

onee

ring

even

t in

Irela

nd.

AN

NE

X 2

OPE

NING

SES

SIO

N

Fing

allia

ns h

ave

a lo

ng a

nd p

roud

trad

ition

def

endi

ng th

eir c

oast

line

over

cen

turie

sag

ains

t man

y in

vade

rs. I

f we

coul

d no

t bea

t the

m, w

e as

sim

ilate

d th

em a

nd c

onti-

nue

to p

rote

ct th

is c

radl

e of

civ

ilisa

tion

– ric

h in

land

and

sea

(e.

g. b

ee k

eepi

ng in

Irela

nd s

tarte

d he

re in

Bal

brig

gan,

the

brea

d ba

sket

of D

ublin

, hom

e of

the

rose

ate

tern

, Dub

lin B

ay p

raw

ns a

nd th

e gr

ey s

eal e

t al.)

We

rem

ind

you

- th

at a

gain

st o

il spi

ll, th

ere

is n

o kn

own

adeq

uate

pro

tect

ion

– ju

st d

ama-

ge li

mita

tion

and

so n

o ex

pens

e or

effo

rt ca

n be

spa

red

in p

reve

ntio

n an

d pr

otec

tion

agai

nst o

il sp

ill. O

nce

the

geni

e is

out

of t

he b

ottle

, dam

age

cont

rol i

s ou

r onl

y op

tion.

An

oil s

pill

is ra

rely

an

acci

dent

– it

is m

ore

the

resu

lt of

car

eles

snes

s, h

uman

err

or,

crim

inal

ity o

r te

rror

ism

and

, as

we

know

too

wel

l, th

ese

are

all

too

com

mon

.R

ealis

tical

ly, fr

om ti

me

to ti

me,

we

mus

t cle

an u

p af

ter s

uch

even

ts, s

tatis

tical

ly w

ekn

ow I

rela

nd f

aces

a m

ajor

oil

spill

, on

ave

rage

eve

ry t

en y

ears

and

exp

erie

nce

bear

s th

is o

ut. O

ur c

olle

ctiv

e vi

gila

nce

and

prep

ared

ness

is v

ital a

nd s

o w

e em

b-ra

ce th

is o

ppor

tuni

ty to

wor

k cl

osel

y w

ith y

ou o

n pr

otec

tion

and

dam

age

limita

tion

and

toge

ther

lear

n to

mor

e tig

htly

con

trol t

his

reso

urce

, rel

ease

d fro

m th

e ea

rth a

ndke

ep th

e ge

nie

in th

e bo

ttle.

Irela

nd is

the

last

isla

nd n

atio

n in

the

Eur

opea

n U

nion

with

the

larg

est m

arin

e ju

ris-

dict

ion.

Afte

r Ant

arct

ica,

we

are

the

larg

est

wha

le s

anct

uary

in th

e w

orld

. We

are

hom

e to

the

grey

sea

l, th

e w

orld

’s fi

rst p

rote

cted

sea

l spe

cies

and

num

erou

s sp

e-ci

es o

f sea

bird

s of

inte

rnat

iona

l sig

nific

ance

.

In a

ssoc

iatio

n w

ith th

e Iri

sh S

eal S

anct

uary

, Fin

gal L

ocal

Aut

horit

y pl

ans

to b

uild

ana

tiona

l mar

ine

cons

erva

tion

cent

re o

n a

coas

tal s

ite w

e ha

ve p

rovi

ded

here

inB

albr

igga

n fo

r tha

t pur

pose

. Thi

s w

ill a

ccom

mod

ate

the

wor

k of

the

I.S.S

. and

civ

ilso

ciet

y in

pro

vidi

ng n

ot ju

st s

eal r

ehab

ilita

tion

and

ceta

cean

resp

onse

, but

als

o pr

o-vi

ding

cap

acity

for

oil s

pill

resp

onse

for

wild

life.

It w

ill b

e ou

r co

ntrib

utio

n to

loca

l,na

tiona

l and

inte

rnat

iona

l cap

acity

,

For

som

e ye

ars

now

the

San

ctua

ry h

as b

een

deve

lopi

ng c

apac

ity p

artic

ipat

ing

intra

inin

g an

d tra

inin

g of

oth

ers,

bui

ldin

g on

the

mis

take

s an

d ex

perie

nces

of t

he p

ast.

The

I.S.S

. mai

ntai

ns a

nd u

pdat

es a

regi

ster

of 2

0 tra

ined

bird

was

hers

, ava

ilabl

e to

the

loca

l au

thor

ities

, st

ate

agen

cies

and

for

dep

loym

ent

abro

ad a

s ne

cess

ary.

Inde

ed a

num

ber o

f the

se a

re a

lread

y on

the

inte

rnat

iona

l reg

iste

rs, a

resu

lt of

the

ongo

ing

inte

rnat

iona

l rep

utat

ion

the

I.S.S

. ha

s en

joye

d th

is p

ast

20 y

ears

, in

its

hand

ling

of s

eals

, dev

elop

men

t of t

he Ir

ish

wha

le a

nd d

olph

in s

anct

uary

, tra

inin

gan

d ed

ucat

ion

wor

ksho

ps. A

seal

rel

ease

her

e in

Bal

brig

gan

attra

cted

ca.

5,0

00pe

ople

. Loc

al a

utho

rity

vets

from

all

over

the

coun

try re

ceiv

ed tr

aini

ng in

this

hot

el,

in t

he c

are

of o

iled

bird

s an

d th

is c

onfe

renc

e is

the

lat

est

deve

lopm

ent

in t

heir

ongo

ing

wor

k. W

e ar

e pl

ease

d, th

roug

h th

e I.S

.S.,

to p

artn

er y

ou o

f Sea

Ala

rm a

ndhe

lp d

evel

op th

e ca

paci

ty fu

rther

in o

ur c

ount

ry a

nd y

ours

.


21

The

mar

ine

cons

erva

tion

cent

re w

ill pr

ovid

e in

-hou

se c

are

and

train

ing

and

an o

utre

ach

prog

ram

me

to p

rovi

de to

tal c

over

and

cap

acity

for t

his

exte

nsiv

e co

astlin

e, is

land

s an

dco

untry

. It

will

mai

ntai

n lin

ks a

nd p

rovi

de r

epre

sent

atio

n to

Sea

Ala

rm o

n be

half

ofIre

land

. It w

ill w

ork

clos

ely

with

you

to im

prov

e ou

r res

pons

es a

nd te

chni

ques

to s

ave

and

prot

ect w

ildlife

, coa

stal

hab

itats

and

com

mun

ities.

Thos

e of

us,

who

hav

e se

en a

nd e

xper

ienc

ed o

il re

leas

ed in

to th

e na

tura

l env

iron-

men

t can

nev

er fo

rget

the

suffe

ring

and

carn

age

caus

ed to

wild

life,

to th

e en

viro

nmen

tan

d co

mm

uniti

es. I

n Ire

land

we

have

exp

erie

nced

:

• D

ublin

Bay

Spi

lls –

Kis

h sa

ndba

nk m

yste

ry s

pill

1996

, the

oil

nev

er c

ame

asho

-re

, but

thou

sand

s of

oile

d bi

rds

did.

•

Riv

er L

ifey

– 20

01, w

hen

24,0

00 li

tres

of c

rude

oil

drai

ned

into

a 2

-3 m

ile s

tretc

hof

the

river

.• C

logh

er H

ead

Spi

ll.• W

exfo

rd –

199

6 S

ea E

mpr

ess

• C

ork

– 19

86, K

owlo

on B

ridge

pou

red

1,20

0 to

ns o

f bun

ker

oil k

illin

g 6,

000

bird

san

d se

vera

l sea

ls. I

t was

car

ryin

g a

furth

er

2,00

0 to

ns o

f fue

l oil

whi

ch d

id n

otsp

ill.

• D

oneg

al –

a t

anke

r si

mila

r to

the

Pre

stig

e w

as p

reve

nted

fro

m c

ausi

ng s

imila

rde

vast

atio

n by

the

fast

act

ing

Coa

st G

uard

.

Num

erou

s sm

all a

nd o

ngoi

ng m

yste

ry s

pills

resu

lt in

bird

s be

ing

foun

d oi

led

on o

urbe

ache

s.Th

ese

all h

ave

take

n th

eir t

oll.

Not

a m

orni

ng g

oes

by w

ithou

t a re

port

on th

e ra

dio

of a

n oi

l spi

ll on

road

s an

d w

here

doe

s th

at o

il go

? N

inet

y pe

r cen

t of o

il on

wat

eris

as

a re

sult

of la

nd ru

n of

f.

Oil

is e

very

whe

re, i

n ou

r liv

es a

nd e

nviro

nmen

t. Th

ere

rem

ains

the

lurk

ing,

leth

alpo

tent

ial f

or le

akag

e in

to th

e en

viro

nmen

t, w

here

con

trol i

s lo

st. T

he b

enef

its a

ndpr

ofits

from

oil

brin

g gr

eat r

espo

nsib

ility

to u

s al

l, al

low

ing

for

no c

arel

essn

ess,

no

cost

cut

ting,

in h

andl

ing

it sa

fely

and

taki

ng fa

st re

med

ial a

ctio

n, w

hen

out o

f con

-tro

l.

We

com

men

d yo

ur e

fforts

and

you

r wor

k.

Wel

com

e yo

u to

Bal

brig

gan

and

Fing

al, t

ake

your

mee

ting

as a

tim

ely

rem

inde

r to

us a

s a

natio

n to

com

plet

e th

e M

arin

e C

onse

rvat

ion

Cen

tre p

roje

ct a

nd ta

ke o

ur ro

lean

d re

spon

sibi

lity

natio

nally

and

int

erna

tiona

lly t

o co

-ope

rate

in

wis

e an

d ju

stm

anag

emen

t of t

his

reso

urce

in th

e pr

otec

tion

of th

e gl

obal

com

mon

s an

d ou

r chi

ld-

ren’

s fu

ture

.

We

wis

h yo

u a

succ

essf

ul m

eetin

g on

beh

alf o

f wild

life

and

our c

hild

ren.

Mr.

Roe

lf de

Boe

r

Cha

irman

of S

ea A

larm

Fou

ndat

ion

Ope

ning

add

ress

Mr.

Coy

le, L

adie

s an

d G

entle

men

,Le

t me

brie

fly in

trodu

ce m

ysel

f. M

y na

me

is R

oelf

de B

oer a

nd a

s th

e ne

w C

hairm

anof

Sea

Ala

rm, I

wou

ld li

ke to

war

mly

wel

com

e yo

u to

this

, th

e th

ird c

onfe

renc

e or

gani

-se

d by

the

Fou

ndat

ion.

So

me

time

ago,

I w

as a

sked

to

take

ove

r th

e C

hair

from

Ales

sand

ro B

aris

ich,

whi

ch I

did

durin

g th

e Bo

ard

mee

ting

this

mor

ning

. I w

ould

like

toth

ank

Ales

sand

ro fo

r his

impo

rtant

con

tribu

tion

to S

ea A

larm

dur

ing

the

last

two

year

s.

As

the

form

er M

inis

ter

of T

rans

port,

Pub

lic W

orks

and

Wat

er M

anag

emen

t, I w

aspe

rson

ally

con

front

ed w

ith tw

o m

ajor

oil

spill

s, th

e Tr

icol

oran

d th

e Pr

estig

e. In

bot

hca

ses

I tra

velle

d to

the

area

s w

here

the

inci

dent

s oc

curr

ed. B

ecau

se o

f the

Dut

chM

inis

ter a

rriv

ing

in L

a C

oruñ

a in

Spa

in, t

he S

pani

sh P

rime

Min

iste

r, M

r. A

znar

sud

-de

nly

deci

ded

to v

isit

La C

oruñ

a th

e sa

me

day,

bei

ng t

he f

irst

mem

ber

of t

heS

pani

sh C

abin

et to

vis

it th

e ar

ea th

at h

ad b

een

hit s

o ha

rd b

y th

e Pr

estig

eac

cide

nt.

As

a re

sult

of th

is p

erso

nal i

nvol

vem

ent,

Leni

e ‘t

Har

t ask

ed m

e to

join

Sea

Ala

rm,

an in

vita

tion

I gla

dly

acce

pted

and

I si

ncer

ely

hope

that

I ca

n co

ntrib

ute

to th

e ca

use

of S

ea A

larm

in th

e fu

ture

.

Ladi

es a

nd G

entle

men

,I

am s

ure

that

we

will

have

a s

erie

s of

fru

itful

dis

cuss

ions

and

by

the

clos

e on

Wed

nesd

ay, w

e w

ill ha

ve a

stro

ng s

et o

f rec

omm

enda

tions

for o

il sp

ill au

thor

ities

and

othe

r res

pons

ible

bod

ies

thro

ugho

ut E

urop

e to

act

on

and

also

, wha

t we

can

do a

t the

inte

rnat

iona

l lev

el to

pro

vide

the

nece

ssar

y to

ols,

ser

vice

s an

d su

ppor

t for

thes

e au

t-ho

ritie

s to

arri

ve a

t an

acce

ptab

le le

vel o

f pre

pare

dnes

s fo

r oile

d w

ildlif

e in

cide

nts.

I wou

ld li

ke to

than

k th

e C

aith

erle

agh,

Mr C

oyle

, for

sha

ring

the

first

par

t of t

his

day

with

us,

and

hav

ing

open

ed th

e C

onfe

renc

e. Y

our w

ise

and

insp

iring

wor

ds a

ddre

s-se

d pe

rfect

ly th

e re

ason

s w

hy w

e ar

e he

re. T

hank

you

for t

hat!


22

I als

o w

ould

like

to th

ank

the

Irish

Sea

l San

ctua

ry fo

r ass

istin

g us

gre

atly

in o

rgan

i-si

ng th

is o

ur T

hird

Con

fere

nce

in Ir

elan

d. A

s yo

u kn

ow, t

he fi

rst t

wo

wer

e he

ld in

the

Net

herla

nds,

whe

re S

ea A

larm

was

fou

nded

and

is

regi

ster

ed.

Som

e tim

e ag

o,Br

enda

n Pr

ice

of th

e Sa

nctu

ary

appr

oach

ed th

e Fo

unda

tion

with

the

prop

osal

of o

rga-

nisi

ng it

s ne

xt C

onfe

renc

e in

Irel

and.

Thi

s, w

e th

ough

t, w

ould

be

a ve

ry g

ood

idea

.

That

brin

gs m

e to

ack

now

ledg

ing

the

two

peop

le w

ho h

ave

done

mos

t to

orga

nise

this

eve

nt,

Hug

o N

ijkam

p of

Sea

Ala

rm a

nd P

aulin

e Be

ades

of

the

Irish

Sea

lSa

nctu

ary.

I th

ink

the

both

of y

ou h

ave

done

a g

reat

job.

Tha

nk y

ou!

Ladi

es a

nd g

entle

men

, W

e ar

e ga

ther

ed h

ere

in B

albr

igga

n to

dis

cuss

how

we

can

best

wor

k to

geth

er to

achi

eve

a gr

eate

r pr

epar

edne

ss to

oile

d w

ildlif

e re

spon

se in

Eur

ope.

I w

ould

like

togi

ve y

ou s

ome

back

grou

nd fo

r thi

s, w

hich

, in

part,

und

erpi

ns th

e op

enin

g re

mar

ks o

fth

e C

aith

erle

agh.

His

des

crip

tion

of t

he s

ituat

ion

in I

rela

nd c

once

rnin

g m

arin

e oi

ltra

nspo

rt an

d its

pot

entia

l thr

eat t

o co

asta

l and

mar

ine

wild

life

is, I

thin

k, a

per

fect

exa

-m

ple

of th

e si

tuat

ion

in w

hich

man

y C

oast

al S

tate

s in

Eur

ope

find

them

selv

es. O

n th

eon

e ha

nd t

here

is a

cou

ntry

’s d

epen

denc

e on

inte

rnat

iona

l mar

itim

e ac

tiviti

es li

kesh

ippi

ng a

nd/o

r oil e

xplo

itatio

n to

kee

p its

eco

nom

y fu

elle

d an

d ru

nnin

g. O

n th

e ot

her,

ther

e is

the

pote

ntia

l ris

k co

nnec

ted

with

thes

e ac

tiviti

es, i

n th

e se

nse

that

if s

omet

-hi

ng g

oes

wro

ng, i

t cou

ld h

ave

maj

or c

onse

quen

ces

for

the

natio

n’s

coas

tal e

nvi-

ronm

ent,

econ

omy

and

tour

ism

.

I am

sur

e w

e al

l agr

ee t

hat

the

only

tot

al p

rote

ctio

n th

at c

an b

e gi

ven

to w

ildlif

ere

sour

ces

and

thei

r ha

bita

ts a

gain

st o

il sp

ills

is to

pre

vent

thes

e fro

m h

appe

ning

.W

hat w

e ha

ve s

een

over

the

last

dec

ades

is th

at le

gisl

atio

n ad

opte

d w

ithin

the

fra-

mew

ork

of d

iffer

ent I

MO

Con

vent

ions

, mor

e sp

ecifi

cally

und

er M

arpo

l, ha

ve m

ade

ship

ping

sig

nific

antly

saf

er, a

nd it

is c

lear

that

ther

e is

a lo

wer

freq

uenc

y of

inci

dent

sfro

m y

ear t

o ye

ar. B

ut a

t the

sam

e tim

e, w

e ha

ve s

een

som

e m

ajor

inci

dent

s ha

p-pe

ning

, suc

h as

the

Erik

aan

d Pr

estig

e. T

hese

rem

ind

us th

at w

e w

ill p

roba

bly

neve

rbe

abl

e to

pre

vent

futu

re o

il sp

ills

from

occ

urrin

g. T

his

mea

ns th

at w

e ca

nnot

fully

prot

ect o

ur c

oast

al a

nd m

arin

e w

ildlif

e fro

m b

ecom

ing

invo

lved

in s

uch

acci

dent

s.A

n oi

led

wild

life

inci

dent

is a

real

istic

sce

nario

for a

ny c

oast

al c

ount

ry in

Eur

ope

with

natu

ral m

arin

e an

d co

asta

l hab

itats

and

rich

wild

life.

In

this

resp

ect I

wou

ld li

ke to

refe

r to

the

Tric

olor

inci

dent

in B

elgi

um, w

here

onl

y 17

0 to

ns o

f oil,

not

eve

n fro

man

oil

tank

er, b

ut a

car

car

rier,

wer

e sp

ilt o

n th

e Fl

emis

h B

anks

, an

area

with

an

inte

rnat

iona

l pro

tect

ed s

tatu

s an

d w

here

ten

s of

tho

usan

ds o

f bi

rds

win

ter.

As

are

sult

of th

is r

elat

ivel

y sm

all s

pill,

som

e te

n th

ousa

nd o

iled

bird

s ca

me

asho

re, o

fw

hich

mor

e th

an 4

,500

wer

e al

ive!

I re

peat

: the

Tric

olor

was

not

a ta

nker

, but

a c

arca

rrie

r. W

hich

mea

ns th

at w

hile

ass

essi

ng th

e pa

rticu

lar r

isk,

a c

ount

ry s

houl

d no

tlo

ok e

xclu

sive

ly a

t the

rout

es o

f oil

tank

ers,

but

to s

hipp

ing

mov

emen

ts in

gen

eral

,in

rel

atio

n to

nat

ural

are

as w

here

ani

mal

s se

ason

ally

or

perm

anen

tly g

athe

r. W

eha

ve to

be

awar

e th

at n

owad

ays,

mer

chan

t mar

ine

carr

iers

hav

e on

boa

rd h

eavy

oils

, whi

ch th

ey u

se a

s fu

el, o

ften

in a

mou

nts

sim

ilar

in v

olum

e to

th

at c

arrie

d by

the

early

tank

ers,

whe

n m

ariti

me

oil t

rans

port

first

sta

rted.

This

brin

gs m

e to

a k

ey o

bser

vatio

n, th

e ra

te to

whi

ch c

oast

al c

ount

ries

are

curre

ntly

pre

-pa

red

to re

spon

d to

an

oile

d w

ildlife

inci

dent

. How

wel

l pre

pare

d ar

e th

ey?

I thi

nk w

e m

ust

draw

the

conc

lusi

on th

at, i

n ge

nera

l, th

e le

vels

of p

repa

redn

ess

are

poor

. Why

is th

at?

Firs

t of

all,

the

re a

re c

ount

ries

that

do

have

an

oile

d w

ildlif

e co

ntin

genc

y pl

an in

plac

e, o

r co

untri

es th

at a

re in

a p

roce

ss o

f dev

elop

ing

one.

The

se h

ave

expe

rien-

ced

a m

ajor

wild

life

inci

dent

in r

ecen

t yea

rs. S

uch

an e

vent

act

ed a

s a

“wak

e up

call”

, afte

r whi

ch th

e au

thor

ities

sta

rted

to d

evel

op th

eir p

lans

. The

UK

did

that

afte

rth

e Se

a Em

pres

s, F

ranc

e af

ter

the

Erik

a, B

elgi

um a

fter

the

Tric

olor

. Pro

babl

y th

eol

dest

pla

n in

Eur

ope

is t

hat

of S

hetla

nd w

hich

was

alre

ady

in p

lace

bef

ore

the

Brae

rwas

wre

cked

in 1

993,

follo

win

g so

me

smal

ler

inci

dent

s at

, or

arou

nd th

e oi

lte

rmin

al o

f Sul

lom

Voe

. Rec

ently

als

o S

pain

has

take

n a

first

ste

p to

dra

ft a

plan

,fo

llow

ing

the

Pres

tige.

We

will

hea

r abo

ut th

ese

expe

rienc

es a

nd d

evel

oped

pla

nsdu

ring

our c

onfe

renc

e he

re in

Bal

brig

gan.

The

situ

atio

n in

oth

er c

ount

ries

rem

ains

unc

lear

, but

from

dis

cuss

ions

with

resp

on-

sibl

e gr

oups

thro

ugho

ut E

urop

e, w

e m

ust a

ssum

e th

at w

ildlif

e pl

ans

are

not i

n pl

ace.

That

doe

s no

t mea

n th

at th

e au

thor

ities

do

not s

ee th

e pr

oble

m. G

radu

ally,

they

are

ente

ring

into

dis

cuss

ions

with

thei

r nat

iona

l wild

life

expe

rts to

see

wha

t sol

utio

ns c

anbe

foun

d. W

e kn

ow th

at fr

om S

wed

en a

nd th

e N

ethe

rland

s. A

lso

in E

urop

e, w

e fin

dco

untri

es in

whi

ch a

utho

ritie

s ha

ve a

gree

d to

resp

ond

to o

iled

wild

life

by e

utha

nisi

ngal

l liv

e ca

sual

ties.

Thi

s is

als

o a

legi

timat

e fo

rm o

f a w

ildlif

e re

spon

se w

hich

, alb

eit i

tis

not

alw

ays

unde

rsto

od b

y so

me

wild

life

resp

onde

rs, a

nd, i

f tha

t is

the

form

al p

osi-

tion

of a

gov

ernm

ent i

n re

spon

se to

an

actu

al s

pill,

sho

uld

be r

espe

cted

. It s

houl

dal

so b

e ac

cept

ed th

at s

uch

a pr

oact

ive

actio

n is

bet

ter

than

no

actio

n at

all.

Tha

tdo

es n

ot m

ean,

of

cour

se,

that

thi

s po

sitio

n ca

n be

mad

e su

bjec

t of

a d

ebat

e at

natio

nal o

r int

erna

tiona

l lev

el, a

fter t

he re

spon

se to

the

spill

has

been

con

clud

ed.

So

I wou

ld s

ay th

at w

e se

e in

Eur

ope,

var

iatio

n, n

ot o

nly

in th

e de

gree

of p

repa

-re

dnes

s, b

ut a

lso

in th

e th

inki

ng a

bout

wha

t an

effe

ctiv

e w

ildlif

e re

spon

se s

houl

din

clud

e, a

nd w

hich

leve

l of p

repa

redn

ess

shou

ld b

e ac

hiev

ed. C

lear

ly w

e ne

ed a

nin

tern

atio

nal d

iscu

ssio

n to

atte

mpt

to b

ring

good

pra

ctic

e to

the

atte

ntio

n of

the

auth

o-rit

ies,

and

dem

onst

rate

that

ther

e ar

e di

ffere

nt o

ptio

ns fr

om w

hich

they

cou

ld c

hoos

e.

At th

e sa

me

time,

ther

e is

a n

eed

for d

iplo

mac

y an

d re

spec

t. W

e ar

e de

alin

g w

ith m

at-

ters

of n

atio

nal c

ompe

tenc

e, n

ot in

tern

atio

nal c

ompe

tenc

e. A

n oi

led

wild

life

plan

will

requ

ire th

e in

put o

f man

y st

akeh

olde

rs, i

nclu

ding

diff

eren

t nat

iona

l dep

artm

ents

. In

man

y ca

ses,

cou

ntrie

s w

ill ha

ve to

dea

l with

frag

men

ted

resp

onsi

bilit

ies

at a

nat

iona

lle

vel,

som

etim

es w

ith k

ey c

ompe

tenc

es th

at a

re d

ealt

with

at a

sub

-nat

iona

l lev

el.

Then

ther

e w

ill be

the

cultu

ral d

iffer

ence

s w

hich

you

will

find

thro

ugho

ut E

urop

e fro

m


23

wes

t to

east

, fro

m n

orth

to s

outh

. So

prom

otin

g or

dev

elop

ing

an o

iled

wild

life

resp

on-

se p

lan

is n

ot a

que

stio

n of

hav

ing

a bl

uepr

int s

olut

ion

that

can

be

adop

ted

in a

ny s

itu-

atio

n. D

evel

opin

g a

plan

mus

t be

a na

tiona

lly d

riven

pro

cess

in w

hich

all

thes

e st

a-ke

hold

ers

parti

cipa

te. T

hese

pro

cess

es a

t nat

iona

l lev

els

will

sure

ly b

enef

it fro

m in

ter-

natio

nal e

xper

ienc

e an

d fro

m “b

est p

ract

ices

” ide

ntifi

ed b

y in

tern

atio

nal e

xper

ts. I

t is

impo

rtant

that

thes

e (in

tern

atio

nal e

xper

ienc

es a

nd b

est p

ract

ices

( bec

ome

avai

labl

efo

r gro

ups

and

auth

oriti

es w

ho h

ave

deci

ded

to s

tart

the

proc

ess

of p

lan

deve

lopm

ent.

That

cou

ld b

e do

ne b

y tra

inin

g, a

dvic

e an

d th

e pr

ovis

ion

of to

ols.

That

brin

gs m

e, la

dies

and

gen

tlem

en, t

o th

e ro

le S

ea A

larm

is p

repa

red

to p

lay

at a

nin

tern

atio

nal l

evel

. Ove

r the

last

five

yea

rs, w

e ha

ve d

evel

oped

into

an

orga

nisa

tion

that

has

gai

ned

grea

t cre

dibi

lity

and

acce

ptan

ce a

mon

gst a

ll pa

rties

that

pla

y a

role

inth

e oi

led

wild

life

resp

onse

. Thi

s in

clud

es w

ildlif

e re

spon

ders

thro

ugho

ut E

urop

e, th

eoi

l and

oil

spill

resp

onse

indu

strie

s, s

hipo

wne

rs, m

ariti

me

insu

rers

, and

inte

rnat

iona

lgo

vern

men

tal b

odie

s an

d na

tiona

l oil

spill

auth

oriti

es. W

e in

crea

sing

ly h

ave

real

ised

that

we

wou

ld o

nly

have

an

adde

d va

lue

if w

e w

ould

take

an

abso

lute

ly in

depe

nden

tpo

sitio

n to

war

ds a

ny o

f the

priv

ate

inte

rest

s of

thes

e gr

oups

, by

conc

entra

ting

on th

eir

com

mon

int

eres

t, na

mel

y ef

fect

ivel

y so

lvin

g pr

oble

ms

surro

undi

ng o

iled

wild

life

resp

onse

. We

have

dem

onst

rate

d th

at w

e ar

e ab

le to

initi

ate,

faci

litat

e, e

nabl

e di

ffe-

rent

gro

ups

to c

oope

rate

, inc

reas

e pr

ofes

sion

alis

m a

mon

gst t

hem

, and

rais

e th

e aw

a-re

ness

of t

he p

robl

em in

tern

atio

nally

. We

have

als

o br

ough

t coo

rdin

atio

n, e

xper

tise

and

advi

ce in

rece

nt o

iled

wild

life

inci

dent

s. In

our

act

iviti

es, w

e se

ek to

coo

pera

te c

lo-

sely

with

key

org

anis

atio

ns.

From

the

beg

inni

ng o

f ou

r ex

iste

nce

we

have

alw

ays

coop

erat

ed c

lose

ly w

ith IT

OPF

. Thr

ough

them

, we

have

bui

lt ve

ry g

ood

rela

tions

hips

with

oth

er k

ey p

artie

s in

the

oil r

espo

nse

sect

or. T

his

assi

sted

us

to o

pen

door

s in

the

diffe

rent

fora

whe

re g

over

nmen

tal o

rgan

isat

ions

and

oil

spill

auth

oriti

es m

eet.

In a

par

alle

l pro

cess

, we

have

bee

n cl

osel

y in

volv

ed in

bui

ldin

g in

tern

atio

nal n

etw

orks

amon

gst w

ildlif

e re

spon

ders

in E

urop

e, a

nd o

iled

wild

life

resp

onse

exp

erts

thro

ugho

utth

e w

orld

. An

im

porta

nt p

artn

er i

n th

is b

ranc

h of

act

iviti

es h

as b

ecom

e IF

AW’s

Emer

genc

y R

elie

f Tea

m. B

oth

orga

nisa

tions

hav

e re

cogn

ised

eac

h ot

her’s

com

ple-

men

tary

cap

aciti

es, a

nd w

e ar

e in

a p

roce

ss o

f clo

ser c

oope

ratio

n an

d jo

int a

ctiv

ities

.

Sim

ilarly

, we

cons

tant

ly lo

ok fo

r ot

her

stra

tegi

c pa

rtner

s an

d re

gula

rly fi

nd th

em in

sect

ors

clos

ely

rela

ted

to th

e oi

l spi

ll re

spon

se. W

e ha

ve c

lose

con

tact

with

the

sal-

vage

indu

stry

, and

we

are

happ

y th

at H

ans

van

Roo

ij, o

f SM

ITS

alva

ge, c

urre

ntly

pres

iden

t of t

he In

tern

atio

nal S

alva

ge U

nion

, is

here

with

us.

We

have

als

o cl

ose

cont

acts

with

shi

p ow

ner o

rgan

isat

ions

, suc

h as

INTE

RTA

NK

O. U

nfor

tuna

tely

they

had

to c

ance

l the

ir co

ntrib

utio

n to

our

mee

ting

at th

e la

st m

inut

e, d

ue to

a s

udde

nch

ange

in th

eir

sche

dule

s. In

the

sam

e se

ctor

, we

have

dev

elop

ed c

lose

con

tact

sw

ith H

ELM

EPA

, the

env

ironm

enta

l org

anis

atio

n st

arte

d by

shi

pow

ners

in G

reec

e.A

s yo

u ca

n se

e, a

ll th

ese

orga

nisa

tion

are

impo

rtant

if y

ou a

im a

t cre

atin

g th

e cl

i-m

ate

for p

reve

ntin

g oi

l spi

lls fr

om h

appe

ning

, fro

m a

ffect

ing

anim

als.

This

brin

gs m

e to

the

conc

lusi

on th

at S

ea A

larm

has

gre

at p

oten

tial.

But a

t the

sam

etim

e, th

e pr

essu

re o

n ou

r org

anis

atio

n to

per

form

has

als

o in

crea

sed

sign

ifica

ntly.

The

way

we

have

bee

n op

erat

ing

so fa

r, as

a p

roje

ct o

rient

ed o

rgan

isat

ion

is n

o lo

nger

sust

aina

ble.

The

refo

re w

e ar

e no

w in

a p

roce

ss th

at w

e re

orga

nise

our

gov

erna

nce

stru

ctur

e in

a w

ay th

at w

e ca

n m

eet t

he c

halle

nges

of t

he fu

ture

. We

are

very

hap

pyth

at IT

OPF

and

IPIE

CA

are

now

offe

ring

us a

hel

ping

han

d in

ord

er to

get

a m

ore

stru

ctur

al b

udge

t for

our

act

iviti

es.

Cai

ther

leag

h, la

dies

and

Gen

tlem

en,

We

will

shor

tly s

ee th

e la

unch

of t

he IP

IEC

AG

uide

to O

iled

Wild

life R

espo

nse

Plan

ning

.Se

a Al

arm

has

end

eavo

ured

for y

ears

to g

et th

is d

ocum

ent w

ritte

n. In

our

effo

rts, w

eha

ve a

lway

s fo

und

orga

nisa

tions

suc

h as

ITO

PF a

nd IP

IEC

A, b

ut a

lso

oil c

ompa

nies

,in

clud

ing

BPan

d TO

TAL,

enc

oura

ging

us

to g

et th

e jo

b do

ne. W

e ar

e of

cou

rse

very

happ

y an

d pr

oud

that

it is

now

in p

lace

and

we

trust

that

this

impo

rtant

doc

umen

t will

bean

exc

elle

nt to

ol to

be

used

by

oil s

pill

auth

oritie

s th

roug

hout

the

wor

ld.

Ladi

es a

nd g

entle

men

, we

are

here

with

a s

trong

cor

e gr

oup

repr

esen

ting

som

e of

the

fines

t oil

spill

res

pons

e ex

perti

se in

Eur

ope,

may

be e

ven

in th

e w

orld

. I th

ink

toge

ther

we

shou

ld b

e ab

le to

put

toge

ther

a s

trong

mes

sage

to th

e go

vern

men

tsan

d oi

l spi

ll au

thor

ities

in E

urop

e th

at c

ould

go

alon

g w

ith th

e la

unch

of t

hese

Gui

de.

This

mes

sage

bei

ng th

at th

is G

uide

cle

arly

pre

sent

s w

hat a

n oi

led

wild

life

resp

on-

se is

, why

it is

impo

rtant

and

wha

t a r

espo

nse

plan

sho

uld

incl

ude

in o

rder

to b

eef

fect

ive.

Tog

ethe

r w

e sh

ould

say

to

the

auth

oriti

es:

here

it is

, an

d w

e th

ink

it is

wor

thw

hile

that

you

ser

ious

ly c

onsi

der u

sing

it.

Mr.

Coy

le, l

adie

s an

d ge

ntle

men

I co

me

to th

e en

d of

my

open

ing

addr

ess.

Loo

king

with

muc

h co

nfid

ence

to th

e fu

ture

, I th

ink

this

Thi

rd S

ea A

larm

Con

fere

nce

will

be a

mile

ston

e in

diff

eren

t res

pect

s. W

e w

ill sh

ortly

see

the

offic

ial l

aunc

h of

the

IPIE

CA

Gui

de to

Oile

d W

ildlif

e R

espo

nse

Plan

ning

. Thi

s do

cum

ent w

ill be

a fo

rcef

ul to

ol in

our m

issi

on to

get

a h

ighe

r lev

el fo

r Eur

opea

n pr

epar

edne

ss. I

t is

the

stro

nges

t pro

ofye

t of t

he c

lose

rel

atio

nshi

p th

at o

iled

wild

life

resp

onde

rs h

ave

built

up

with

the

oil

resp

onse

indu

stry

, whi

ch s

houl

d be

a m

ajor

fact

or in

the

prom

otio

n of

the

Gui

de to

the

oil s

pill

auth

oriti

es in

Eur

ope.

In s

uppo

rt of

that

task

, we

will

need

to d

evel

op d

if-fe

rent

inte

rnat

iona

l act

iviti

es, s

uch

as tr

aini

ng, e

xcha

nge

of in

form

atio

n, n

ewsl

ette

rs,

info

rmat

ive

web

site

s. A

lso

we

need

to d

iscu

ss h

ow w

e co

uld

prov

ide

inte

rnat

iona

lre

spon

se to

oil

spills

that

mig

ht h

appe

n ov

er th

e ne

xt fe

w y

ears

in E

urop

e. H

avin

gse

en t

he p

artic

ipan

ts li

st,

I ha

ve r

ealis

ed t

hat

we

have

a f

anta

stic

cor

e gr

oup

ofex

perti

se h

ere

in B

albr

igga

n, a

nd I

am m

ore

than

con

fiden

t tha

t tog

ethe

r we

will

beab

le to

dev

elop

a s

et o

f rec

omm

enda

tions

that

can

not b

e ig

nore

d in

Eur

ope.

I wis

h yo

u a

very

frui

tful c

onfe

renc

e!Th

ank

you

for y

our a

ttent

ion.


24

huge

loss

es o

f life

of y

este

ryea

r may

not

hav

e be

en in

vai

n. In

atte

ndin

g th

is c

on-

fere

nce,

I w

as a

ccus

ed b

y m

y ow

n ch

ildre

n of

con

sorti

ng w

ith t

he d

evil

and

inre

spon

se to

that

lies

the

only

insp

iratio

n an

d w

ords

of a

dvic

e th

at c

omes

to m

e an

dth

at is

, we

mus

t dis

pel d

oubt

and

par

anoi

a, b

uild

trus

t and

wor

k to

geth

er to

just

ifyou

rsel

ves

and

our

co-o

pera

tive

effo

rts to

ano

ther

gen

erat

ion,

by

colle

ctiv

ely

min

i-m

isin

g oi

l dam

age

and

resp

ondi

ng q

uick

ly w

hen

cont

rol i

s lo

st. T

he s

ouls

of s

eabi

rds

and

our n

ext g

ener

atio

n of

chi

ldre

n, w

ill n

ot to

lera

te fa

ilure

as

an o

ptio

n! W

e,pr

oduc

ers,

dis

tribu

tors

, use

rs a

nd w

ildlif

e re

spon

ders

mus

t rem

edy

the

prob

lem

s of

oil s

pill,

littl

e an

d la

rge,

and

mob

ilise

wor

ld o

pini

on in

our

sup

port.

I co

mm

end

your

wor

thy

wor

k an

d w

ish

you

ever

y su

cces

s fro

m t

he I

rish

Sea

lS

anct

uary

. We

look

forw

ard

to w

orki

ng w

ith y

ou o

ver

the

com

ing

days

and

wel

co-

me

your

sup

port

for B

albr

igga

n, F

inga

l the

pro

pose

d N

atio

nal M

arin

e C

onse

rvat

ion

Cen

tre.

Mr.

Bre

ndan

Pric

e

Irish

Sea

l San

ctua

ry

Ope

ning

add

ress

The

Sou

ls o

f Los

t Sea

Bird

s;

Aw

elco

me

to th

e de

lega

tes

to th

e co

nfer

ence

, fro

m th

e Iri

sh S

eal S

anct

uary

Adh

aoin

e ua

isle

, cea

d m

ile fa

ilte

libh

go le

ir.G

entle

folk

, 100

,000

wel

com

es to

you

all,

to B

albr

igga

n in

Fin

gal,

the

prop

osed

site

of Ir

elan

ds N

atio

nal M

arin

e C

onse

rvat

ion

Cen

tre, w

hich

alo

ng w

ith o

ther

thin

gs w

illac

com

mod

ate

the

coun

try’s

oil

spill

resp

onse

cap

acity

for w

ildlif

e; m

aint

ain

a re

gis-

ter

of o

il re

spon

ders

, fo

r lo

cal,

natio

nal

and

inte

rnat

iona

l se

rvic

e; a

nd l

iais

e on

Irela

nd’s

beh

alf w

ith th

e In

tern

atio

nal r

espo

nse

com

mun

ity. I

t is

ausp

icio

us th

at y

ouco

ngre

gate

her

e to

day

on H

allo

wee

n, a

t the

sta

rt of

the

mon

th o

f sou

ls a

nd r

eali-

sing

my

own

igno

ranc

e an

d in

expe

rienc

e of

oil

and

the

caus

es o

f and

resp

onse

s to

spill

s.

See

king

insp

iratio

n as

to h

ow to

add

ress

you

, I w

alke

d, i

n a

little

gra

veya

rd a

mon

gm

y an

cest

ors;

they

face

d m

any

assa

ults

from

the

sea,

but

oil

is a

new

cha

lleng

e! I

,lik

e an

ybod

y he

re, w

ho h

as e

xper

ienc

ed o

il sp

ill, a

cer

tain

life

-cha

ngin

g ev

ent,

amal

l too

fam

iliar

as

a si

mpl

e w

ildlif

e re

spon

der,

with

the

effe

cts

and

the

deat

h an

dde

stru

ctio

n w

reak

ed o

n w

ildlif

e by

our

col

lect

ive

irres

pons

ibili

ty o

r ca

rele

ssne

ss. I

have

sin

ce b

ecom

e, w

ith o

ther

s on

this

mos

t vul

nera

ble

isla

nd, t

hrou

gh th

e as

si-

stan

ce o

f IB

RR

C a

nd I

FAW

, be

tter

prep

ared

, tra

ined

and

exp

erie

nced

in w

ildlif

ere

spon

se, t

han

here

tofo

re. P

reve

ntio

n re

mai

ns th

e pr

efer

red

optio

n, b

ut w

ith y

ou a

ll,I a

m h

ere

to le

arn

from

bot

h in

dust

ry a

nd e

xper

ienc

e ho

w w

e ca

n re

spon

d be

tter

until

suc

h tim

e as

the

seas

and

our

ear

th a

re a

saf

er p

lace

for w

ildlif

e an

d ou

r chi

ld-

ren.

If

we

lear

n fro

m e

ach

othe

r an

d de

velo

p al

lianc

es fo

r pr

otec

tion

and

capa

city

, the


25

Mr.

Dim

itri M

itsat

sos1

Dire

ctor

Gen

eral

of H

ELM

EPA

Ope

ning

adr

ess

Dea

r Mr.

Cha

irman

, dea

r Del

egat

es,

I wou

ld li

ke to

than

k th

e or

gani

sers

for

invi

ting

HE

LME

PAto

par

ticip

ate

in th

e 3r

dS

ea A

larm

Con

fere

nce.

Unf

ortu

nate

ly, a

n ex

trem

ely

heav

y w

orkl

oad

does

not

allo

wm

e to

atte

nd th

is h

ighl

y in

tere

stin

g m

eetin

g, s

o I h

ave

kind

ly a

sked

Mr.

Nijk

amp,

Dire

ctor

of t

he S

ea A

larm

Fou

ndat

ion,

to re

ad m

y sh

ort a

ddre

ss.

In F

ebru

ary

2004

, w

e ha

d a

mee

ting

with

Mr.

Nijk

amp

at o

ur o

ffice

s in

Ath

ens,

durin

g w

hich

he

info

rmed

me

and

my

colle

ague

s in

HE

LME

PAab

out t

he a

ims

and

obje

ctiv

es o

f the

Sea

Ala

rm F

ound

atio

n. T

he id

ea w

as r

aise

d th

at H

ELM

EPA

and

Sea

Ala

rm c

ould

dev

elop

a c

lose

r rel

atio

nshi

p w

ith e

ach

othe

r, w

hich

cou

ld c

ontri

-bu

te to

ove

rall

effo

rts fo

r the

pro

tect

ion

of th

e m

arin

e en

viro

nmen

t.

The

Hel

leni

c M

arin

e E

nviro

nmen

t Pro

tect

ion

Ass

ocia

tion

– H

ELM

EPA

- w

as fo

un-

ded

22 y

ears

ago

by

Gre

ek s

eafa

rers

and

shi

pow

ners

with

the

aim

to m

otiv

ate

the

hum

an e

lem

ent i

n sh

ippi

ng to

take

vol

unta

ry p

roac

tive

actio

n to

pre

vent

shi

p-ge

ne-

rate

d m

arin

e po

llutio

n, th

us c

ompl

emen

ting

the

regu

lato

ry le

vel.

Sin

ce 1

983,

HE

LME

PAha

s im

plem

ente

d 22

ann

ual r

efre

sher

-trai

ning

pro

gram

mes

for o

ffice

rs a

nd s

taff

of m

embe

r com

pani

es. T

he o

bjec

tive

is to

upd

ate

and

refre

shth

e kn

owle

dge

of p

artic

ipat

ing

prof

essi

onal

s so

that

they

are

kep

t abr

east

of d

eve-

lopm

ents

. Oil

pollu

tion

prep

ared

ness

and

resp

onse

, as

wel

l as

the

impa

ct o

f pol

lu-

tion

on m

arin

e lif

e an

d hu

man

s, a

re p

rom

inen

t top

ics

on th

e sy

llabu

s of

ann

ual t

rai-

ning

pro

gram

s, w

hich

hav

e be

en a

ttend

ed s

o fa

r by

mor

e th

an 1

4,50

0 se

afar

ers

and

com

pany

sta

ff.

The

volu

ntar

y an

d pr

oact

ive

appr

oach

of H

ELM

EPA

has

been

follo

wed

in s

ever

alpa

rts o

f th

e w

orld

thr

ough

the

fou

ndin

g of

sim

ilar

non-

prof

it, n

on-g

over

nmen

tal

Ass

ocia

tions

– M

EPA

s in

Cyp

rus,

Tur

key,

the

UK

, U

rugu

ay,

the

Phi

lippi

nes

and

Aus

tralia

.

Whe

reas

HE

LME

PAst

ands

on

the

one

end

of th

e sp

ectru

m, i

.e. p

ollu

tion

prev

en-

tion,

the

Sea

Ala

rm F

ound

atio

n lie

s on

the

othe

r, i.e

. oil

spill

resp

onse

and

cle

an u

p.B

oth

parts

are

equ

ally

impo

rtant

and

com

plem

ent

one

anot

her.

Des

pite

its

shor

tex

iste

nce,

Sea

Ala

rm h

as m

ade

cons

ider

able

pro

gres

s in

pro

mot

ing

the

impo

rtan-

ce o

f pre

-spi

ll pl

anni

ng a

nd p

repa

redn

ess

and

the

need

for

effe

ctiv

e pr

ofes

sion

alco

oper

atio

n in

the

afte

rmat

h of

an

inci

dent

in o

rder

to m

inim

ize

its im

pact

. In

doin

gso

the

Foun

datio

n ha

s re

ceiv

ed a

pos

itive

resp

onse

.

Sea

Ala

rm a

nd H

ELM

EPA

toge

ther

hav

e th

e po

tent

ial t

o fu

rther

pro

mot

e co

oper

a-tio

n an

d re

spon

sibl

e en

viro

nmen

tal c

ondu

ct b

y al

l sta

keho

lder

s in

volv

ed in

oil

spill

prev

entio

n, r

espo

nse

and

clea

n up

, in

ord

er t

o m

inim

ise

mar

ine

pollu

tion

and

itsim

pact

on

wild

life

and

the

envi

ronm

ent a

s a

who

le. I

t is

for

thes

e re

ason

s th

at w

ew

elco

me

the

prop

osal

of S

ea A

larm

Fou

ndat

ion

to c

oope

rate

in th

is fi

eld

and

we

are

look

ing

forw

ard

to e

xcha

ngin

g id

eas

tow

ards

this

dire

ctio

n.

On

beha

lf of

our

Mem

bers

, 50

0 oc

ean-

goin

g ve

ssel

s, 1

70 c

ompa

nies

in G

reec

ean

d ab

road

and

ove

r 14,

000

Gre

ek s

eafa

rers

, I w

ish

you

a pr

oduc

tive

Con

fere

nce

and

a fru

itful

out

com

e to

you

r w

orki

ngs

and

I apo

logi

ze o

nce

agai

n fo

r no

t bei

ngab

le to

atte

nd.

Sin

cere

ly,

Cap

tain

Dim

itris

C. M

itsat

sos

HE

LME

PAD

irect

or G

ener

al

1 M

r. M

itsat

sos’

open

ing

addr

ess,

in h

is a

bsen

ce, w

as re

ad to

the

parti

cipa

nts

by M

r.Nijk

amp


26

Mr.

Chr

is M

orris

Secr

etar

y G

ener

al o

f IPI

ECA

Ladi

es a

nd G

entle

men

,

May

I sa

y ho

w d

elig

hted

I am

to b

e he

re w

ith y

ou th

is m

orni

ng a

t the

sta

rt of

the

Third

Sea

Ala

rm C

onfe

renc

e in

Bal

brig

gan

and

for

the

laun

ch o

f Vol

ume

13 in

the

IPIE

CA

Rep

ort S

erie

s “A

Gui

de to

Oile

d W

ildlif

e R

espo

nse

Pla

nnin

g.”

Let m

e sh

ed s

ome

light

as

to h

ow IP

IEC

Abe

cam

e in

volv

ed w

ith S

ea A

larm

, whe

rew

e ar

e to

day,

and

our

futu

re p

lans

.Th

ree

year

s ag

o Se

a Al

arm

app

roac

hed

IPIE

CA,

and

our

oil

spill

wor

king

gro

up in

parti

cula

r, se

ekin

g su

ppor

t for

thei

r pro

posa

l to

the

Euro

pean

Com

mis

sion

on

oile

dw

ildlif

e re

spon

se p

lann

ing,

a s

ubje

ct n

ot g

ener

ally

inc

lude

d in

gen

eric

res

pons

epl

ans.

Suc

h a

guid

e w

as e

nvis

aged

to b

e of

inte

rest

to g

over

nmen

ts, i

ndus

try a

ndw

ildlif

e re

spon

ders

on

how

to d

eal w

ith w

ildlif

e if

anim

als

beca

me

oile

d du

ring

a sp

illan

d, it

see

med

app

ropr

iate

to

be in

clud

ed in

the

inte

rnat

iona

lly a

ccep

ted

IPIE

CA

repo

rt se

ries.

Late

in 2

001,

the

IPIE

CA

Oil

Spill

Wor

king

Gro

up, g

ener

ousl

y su

ppor

ted

finan

cial

lyby

BP

and

TOTA

L, a

gree

d to

the

prop

osal

to p

ublis

h th

is re

port.

U

nfor

tuna

tely,

a s

imila

r Eur

opea

n pr

opos

al fo

r sup

port,

hav

ing

labo

rious

ly, b

ut s

uc-

cess

fully

, pas

sed

thro

ugh

the

vario

us te

chni

cal c

omm

ittee

s, fa

iled

at th

e fin

al h

urd-

le to

sat

isfy

new

fina

ncia

l rul

es s

et b

y th

e C

omm

issi

on a

fter t

he p

ropo

sal w

as s

ub-

mitt

ed.

Und

aunt

ed, S

ea A

larm

cam

e ba

ck to

IPIE

CA

in S

epte

mbe

r las

t yea

r, w

ith a

revi

sed

prop

osal

to d

evel

op th

e gu

idel

ines

with

sup

port

now

of i

ndus

try a

lone

. The

y ha

veno

t w

aste

d an

y tim

e an

d, t

oday

, af

ter

muc

h ef

fort

by m

any

peop

le,

here

is

the

repo

rt, th

e la

st in

the

IPIE

CA

Rep

ort S

erie

s.W

ith o

ver 4

5 pa

ges,

the

thic

kest

yet

, we

have

a ri

ch d

ocum

ent,

full

of d

etai

l on

oile

dw

ildlif

e re

spon

se a

nd h

ow s

uch

a re

spon

se c

an b

e in

corp

orat

ed in

to t

he c

ontin

-ge

ncy

plan

ning

pro

cess

.

Wha

t is

so u

niqu

e ab

out t

his

guid

e is

that

it h

as b

een

deve

lope

d by

an

inte

rnat

ion-

al p

roce

ss o

f co

nsul

tatio

n, t

hrou

gh w

hich

fou

r ed

itors

com

mun

icat

ed w

ith t

heir

peer

s ac

ross

the

wor

ld. W

hat i

s ev

en m

ore

plea

sing

, and

I be

lieve

a r

emar

kabl

eac

hiev

emen

t, is

that

the

repo

rt is

em

brac

ed a

nd e

ndor

sed

by s

uch

an e

min

ent i

nter

-na

tiona

l gro

up. I

wou

ld li

ke to

ack

now

ledg

e th

e hu

ge e

ffort,

not

onl

y of

Hug

o an

dS

ea A

larm

, but

als

o:

• Cur

t Clu

mpn

er, I

nter

natio

nal F

und

for A

nim

al W

elfa

re –

Inte

rnat

iona

l Bird

Res

cue

and

Res

earc

h C

entre

,• T

im T

hom

as, R

oyal

Soc

iety

for t

he P

reve

ntio

n of

Cru

elty

to A

nim

als

and

• Jim

Con

roy,

Cel

tic E

nviro

nmen

t Ltd

.

Valu

able

con

tribu

tions

wer

e al

so r

ecei

ved

from

a f

urth

er 1

4 re

spec

ted

orga

nisa

-tio

ns.

Suc

h su

ppor

t giv

es c

onsi

dera

ble

wei

ght t

o th

e re

port

and,

hop

eful

ly th

e m

omen

tum

for g

over

nmen

ts a

nd o

ther

resp

onsi

ble

parti

es in

volv

ed in

oil

spill

con

tinge

ncy

plan

-ni

ng to

acc

ept i

ts g

uida

nce

and

use

it. T

his

conf

eren

ce is

the

first

ste

p in

ens

urin

gun

iver

sal a

ccep

tanc

e.A

s to

the

futu

re, w

ithin

IPIE

CA

we

shal

l dis

tribu

te th

e re

port

wid

ely,

to a

ll ou

r mem

-be

rs a

s w

ell a

s m

ake

copi

es a

vaila

ble

at n

ext y

ear’s

IOS

C in

Mia

mi.

Tran

slat

ions

will

als

o fo

llow

in F

renc

h, S

pani

sh, R

ussi

an a

nd C

hine

se, a

ll of

them

dow

nloa

dabl

efro

m th

e IP

IEC

AW

ebsi

te.

Toda

y, I

have

gre

at p

leas

ure

to p

rese

nt th

e fir

st c

opie

s of

the

new

gui

de, l

itera

llyst

raig

ht o

ff th

e pr

ess,

to m

y go

od fr

iend

Joh

n Ø

ster

gaar

d fro

m th

e IM

O a

nd A

urel

ioC

alig

iore

from

the

Eur

opea

n C

omm

issi

on w

ith a

sim

ple

mes

sage

– P

leas

e as

sist

us a

ll in

brin

ging

the

guid

e to

the

atte

ntio

n of

gov

ernm

ents

in E

urop

e an

d fu

rther

afie

ld a

nd s

timul

ate

all t

hose

you

can

in th

eir u

se o

f the

gui

delin

es.

AN

NE

X 3


27

Mr.

Aur

elio

Cal

igio

re

Euro

pean

Com

mis

sion

Dea

r Col

leag

ues,

Lad

ies

and

Gen

tlem

en,

Firs

t of a

ll, I

wou

ld li

ke to

than

k th

e or

gani

sers

of t

he T

hird

Sea

Ala

rm C

onfe

renc

efo

r the

invi

tatio

n to

atte

nd th

is C

onfe

renc

e.A

s yo

u kn

ow, t

he E

urop

ean

Com

mis

sion

has

pla

yed

and

still

pla

ys a

n im

porta

nt ro

lein

the

field

of p

repa

redn

ess

for a

nd re

spon

se to

mar

ine

pollu

tion

caus

ed b

y sh

ips,

thro

ugh

the

Com

mun

ity A

ctio

n w

hich

has

bee

n in

forc

e si

nce

a C

ounc

il re

solu

tion

of 1

978.

At p

rese

nt, t

he ro

le o

f the

Eur

opea

n C

omm

unity

in th

e fie

ld o

f res

pons

e to

mar

ine

pollu

tion

finds

its

lega

l bas

is in

the

Com

mun

ity fr

amew

ork

for c

oope

ratio

n in

the

field

of a

ccid

enta

l or d

elib

erat

e m

arin

e po

llutio

n.A

s al

l of y

ou k

now

, the

mos

t im

porta

nt o

bjec

tive

in c

ase

of s

erio

us o

il sp

ill is

to m

in-

imis

e th

e en

viro

nmen

tal i

mpa

ct.

The

Eur

opea

n C

omm

issi

on’s

Civ

il P

rote

ctio

n U

nit i

n D

G E

nviro

nmen

t, w

ith th

e he

lpof

the

Man

agem

ent

Com

mitt

ee o

n M

arin

e P

ollu

tion,

try

to

achi

eve

this

impo

rtant

goal

mai

nly

thro

ugh

two

maj

or a

ctio

ns. F

irstly

, a th

ree-

year

rolli

ng p

lan

whi

ch fu

nds

actio

ns s

uch

as tr

aini

ng, e

xcha

nge

of e

xper

ts, e

xerc

ises

, pilo

t pro

ject

s, s

urve

ys o

fth

e en

viro

nmen

tal

impa

ct

afte

r an

ac

cide

nt,

etc.

S

econ

dly,

a

Com

mun

ityIn

form

atio

n S

yste

m w

ith th

e pu

rpos

e of

dat

a ex

chan

ge o

n th

e pr

epar

edne

ss a

ndre

spon

se to

mar

ine

pollu

tion.

Eac

h ye

ar, t

he C

omm

issi

on, j

oint

ly w

ith M

embe

r Sta

tes,

iden

tifie

s cu

rren

t and

futu

-re

prio

ritie

s to

be

take

n in

to c

onsi

dera

tion

in th

e th

ree-

year

rolli

ng p

lan.

In 2

004,

we

have

def

ined

prio

rity

actio

ns,

incl

udin

g po

tent

ially

pol

lutin

g sh

ipw

reck

s, il

licit

dis-

char

ges

from

shi

ps, r

espo

nse

to h

arm

ful s

ubst

ance

s, e

nviro

nmen

tal d

amag

e, c

on-

tinge

ncy

plan

ning

, and

ani

mal

wel

fare

.I

wou

ld li

ke t

o dr

aw y

our

atte

ntio

n to

the

effo

rts m

ade

in t

he p

ast

year

s by

the

Eur

opea

n C

omm

issi

on t

o su

ppor

t an

d im

prov

e th

e an

imal

wel

fare

in t

he c

ase

ofoi

led

sea-

anim

als.

Eac

h ye

ar, a

mon

g ot

her

prio

ritie

s, th

e to

pic

of “

anim

al w

elfa

re”

has

been

sup

porte

d.

In th

e ye

ar 2

000,

we

supp

orte

d Te

chni

ques

and

met

hods

of r

espo

nse

and

reha

bili-

tatio

n. W

e sa

id t

hat

…pa

rticu

lar

cons

ider

atio

n sh

ould

be

give

n to

pilo

t pr

ojec

ts,

whi

ch c

ould

con

tribu

te to

the

deve

lopm

ent o

r the

impr

ovem

ent:

• of r

ecov

ery

tech

niqu

es fo

r hea

vy o

il• o

f met

hods

or t

echn

ique

s to

take

car

e of

affe

cted

bird

s an

d ot

her a

nim

als.

In 2

001,

on

the

subj

ect o

f Ani

mal

Wel

fare

, We

prop

osed

a W

orks

hop

to g

athe

r the

expe

rienc

e ga

ined

in t

he a

rea

of a

nim

al w

elfa

re in

cas

e of

mar

ine

pollu

tion.

The

wor

ksho

p w

as t

o an

alys

e th

e pr

otec

tion,

ret

rieva

l, cl

eani

ng a

nd r

ehab

ilita

tion

ofaf

fect

ed a

nim

als.

Par

ticul

ar a

ttent

ion

was

nee

ded

on h

ow to

trea

t bird

s af

fect

ed b

yoi

l.Th

en in

200

2, a

gain

und

er th

e he

adin

g of

Ani

mal

Wel

fare

, We

mov

ed fo

rwar

d to

a…

pilo

t pro

ject

inte

nded

to d

raw

from

exp

erie

nce

gain

ed in

the

area

of a

nim

al w

el-

fare

in c

ase

of m

arin

e po

llutio

n. It

had

to c

onsi

der i

ssue

s su

ch a

s pr

otec

tion,

retri

e-va

l, cl

eani

ng a

nd r

ehab

ilita

tion

of a

ffect

ed a

nim

als.

Aga

in, p

artic

ular

atte

ntio

n w

aspa

id to

the

prob

lem

of t

reat

ing

oile

d bi

rds.

In 2

003,

no

call

for p

ropo

sals

was

laun

ched

, but

in 2

004,

we

retu

rned

aga

in to

the

subj

ect o

f Ani

mal

wel

fare

and

a W

orks

hop

and/

or p

ilot p

roje

ct in

tend

ed to

dra

w fr

omex

perie

nce

gain

ed in

the

area

of a

nim

al w

elfa

re, a

gain

dea

ling

with

sim

ilar t

hem

esan

d al

so lo

okin

g at

the

rol

es o

f th

e di

ffere

nt a

ctor

s in

volv

ed in

oil

spill

res

pons

e,in

clud

ing

the

com

pete

nt a

utho

ritie

s, N

GO

s an

d vo

lunt

eers

, and

from

a E

urop

ean

pers

pect

ive.

From

200

0 to

200

3, th

e E

urop

ean

Com

mis

sion

did

not

rece

ive

any

elig

ible

pro

po-

sal o

n th

e sp

ecifi

c to

pic.

Fin

ally,

this

yea

r, th

e ev

alua

tion

Com

mitt

ee o

f the

“cal

l for

prop

osal

on

mar

ine

pollu

tion”

rece

ived

an

elig

ible

pro

posa

l.

Com

mun

ity In

form

atio

n Sy

stem

The

goal

of t

he C

omm

unity

Info

rmat

ion

Sys

tem

(CIS

), on

our

web

site

, is

to p

rovi

dea

mod

ern

oper

atio

nal t

ool f

or th

ose

dire

ctly

invo

lved

in re

spon

ding

to a

ccid

enta

l pol

-lu

tion.

Thi

s sy

stem

is c

ompo

sed

of a

Com

mun

ity h

ome

page

and

of N

atio

nal h

ome

page

s.

The

inte

rnet

si

te

(http

://eu

ropa

.eu.

int/c

omm

/env

ironm

ent/c

ivil/

mar

pol-

cis/

inde

x.ht

m) c

onta

ins

gene

ral b

ackg

roun

d in

form

atio

n at

Com

mun

ity le

vel o

n th

eC

omm

unity

hom

e pa

ge, a

nd in

form

atio

n re

late

d to

nat

iona

l int

erve

ntio

n re

sour

ces

on th

e N

atio

nal h

ome

page

s.E

ach

natio

nal h

ome

page

con

tain

s th

e C

ount

ry p

rofil

e w

ith th

e co

rres

pond

ing

orga

-ni

satio

n in

the

field

of r

espo

nse

to m

arin

e po

llutio

n, th

e lo

catio

n of

equ

ipm

ent f

orde

alin

g w

ith m

arin

e po

llutio

n, th

e in

vent

ory

of m

ain

mea

ns, a

nd o

ther

rele

vant

info

r-m

atio

n th

at is

intro

duce

d by

the

resp

onsi

ble

natio

nal a

utho

ritie

s.In

the

exis

ting

natio

nal h

ome

page

s, y

ou w

ill fi

nd a

spe

cial

sec

tion

for

the

anim

alw

elfa

re.


28

Rol

e of

Eur

opea

n U

nion

Th

e E

urop

ean

Com

mis

sion

will

enc

oura

ge th

e M

embe

r Sta

tes

in d

evel

opin

g a

wild

-lif

e re

spon

se p

lan,

whi

ch s

houl

d be

par

t of e

ach

Nat

iona

l Con

tinge

ncy

Pla

n to

dea

lw

ith m

arin

e po

llutio

n em

erge

ncie

s at

sea

and

on

the

coas

t. Le

sson

s le

arnt

afte

rca

tast

roph

ic e

vent

s su

ch a

s E

rika

and

Pre

stig

e sh

ow u

s th

e re

leva

nt im

pact

on

the

mar

ine

wild

life.

For

thes

e re

ason

s, th

e E

urop

ean

Com

mis

sion

will

dev

elop

act

ions

,as

follo

ws:

• sup

porti

ng fu

rther

inte

grat

ion

of o

iled

wild

life

resp

onse

into

ove

rall

spill

resp

on-

se in

Eur

ope;

• enc

oura

ging

the

com

mun

icat

ion,

coo

rdin

atio

n, a

nd c

oope

ratio

n am

ong

inte

rna-

tiona

l org

anis

atio

ns to

sha

re in

form

atio

n an

d ex

perie

nces

in p

rovi

ding

ass

ista

n-ce

to o

iled

sea-

anim

als;

• pr

omot

ing

the

deve

lopm

ent

and

acce

ptan

ce o

f be

st p

ract

ices

in o

iled

wild

life

care

and

to d

evel

op a

com

mon

pro

toco

l for

the

resp

onse

;• s

uppo

rting

the

activ

ities

of t

he N

GO

s in

this

fiel

d.

Bef

ore

I con

clud

e m

y sh

ort p

rese

ntat

ion,

I w

ould

like

to u

nder

line

the

impo

rtant

role

of th

e gu

idel

ines

on

“Oile

d W

ildlif

e R

espo

nse

Pla

nnin

g” p

ublis

hed

by IP

IEG

A, w

hich

focu

s on

the

spec

ific

effe

cts

of o

il on

wild

life

and

on r

ehab

ilita

tion

of s

ea-a

nim

als

affe

cted

by

oil.

I thi

nk, i

t is

an u

sefu

l too

l for

oil

spill

man

ager

s an

d go

vern

men

tal

offic

ials

, w

hich

can

be

used

to

mak

e im

porta

nt d

ecis

ions

in t

he a

fterm

ath

of a

nse

rious

oil

spill

.

Than

k yo

u ve

ry m

uch

for y

our a

ttent

ion.

Mr.

John

Øst

erga

ard

Inte

rnat

iona

l Mar

itim

e O

rgan

izat

ion

Ladi

es a

nd G

entle

men

,

Firs

tly, I

wou

ld li

ke to

than

k yo

u fo

r the

ver

y w

arm

wel

com

e he

re to

Bal

brig

gan

and

to Ir

elan

d.S

econ

dly,

als

o a

war

m th

ank

you

for i

nviti

ng th

e In

tern

atio

nal M

ariti

me

Org

aniz

atio

nto

atte

nd th

is T

hird

Sea

Ala

rm C

onfe

renc

e on

resp

onse

to o

iled

wild

life.

Third

ly, o

n be

half

of M

r. E

fthim

ios

Mitr

opou

los,

the

Sec

reta

ry-G

ener

al o

f th

eIn

tern

atio

nal

Mar

itim

e O

rgan

izat

ion,

I a

m h

onou

red

to a

ccep

t th

is s

ampl

e of

“A

Gui

de to

Oile

d W

ildlif

e R

espo

nse

Pla

nnin

g”.

At t

he s

ame

time

it gi

ves

me

grea

t ple

asur

e to

con

grat

ulat

e IP

IEC

Aan

d in

par

ticu-

lar

Sea

Ala

rm F

ound

atio

n w

ith th

e pr

epar

atio

n of

this

exc

elle

nt a

nd w

ell-b

alan

ced

publ

icat

ion

that

pro

vide

s gu

idan

ce o

n on

e of

the

mos

t con

trove

rsia

l iss

ues

in c

on-

nect

ion

with

oil

spill

s at

sea

.IM

O h

as w

ith a

ppre

ciat

ion

note

d th

at th

is n

ew p

ublic

atio

n w

ill b

e di

strib

uted

as

ane

w “f

amily

mem

ber”

and

vol

ume

thirt

een

of th

e fa

mou

s IP

IEC

AR

epor

t Ser

ies

that

has

brou

ght

enlig

hten

men

t an

d kn

owle

dge

on o

il sp

ill c

ontin

genc

y pl

anni

ng a

ndre

late

d m

atte

rs to

a h

uge

num

ber o

f peo

ple

arou

nd th

e w

orld

.A

s yo

u al

l are

aw

are,

the

mot

to o

f IM

O is

Sec

ure

and

safe

r shi

ppin

g on

cle

aner

oce

-an

s. T

o th

at e

ffect

mor

e th

an 5

0 in

tern

atio

nal c

onve

ntio

ns, c

odes

and

regu

latio

nsha

ve b

een

deve

lope

d an

d im

plem

ente

d.

This

tre

men

dous

effo

rt by

the

IM

OM

embe

r S

tate

s ha

s re

sulte

d in

a s

tead

y re

duct

ion

of a

ll ki

nd o

f acc

iden

ts a

t sea

,w

hich

had

the

pote

ntia

l of c

reat

ing

seve

re o

il po

llutio

n.D

espi

te th

is s

tead

y re

duct

ion

in a

ccid

ents

at s

ea a

nd th

e co

nseq

uent

ial r

educ

tion

of o

ilsp

ills o

ver t

he la

st tw

o de

cade

s, o

il sp

ills s

till h

appe

n ar

ound

the

wor

ld a

nd u

nfor

tuna

te-

ly, re

gard

less

of t

heir

sour

ce o

r siz

e, it

is v

ery

likel

y th

at th

ere

will

be w

ildlife

cas

ualtie

s.In

cas

es o

f big

acc

iden

ts a

t sea

ther

e w

ill n

orm

ally

be

a w

arni

ng th

at w

ill p

rovi

de fo

rth

e ne

cess

ary

time

to a

llow

the

natio

nal r

espo

nsib

le a

utho

ritie

s to

pre

pare

for

the

rece

ptio

n an

d tre

atm

ent o

f oile

d w

ildlif

e.


29

In c

ases

of o

pera

tiona

l or i

llega

l dis

char

ges,

ther

e m

ight

not

be

any

war

ning

at a

ll,th

e fir

st in

dica

tions

that

som

ethi

ng is

wro

ng b

eing

the

appe

aran

ce o

f oile

d w

ildlif

eca

sual

ties

on th

e be

ache

s or

the

obse

rvat

ion

of o

ily b

irds

at s

ea.

Whe

ther

the

num

bers

of o

iled

bird

s ar

e fe

w o

r co

unte

d in

tens

of t

hous

ands

, the

prob

lem

has

to b

e de

alt w

ith b

oth

from

a h

uman

itaria

n an

d a

cons

erva

tion

poin

t of

view

.A

ll w

ho h

ave

wat

ched

pro

gram

mes

or n

ews

on o

il sp

ills

at s

ea h

ave

note

d th

e sp

e-ci

al e

ffect

oile

d w

ildlif

e ha

s on

the

gene

ral p

opul

atio

n in

par

ticul

ar in

our

par

t of t

hew

orld

. M

ost p

eopl

e ge

t ver

y up

set a

nd th

e pi

ctur

e of

one

or o

f tho

usan

ds o

f oile

dw

ildlif

e ca

n m

obili

se a

lot o

f peo

ple

as in

divi

dual

s or

as

mem

bers

of v

ario

us g

roup

sw

ith a

n ag

enda

on

wild

life

or e

nviro

nmen

t pro

tect

ion.

Som

e of

thos

e in

divi

dual

s or

gro

ups

are

prep

ared

to a

ssis

t whi

le o

ther

s ju

st w

ant t

om

ake

a pr

otes

t aga

inst

the

trans

porta

tion

of o

il in

gen

eral

or t

o in

terfe

re w

ith th

e oi

lsp

ill r

espo

nse

effo

rt.

The

med

ia is

fully

aw

are

of th

e po

tent

ial o

f goo

d pi

ctur

es o

rvi

deo

clip

s of

oile

d w

ildlif

e an

d ve

ry o

ften

pays

a d

ispr

opor

tiona

te a

ttent

ion

to th

ew

ildlif

e pr

oble

m in

an

oil s

pill

inci

dent

.A

n im

porta

nt p

art o

f a n

atio

nal o

r lo

cal o

il sp

ill c

ontin

genc

y pl

an s

houl

d th

eref

ore

cove

r th

e re

spon

se to

oile

d w

ildlif

e an

d sh

ould

incl

ude

pre-

spill

def

ined

obj

ectiv

esth

at c

an b

e im

plem

ente

d on

ver

y sh

ort

notic

e in

a t

imel

y, h

uman

itaria

n, e

ffect

ive

and

effic

ient

man

ner.

M

ost n

atio

nal r

espo

nsib

le A

utho

ritie

s ha

ve n

ow a

ccep

ted

that

wild

life

resp

onse

pla

n-ni

ng s

houl

d be

an

inte

grat

ed p

art o

f oil

spill

cont

inge

ncy

plan

ning

as

it ot

herw

ise

will

be a

ver

y tim

e co

nsum

ing

issu

e to

dea

l with

dur

ing

the

resp

onse

to a

n oi

l spi

ll.

In t

his

rega

rd,

I am

ple

ased

to

info

rm t

hat

the

revi

sed

IMO

Mod

el C

ours

es o

nre

spon

se t

o oi

l spi

lls a

re n

ow in

clud

ing

a de

dica

ted

sess

ion

on w

ildlif

e re

spon

sepl

anni

ng.

In

the

earli

er I

MO

Mod

el c

ours

es,

wild

life

resp

onse

pla

nnin

g w

as i

nge

nera

l con

side

red

in c

onne

ctio

n w

ith b

each

cle

anin

g op

erat

ions

.U

nfor

tuna

tely,

I ha

ve to

adm

it, th

at th

ere

are

plac

es a

roun

d th

e w

orld

, whe

re th

eis

sue

of o

iled

wild

life

in c

onne

ctio

n w

ith a

maj

or o

il sp

ill is

giv

en le

ss a

ttent

ion

than

is t

he c

ase

here

in E

urop

e an

d of

cou

rse

from

an

IMO

poi

nt o

f vi

ew w

e ha

ve t

oba

lanc

e ou

r tra

inin

g ef

forts

to re

flect

the

natio

nal c

ircum

stan

ces.

How

ever

, as

Eur

ope

and

in p

artic

ular

Nor

thw

est E

urop

e in

mos

t cas

es re

late

d to

oil

spill

pre

pare

dnes

s, r

espo

nse

and

co-o

pera

tion

has

been

in

the

lead

and

has

dem

onst

rate

d to

the

rest

of t

he w

orld

how

to r

espo

nd to

all

kind

s an

d si

zes

of o

ilsp

ills,

I a

m c

onfid

ent

that

als

o th

e E

urop

ean

mod

el f

or r

espo

nse

to o

iled

wild

life

over

the

year

s w

ill b

ecom

e an

inte

rnat

iona

l sta

ndar

d.I w

ish

you

all a

suc

cess

ful c

onfe

renc

e an

d I h

ope

that

the

conc

lusi

ons

and

reco

m-

men

datio

ns o

f th

is C

onfe

renc

e w

ill f

acili

tate

and

pro

mot

e an

effe

ctiv

e an

d m

ore

hum

anita

rian

appr

oach

for t

he tr

eatm

ent o

f oile

d w

ildlif

e ar

ound

the

wor

ld.

Than

k yo

u


Dr.

Tosh

Möl

ler

Man

agin

g D

irect

or o

f the

Inte

rnat

iona

l Ta

nker

Ow

ners

Pol

lutio

n Fe

dera

tion

Ltd

(ITO

PF)

Oile

d W

ildlif

e R

espo

nse

in E

urop

eC

hairm

an, L

adie

s an

d G

entle

men

, it i

s a

plea

sure

for m

e an

d an

hon

our f

or IT

OP

Fto

be

invi

ted

to g

ive

the

keyn

ote

addr

ess

at th

is, t

he T

hird

Sea

Ala

rm C

onfe

renc

e.W

e ha

ve fo

llow

ed th

e de

velo

pmen

t of S

ea A

larm

from

ear

ly s

teps

to th

e hi

gh le

vel

of c

ompe

tenc

e th

at th

e or

gani

satio

n of

this

inte

rnat

iona

l con

fere

nce

clea

rly d

emon

-st

rate

s.

In th

e co

urse

of a

ttend

ing

som

e 50

0 oi

l spi

lls in

90

coun

tries

in th

e la

st 3

0 ye

ars,

we

have

see

n m

any

exam

ples

of

how

oil

spill

s af

fect

wild

life.

Th

e pe

ople

and

grou

ps o

f pe

ople

eng

aged

in w

ildlif

e pr

otec

tion

and

reha

bilit

atio

n ar

e m

any

and

varie

d. A

t ITO

PF

we

have

reco

gnis

ed th

e va

lue

of S

ea A

larm

’s a

ppro

ach

of tr

ying

to c

o-or

dina

te a

nd in

tegr

ate

the

effo

rts o

f diff

eren

t gro

ups

and

we

are

plea

sed

toha

ve b

een

able

to p

artic

ipat

e in

this

end

eavo

ur b

y co

-spo

nsor

ing

the

conf

eren

ce.

This

Con

fere

nce

is a

bout

con

tinge

ncy

plan

ning

, a s

ubje

ct th

at is

cen

tral t

o th

e su

c-ce

ss o

r fa

ilure

of t

he r

espo

nse

to o

il sp

ills.

S

o, it

is n

o co

inci

denc

e th

at th

e pr

o-gr

amm

e lo

oks

fam

iliar

to th

ose

of u

s in

the

spill

resp

onse

com

mun

ity.

It al

so m

eans

that

ther

e is

a lo

t to

draw

upo

n in

term

s of

exp

erie

nce

accu

mul

ated

ove

r th

e la

stth

irty

year

s, a

nd m

uch

of i

t is

ver

y re

leva

nt t

o P

repa

redn

ess

for

Oile

d W

ildlif

eR

espo

nse

in E

urop

e, th

e th

eme

for

the

pres

enta

tions

and

our

dis

cuss

ions

dur

ing

the

next

thre

e da

ys.

Wild

life

will

be

at c

entre

sta

ge in

our

del

iber

atio

ns, a

nd le

t us

rem

embe

r tha

t it i

s no

tju

st a

sto

ry o

f doo

m a

nd g

loom

. A

s bi

olog

ists

, we

reco

gnis

e th

e in

nate

toug

hnes

sof

the

natu

ral w

orld

and

the

capa

city

for r

egen

erat

ion

and

reco

very

that

cha

ract

eri-

AN

NE

X 4

KE

YN

OTE

AD

RE

SS

ES

se li

ving

sys

tem

s. T

here

is e

very

reas

on to

be

optim

istic

if in

tere

sted

par

ties

com

-m

unic

ate

and

ackn

owle

dge

that

ther

e is

wor

k to

be

done

to s

afeg

uard

the

envi

ron-

men

t and

min

imis

e th

e ris

ks o

f oil

pollu

tion

and

its e

ffect

s.I w

ant t

o id

entif

y th

e fo

ur c

orne

rsto

nes

whi

ch u

nder

pin

this

Con

fere

nce:

the

risk

ofoi

l spi

lls; p

repa

redn

ess

for d

ealin

g w

ith o

iled

wild

life;

the

deve

lopm

ent a

nd m

aint

e-na

nce

of p

artn

ersh

ips;

and

see

ing

oile

d w

ildlif

e is

sues

in th

eir p

rope

r per

spec

tive.

In S

essi

on 1

we

will

be

look

ing

at s

ome

key

inci

dent

s, p

rinci

pally

in E

urop

e, to

set

the

scen

e an

d to

rem

ind

ours

elve

s of

the

issu

es to

be

addr

esse

d as

we

go th

roug

h.W

e ca

n se

e fro

m o

il sp

ill s

tatis

tics

com

pile

d by

ITO

PF

over

the

last

30-

odd

year

sth

at th

ere

is a

ver

y m

arke

d do

wnw

ard

trend

in th

e nu

mbe

r of m

ajor

oil

spill

s w

orld

-w

ide.

Tha

t tre

nd is

als

o ap

pare

nt w

hen

we

look

at t

he a

mou

nt o

f oile

d sp

illed

.

We

can

also

see

how

sig

nific

ant s

ome

key

inci

dent

s ar

e in

dom

inat

ing

the

data

set.

It on

ly ta

kes

one

maj

or in

cide

nt s

uch

as th

e Pr

estig

e, fo

r the

gra

ph to

sho

ot u

p. A

sw

e al

l kno

w th

ere

is a

cor

resp

ondi

ngly

dra

mat

ic r

eact

ion

from

the

med

ia a

nd th

epu

blic

. W

e ha

ve a

lso

lear

nt th

at e

ven

a sm

all s

pill

such

as

an il

lega

l dis

char

ge c

anca

use

havo

c fo

r sea

bird

s, a

s de

mon

stra

ted

from

tim

e to

tim

e in

Eur

opea

n w

ater

s.

It is

not

onl

y th

e nu

mbe

r of s

pills

and

the

amou

nt s

pille

d th

at m

atte

rs; t

here

is a

lso

the

type

of o

il to

con

side

r. T

he P

rest

ige

inci

dent

was

yet

ano

ther

exa

mpl

e de

mon

-st

ratin

g th

at h

eavy

fuel

oil

(HFO

) is

the

blac

kest

and

ugl

iest

of t

hem

all.

Pre

stig

ew

as c

arry

ing

HFO

exp

orte

d fro

m R

ussi

a, a

fact

that

is v

ery

sign

ifica

nt if

you

con

si-

der

the

trend

in

Eur

opea

n oi

l im

ports

. I

n th

e la

st d

ecad

e, E

urop

ean

crud

e oi

lim

ports

from

Rus

sia

have

dou

bled

eve

ry fi

ve y

ears

. O

ver t

he s

ame

perio

d im

ports

from

the

Mid

dle

Eas

t, A

frica

and

the

Am

eric

as h

ave

decl

ined

.Th

e ke

y oi

l tra

nspo

rtatio

n ro

utes

in E

urop

ean

wat

ers

whi

ch a

re e

xpan

ding

as

are

sult

of th

e in

crea

sed

tank

er tr

affic

from

Rus

sia

go p

ast N

orw

ay, a

nd th

roug

h th

eB

altic

Sea

and

the

Turk

ish

Stra

its.

In a

dditi

on, i

t is

antic

ipat

ed th

at s

igni

fican

t oil

expo

rts w

ill f

low

fro

m p

ipel

ine

term

inal

s in

Cey

han,

Tur

key

and

Om

isal

j, C

roat

ia,

ther

eby

alte

ring

oil t

rans

porta

tion

patte

rns

in th

e M

edite

rran

ean.

The

grou

ndin

g of

the

bul

k ca

rrie

r Jo

hn R

in t

he n

orth

ern

Nor

weg

ian

arch

ipel

ago

give

s an

idea

of h

ow s

erio

us a

maj

or o

il sp

ill w

ould

be

in a

sub

-arc

tic e

nviro

nmen

t.Th

e br

oken

coa

stlin

e is

dom

inat

ed b

y ro

ck, b

ould

ers

and

pebb

les,

the

mos

t diff

icul

tty

pe o

f sh

orel

ine

to c

lean

. A

s an

exa

mpl

e of

wild

life

sens

itivi

ties

in t

his

regi

on,

Nor

way

hos

ts 9

0% o

f th

e E

urop

ean

win

ter

popu

latio

n of

the

whi

te-b

illed

div

er(G

avia

ada

msi

i).

Prep

ared

ness

– w

hy is

it im

porta

nt?

Thi

s a

ques

tion

put t

o us

in S

essi

on 2

of t

heC

onfe

renc

e pr

ogra

mm

e. T

he w

ildlife

resp

onse

to th

e Tr

easu

re in

cide

nt in

Sou

thA

frica

in J

uly

2000

ser

ves

as a

goo

d ex

ampl

e of

wha

t can

be

achi

eved

by

coor

dina

ted

actio

n. A

tota

l of 2

8,50

0 pe

ngui

ns (S

peni

scus

dem

ersi

i) w

ere

hand

led

and

20,0

00

30


31

oile

d bi

rds

wer

e ca

ptur

ed fo

r cle

anin

g. O

f the

se le

ss th

an 1

0% s

uccu

mbe

d w

hils

tth

e re

st w

ere

succ

essf

ully

reha

bilit

ated

. S

uch

succ

ess

does

not

com

e w

ithou

t goo

dor

gani

satio

n an

d pr

epar

edne

ss.

The

Inte

rnat

iona

l Con

vent

ion

on O

il P

ollu

tion

Pre

pare

dnes

s, R

espo

nse

& C

o-op

e-ra

tion

- O

PR

C 1

990

prov

ides

the

mod

el a

nd fr

amew

ork

for

adva

nce

and

deve

lop-

men

t in

the

field

of o

il sp

ill r

espo

nse.

It

enco

urag

es c

o-op

erat

ion

betw

een

gove

r-nm

ents

and

, mos

t sig

nific

antly

, bet

wee

n go

vern

men

ts a

nd in

dust

ry.

In a

dditi

on, w

eha

ve v

ario

us m

ultil

ater

al a

gree

men

ts b

etw

een

stat

es w

hich

are

of k

ey im

porta

nce

at a

regi

onal

leve

l.

In S

essi

on 3

, we

will

be

hear

ing

abou

t the

com

pens

atio

n sy

stem

in p

lace

for t

anke

rsp

ills.

The

Civ

il Li

abili

ty a

nd F

und

Con

vent

ions

pro

vide

a fr

amew

ork

for

fair

com

-pe

nsat

ion

in th

e ev

ent o

f oils

spi

lls fr

om ta

nker

s. R

ecen

t inc

iden

ts p

oint

the

way

for

ensu

ring

that

rea

sona

ble

wild

life

resp

onse

act

ivity

is in

clud

ed w

ithin

that

fram

ew-

ork.

Ses

sion

4 is

abo

ut n

etw

orki

ng, d

evel

opin

g an

d m

aint

aini

ng p

artn

ersh

ips.

Thi

s is

inm

any

way

s th

e m

ost i

mpo

rtant

issu

e. T

he p

rese

nce

here

to-d

ay o

f so

man

y of

the

wild

life

resp

onse

gro

ups

in E

urop

e re

flect

s th

e su

cces

sful

col

labo

ratio

n en

cour

aged

by S

ea A

larm

in re

cent

yea

rs.

The

chal

leng

e lie

s in

eng

agin

g th

e ac

tive

parti

cipa

-tio

n of

indu

stry

and

gov

ernm

ent i

n st

rivin

g fo

r bet

ter p

repa

redn

ess

for d

ealin

g w

ithoi

led

wild

life.

Und

erst

andi

ng e

nviro

nmen

tal p

roce

sses

is o

f vita

l im

porta

nce.

Thi

s ap

plie

s to

bot

hw

ildlif

e an

d oi

l. A

t ITO

PF,

we

ofte

n en

coun

ter i

gnor

ance

and

mis

conc

eptio

ns w

hich

lead

to

mis

take

s be

ing

mad

e an

d th

e w

aste

of

limite

d re

sour

ces.

Th

e U

nite

dN

atio

ns G

roup

of E

xper

ts o

n th

e S

cien

tific

Asp

ects

of M

arin

e P

ollu

tion

(GE

SA

MP

)ha

s id

entif

ied

the

25 m

ost s

igni

fican

t thr

eats

to th

e m

arin

e en

viro

nmen

t fro

m la

nd-

base

d ac

tivity

. O

il sp

ills

are

incl

uded

, but

in th

eir p

rope

r con

text

.

This

is n

ot to

say

that

the

ship

ping

and

oil

indu

stry

has

got

its

act t

oget

her,

nor a

mI

sayi

ng t

hat

thes

e in

dust

ries

affe

ct t

he m

arin

e en

viro

nmen

t on

ly b

y sp

illin

g oi

l.W

hat I

am

say

ing

- as

a m

arin

e bi

olog

ist -

is th

at o

il sp

ills

rece

ive

a de

gree

of p

ublic

and

polit

ical

atte

ntio

n ou

t of p

ropo

rtion

to th

e th

reat

that

they

pos

e to

the

mar

ine

envi

ronm

ent.

In c

oncl

usio

n, o

iled

wild

life

resp

onse

is u

nden

iabl

y a

soci

al a

nd a

pol

itica

l iss

ue, b

utw

e m

ust n

ever

lose

sig

ht o

f the

fact

that

it is

fund

amen

tally

a s

cien

ce-b

ased

sub

-je

ct a

nd th

ere

is a

nee

d to

tem

per

com

pass

ion

with

dis

pass

iona

te a

sses

smen

t, in

orde

r to

arriv

e at

opt

imum

sol

utio

ns.

Mr.

Han

s va

n R

ooij

Man

agin

g D

irect

or, S

MIT

Sal

vage

B.V

.Pr

esid

ent,

Inte

rnat

iona

l Sal

vage

Uni

on

Res

ourc

ing

prev

entio

n an

d cl

ean-

up:

getti

ng th

e ba

lanc

e rig

ht•

Spi

ll cl

ean-

up s

ucce

ss r

ates

are

low

yet

Coa

stal

Sta

tes

are

prep

ared

to

inve

sthe

avily

in p

ollu

tion

resp

onse

. In

cont

rast

, the

y ha

ve li

ttle

or n

o in

clin

atio

n to

inve

stin

spi

ll pr

even

tion

thro

ugh

salv

age,

des

pite

the

fact

that

sal

vors

, mor

e of

ten

than

not,

are

100

per c

ent s

ucce

ssfu

l in

prev

entin

g en

viro

nmen

tal d

amag

e.

• Ove

r the

pas

t dec

ade,

sal

vors

hav

e re

cove

red

over

11

mill

ion

tonn

es o

f pol

luta

nts

from

mor

e th

an 2

,000

cas

ualti

es. T

his

incl

udes

nea

rly n

ine

mill

ion

tonn

es o

f cru

deoi

l (th

e eq

uiva

lent

of o

ver 1

00 s

pills

of P

rest

ige

size

).•

The

Pres

tige

was

ref

used

a s

afe

have

n an

d la

ter

brok

e up

and

san

k. T

his

pollu

-tio

n ca

tast

roph

e w

ill c

ost a

t lea

st 1

.5 b

illio

n eu

ro a

nd, p

ossi

bly,

muc

h m

ore.

In c

on-

trast

, a

salv

age

oper

atio

n an

d cl

ean-

up a

nd c

ompe

nsat

ion

aris

ing

from

a m

ore

mod

est s

pill

at th

e pl

ace

of re

fuge

wou

ld h

ave

cost

no

mor

e th

an 5

0 m

illio

n eu

ro.

•In

the

USA

, OPA

90 sp

awne

d a

huge

clea

n-up

/resp

onse

indu

stry

, but

little

act

ion

was

take

nto

rein

forc

e sa

lvage

cov

er. T

he U

SAst

ill re

lies

on th

e av

aila

bility

of a

“tug

of o

ppor

tuni

ty”.

• In

Eur

ope,

man

y C

oast

al S

tate

s pr

efer

the

extra

sec

urity

of r

etai

ned

salva

ge s

ervic

es,

inclu

ding

the

stat

ioni

ng o

f larg

e Em

erge

ncy

Tow

ing

Vess

els

(ETV

s), a

t stra

tegi

c lo

catio

ns.

• The

re is

als

o a

grow

ing

appr

ecia

tion,

in g

over

nmen

tal c

ircle

s, o

f the

sig

nific

ance

of th

e sa

lvor

s’fro

nt li

ne ro

le in

pre

vent

ing

pollu

tion.

Unf

ortu

nate

ly, h

owev

er, t

here

are

sign

s th

at th

e ne

wly

-cre

ated

Eur

opea

n M

ariti

me

Saf

ety

Age

ncy

has

yet t

o ta

keth

is p

oint

on

boar

d. E

MS

Aap

pear

s m

ore

inte

rest

ed in

the

Am

eric

an a

ppro

ach:

all

reso

urce

s di

rect

ed a

t cle

an-u

p an

d lit

tle o

r not

hing

for s

alva

ge.

• It i

s vi

tal t

o ge

t the

bal

ance

righ

t. Pr

ovis

ion

mus

t be

mad

e fo

r cle

an-u

p, in

the

even

t of

an a

ccid

ent

and

spill.

At

the

sam

e tim

e, h

owev

er,

appr

opria

te p

rovi

sion

sho

uld

bem

ade

for s

alva

ge, t

o re

duce

the

chan

ce o

f a m

ajor

spi

ll whe

n m

arin

e ac

cide

nts

occu

r.•

With

out a

n ap

prop

riate

sha

re o

f ava

ilabl

e re

sour

ces,

the

cost

-effe

ctiv

e sp

ill p

re-

vent

ion

serv

ice

now

pro

vide

d by

sal

vors

will

det

erio

rate

. Thi

s im

plie

s an

incr

ease

in th

e nu

mbe

r of s

igni

fican

t spi

lls a

nd a

ssoc

iate

d co

sts.


32

Ms.

Sop

hie

Le D

réan

-Qué

-nec

’hdu

(1),

Anne

-Lau

re D

ugué

(2),

Emm

a-nu

el R

isi (

1),N

adin

e Ri

gaud

eau

(2)

(1) C

entr

e de

Soi

ns d

e la

Fau

ne S

auva

ge,

Ecol

e N

atio

nale

Vét

érin

aire

de

Nan

tes

(2) L

igue

pou

r la

Pro

tect

ion

des

Ois

eaux

The

resp

onse

to o

iled

bird

s in

the

afte

rmat

h of

the

Erik

aw

reck

ing

The

Erika

tank

er w

as w

reck

ed o

n 12

th D

ecem

ber 1

999,

70

km fr

om th

e So

uth

Fini

ster

reco

ast (

Brita

nny,

Fran

ce) w

ith h

eavy

fuel

oil

on b

oard

. Ten

thou

sand

tonn

es o

f oil

spilt

inth

e At

lant

ic O

cean

and

ove

r 400

km

of c

oast

wer

e af

fect

ed. T

he fi

rst o

iled

bird

was

foun

don

14t

h D

ecem

ber,

by w

hich

tim

e fo

ur w

ildlif

e ce

ntre

s w

ere

alre

ady

wor

king

on

the

Atla

ntic

coas

t, tw

o sp

ecia

lisin

gin

oile

d bi

rd re

scue

(Allo

uville

Bel

lefo

sse

Cen

tre a

nd L

’Ile

Gra

nde

Cen

tre).

In o

rder

to tr

eat t

he E

rika

oile

d bi

rds,

the

othe

r res

cue

cent

res

(Vet

erin

ary

Scho

olof

Nan

tes

and

Lorie

nt C

entre

) had

to c

onve

rt th

eir f

acilit

ies

and

to o

rgan

ise

the

man

age-

men

t of t

hous

ands

of b

irds.

Som

e ot

her r

escu

e ce

ntre

s ha

d to

be

set u

p qu

ickl

y to

rece

i-ve

the

oile

d bi

rds.

Mor

e th

an 6

6,30

0 in

divi

dual

s w

ere

colle

cted

into

thes

e ce

ntre

s, 3

3,40

0of

whi

ch w

here

aliv

e. O

nly

6% o

f the

m w

ere

rele

ased

afte

r tre

atm

ent.

The

first

oile

d bi

rds

wer

e br

ough

t to

the

Ligu

e po

ur la

Pro

tect

ion

des

Ois

eaux

(LPO

) bird

resc

ue c

entre

of L

’Ile

Gra

nde.

Thi

s or

gani

satio

n be

gan

to li

st th

e bi

rd in

take

s. G

iven

the

exte

nt o

f the

dam

age

and

the

impo

rtant

influ

x of

bird

s, a

”fau

na p

lan”

was

pro

pose

d by

the

natio

nal L

PO, a

fter a

mee

ting

on 1

7th

Dec

embe

r. Th

is p

lan

was

then

pre

sent

ed to

,an

d ac

cept

ed b

y, th

e M

inis

try o

f Env

ironm

ent a

t the

end

of D

ecem

ber.

The

plan

list

edth

e di

ffere

nt o

iled

bird

trea

tmen

t pro

toco

ls a

vaila

ble

and

the

bird

mov

emen

ts in

the

dif-

fere

nt re

scue

cen

tres.

Eve

ry d

ay, t

he n

umbe

r of d

ead,

aliv

e an

d re

leas

ed b

irds

wer

e lis

-te

d an

d se

nt b

etw

een

the

diffe

rent

resc

ue c

entre

s.

Giv

en th

e ex

tent

of t

he p

ollu

tion,

man

y te

mpo

rary

wild

life

faci

litie

s w

ere

built

: res

cue

cent

res,

tran

sit c

entre

s, m

edic

al tr

ansi

t cen

tres,

clo

se to

the

colle

ctio

n po

ints

. As

a re

sult

of th

e gr

eat n

umbe

r of t

empo

rary

faci

litie

s, a

firs

t tria

ge w

as a

llow

ed. H

owev

er, o

iled

bird

trans

port

and

com

mun

icat

ion

betw

een

faci

litie

s be

cam

e di

fficu

lt be

caus

e of

the

anar

-

AN

NE

X 5

RE

CE

NT

INC

IDE

NTS

chic

al d

evel

opm

ent o

f res

pond

er fa

cilit

ies

and

orga

nisa

tions

. Ano

ther

pro

blem

was

the

avai

labi

lity

of re

leva

nt p

eopl

e ca

pabl

e of

and

ent

itled

to m

anag

e w

ildlif

e ce

ntre

s. M

edia

man

agem

ent c

hang

ed w

ith th

e ex

tent

of t

he c

risis

. The

n, tr

eatm

ent a

nd r

ehab

ilitat

ion

prot

ocol

s im

prov

ed q

uick

ly, th

anks

to p

eopl

e’s

expe

rienc

e an

d re

latio

ns b

etw

een

Fren

chan

d th

e nu

mer

ous

fore

ign

vete

rinar

ians

and

resp

onde

rs.

From

a fi

nanc

ial p

oint

of v

iew,

Fra

nce

has

a pl

an o

f act

ion

calle

d th

e PO

MAR

PLA

N.

Than

ks to

this

, in

case

of o

il sp

ills, t

he S

tate

is a

ble

to s

uppo

rt th

e fin

anci

al c

osts

of t

hepo

llutio

n da

mag

e. A

ctua

lly, p

ublic

fina

ncin

g w

as g

iven

at t

he e

nd o

f Dec

embe

r and

50%

of th

e ex

pens

es w

ere

paid

bac

k on

e ye

ar la

ter.

Priv

ate

finan

cial

sup

port

was

rece

ived

from

TO

TAL

and

othe

r don

atio

ns. A

t the

beg

inni

ng o

f Jan

uary

, wild

life

resp

onde

rs w

ere

empl

oyed

tha

nks

to p

ublic

fin

anci

al s

uppo

rts.

The

finan

cial

am

ount

was

diff

eren

tbe

twee

n ad

min

istra

tive

area

s an

d fa

cilit

ies.

Mor

eove

r, lit

tle a

ssoc

iatio

ns, i

ndep

ende

nt fr

om la

rge

orga

nisa

tions

, had

ser

ious

fina

n-ci

al d

iffic

ultie

s an

d ha

d to

rece

ive

adva

nces

of m

oney

. Afte

r thi

s di

sast

er, f

unds

(1,5

mil-

lion

euro

s) w

ere

give

n to

impr

ove

and

crea

te w

ildlif

e ce

ntre

s.

Afte

r the

cris

is, m

any

mee

tings

wer

e or

gani

sed.

Bird

s in

take

s an

d re

leas

es w

ere

liste

d,a

guid

e to

oile

d w

ildlif

e re

spon

se p

lann

ing

and

wild

life

cent

re c

reat

ion

writ

ten.

Emer

genc

y fa

cilit

ies

wer

e cr

eate

d: o

ne b

y th

e LP

O, o

ne b

y Br

etag

ne V

ivan

te, a

nd o

neby

the

Fast

Oil

Spill

Team

(FO

ST).

Wild

life

Vet N

etw

orks

are

bei

ng s

et u

p in

man

y ad

mi-

nist

rativ

e ar

eas

in F

ranc

e.

The

com

pile

rs o

f PO

LMAR

pla

ns a

re n

ow in

stru

cted

to in

clude

wild

life fa

una.

The

refo

re,

the

Stat

e is

now

muc

h m

ore

impl

icate

d in

the

wild

life re

scue

in c

ase

of a

ccid

enta

l pol

lutio

n.

Fina

lly, t

he E

rika

wre

ck le

d to

the

treat

men

t and

rele

ase

of o

iled

bird

s. D

espi

te th

e lo

wnu

mbe

r of

rel

ease

s, s

ome

wer

e st

ill al

ive

som

e th

ree

year

s la

ter.

This

oil

spill

mad

epe

ople

con

scio

us o

f w

ildlif

e pr

oble

ms

and

of t

he w

ork

of w

ildlif

e fa

cilit

ies.

Agr

eat

resp

onse

occ

urre

d: a

lot o

f vol

unte

ers

turn

ed u

p to

cle

an th

e be

ache

s an

d to

take

car

eof

oile

d bi

rds,

a lo

t of o

rgan

isat

ions

hel

ped

man

age

the

cris

is, w

hile

man

y fir

ms

read

ilyga

ve s

peci

al e

quip

men

t. Fi

nanc

ial s

uppo

rt w

as m

ade

avai

labl

e to

mak

e sc

ient

ific

stu-

dies

on

the

effe

cts

of c

hron

ic a

nd a

cute

oilin

g on

wild

life.

Exc

hang

es b

etw

een

Fren

chan

d fo

reig

n or

gani

satio

ns, u

nive

rsiti

es, r

esea

rche

rs a

nd re

spon

ders

occ

urre

d, in

ord

erto

impr

ove

the

man

agem

ent o

f oile

d w

ildlif

e.

How

ever

, in

such

cas

es, i

t see

ms

to b

e ne

cess

ary

to im

prov

e co

ordi

natio

n be

twee

nw

ildlif

e ce

ntre

s, (

plac

es a

vaila

ble,

trea

tmen

t pro

toco

ls),

betw

een

colle

ctio

n po

ints

and

wild

life

cent

res

(info

rmat

ion

feed

-bac

k) a

nd b

etw

een

the

natio

nal r

espo

nse

and

wild

life

cent

res

(info

rmat

ion

feed

-bac

k). T

he e

quip

men

t at w

ildlif

e ce

ntre

s ha

s to

be

impr

oved

,te

achi

ng h

as to

be

carri

ed o

n an

d im

prov

ed w

ith tr

aini

ng. S

cien

tific

stu

dies

on

the

effe

cts

of o

il on

wild

life

have

to b

e m

anag

ed. F

inal

ly, in

ord

er to

impr

ove

the

man

agem

ent o

foi

led

bird

s, it

is n

eces

sary

to w

ork

on tr

iage

crit

eria

, acc

epte

d by

all

resp

onde

rs.


33

Mr.

Ant

onio

San

dova

l

Terr

anov

a

The

Pres

tige

oil s

pill

in G

alic

iaO

ver t

he p

ast 5

0 ye

ars,

11

serio

us o

il sp

ills

have

take

n pl

ace

in G

alic

ia (N

W S

pain

),th

e m

ost

impo

rtant

one

s -

as r

egar

ds v

olum

e sp

illed

- in

clud

e: P

olyc

omm

ande

r,19

70; U

rqui

ola,

197

6; A

ndro

s Pa

tria,

197

8;Ae

gean

Sea

, 199

2, P

rest

ige,

200

2.

On

13th

Nov

embe

r, 20

02,

the

oil t

anke

r Pr

estig

e, w

ith 7

7,00

0 to

nnes

of

fuel

on

boar

d, b

roke

dow

n of

f the

Gal

icia

n co

ast.

Six

day

s la

ter i

t spl

it in

two

som

e 20

0 ki

lo-

met

res

sout

h w

est A

Cor

uña.

Oil

bega

n to

esc

ape

imm

edia

tely,

and

ove

r the

follo

-w

ing

mon

ths

seve

rely

affe

cted

the

coas

tline

bet

wee

n N

orth

Por

tuga

l and

Fra

nce,

espe

cial

ly G

alic

ia’s

wes

tern

coa

st.

Dur

ing

the

first

wee

k of

the

cris

is,

the

Xun

ta d

e G

alic

ia (

Gal

icia

’s R

egio

nal

Gov

ernm

ent),

the

Spa

nish

Gov

ernm

ent,

loca

l, re

gion

al a

nd n

atio

nal n

atur

e or

gani

-sa

tions

(S

EO

/Bird

Life

, W

WF

and

othe

rs)

and

univ

ersi

ties

(AC

oruñ

a’s

Sci

ence

Facu

lty a

nd o

ther

s) i

mpl

emen

ted

a co

ordi

nate

d re

spon

se t

o co

llect

oil-

cove

red

faun

a on

the

coas

t and

take

it to

reha

bilit

atio

n ce

ntre

s. L

ivin

g sp

ecim

ens

wer

e th

entre

ated

, w

hile

dea

d sp

ecim

ens

wer

e su

bjec

t to

pos

t m

orte

m a

naly

sis.

Num

erou

sin

tern

atio

nal

inst

itutio

ns (

Sea

Ala

rm,

IFAW

and

oth

ers)

coo

pera

ted

activ

ely,

with

hum

an a

nd m

ater

ial r

esou

rces

, and

col

labo

rate

d cl

osel

y w

ith lo

cal o

rgan

isat

ions

.S

ubse

quen

tly, d

ue to

the

exte

nsio

n of

the

oil s

lick,

sim

ilar r

espo

nses

wer

e in

itiat

ed,

on th

e pa

rt of

thes

e an

d ot

her

grou

ps, i

n di

ffere

nt S

pani

sh r

egio

ns, a

s w

ell a

s in

Por

tuga

l and

Fra

nce

(See

Gar

cía

et a

l., 2

003

for m

ore

deta

ils).

From

16t

h N

ovem

ber,

2002

to

31st

Aug

ust,

2003

a t

otal

of

23,1

81 b

irds

(6,1

21al

ive)

, of 9

0 sp

ecie

s, w

ere

colle

cted

on

the

Por

tugu

ese,

Spa

nish

and

Fre

nch

coas

t-lin

es (G

arcí

a et

al.,

200

3). M

ore

than

50%

wer

e fo

und

in G

alic

ia. T

he m

ost a

ffect

ed

spec

ies

wer

e th

e co

mm

on g

uille

mot

(U

ria a

alge

) (5

1% o

f the

tota

l), r

azor

bill

(Alc

ato

rda)

(17%

) and

puf

fin (F

rate

rcul

a ar

ctic

a) (1

7%).

Ato

tal o

f 566

bird

s, 3

01 o

f whi

chw

ere

orig

inal

ly f

ound

in G

alic

ia,

wer

e re

leas

ed a

long

Spa

in’s

Can

tabr

ian-

Atla

ntic

coas

tline

afte

r be

ing

reha

bilit

ated

. R

eal

bird

mor

ality

was

est

imat

ed a

t be

twee

n11

5,00

0 an

d 25

0,00

0 (G

arcí

a et

al.,

200

3; A

rcos

et a

l., 2

004)

.

In 2

003,

the

Xun

ta d

e G

alic

ia a

ppro

ved

a “A

Bas

ic C

ontin

genc

y P

lan

for

Mar

ine

Con

tam

inat

ion”

, w

hich

res

ulte

d in

the

rec

ent

“Firs

t C

ontin

genc

y P

lan

for

Mar

ine

Con

tam

inat

ion

in G

alic

ian

Ria

s”. A

“Con

tinge

ncy

Pla

n fo

r Oil

Slic

ks A

ffect

ing

Mar

ine

Faun

a an

d P

rote

cted

Nat

ure

Res

erve

s” i

s cu

rren

tly b

eing

pre

pare

d, w

hile

wild

faun

a re

habi

litat

ion

cent

res

are

bein

g re

mod

elle

d.

Ref

eren

ces

Gar

cía

L.,

Viad

a C

., M

oren

o-O

po R

., C

arbo

nera

s C

., A

lcal

de A

. &

Gon

zále

z F.

2003

. Im

pact

of P

rest

ige

oil s

lick

on s

eabi

rds.

SE

O/B

irdLi

fe, M

adrid

.A

rcos

J.M

., Á

lvar

ez D

., Le

yend

a P.

, Mun

illa

I., V

elan

do A

. 200

4. S

eabi

rd m

orta

lity

caus

ed b

y th

e Pr

estig

eoi

l spi

ll: p

relim

inar

y in

sigh

t fro

m a

drif

t blo

cks

expe

rimen

t.P

oste

r pre

sent

ed a

t the

8th

Sea

bird

Gro

up M

eetin

g, A

berd

een,

Apr

il 2n

d-4t

h, 2

004.


34

Mr.

Cla

ude

Velte

rNa

ture

Div

isio

n of

the

Flem

ish

Gov

ernm

ent

Wild

life

Reha

bilit

atio

n Ce

ntre

in O

sten

d

The

Tric

olor

inci

dent

in B

elgi

um

The

Tric

olor

, a c

ar c

arrie

r not

a ta

nker

, was

wre

cked

in D

ecem

ber 2

002

afte

r col

li-si

on in

one

of t

he b

usie

st s

hipp

ing

rout

es o

f the

Sou

ther

n N

orth

Sea

and

blo

cked

the

sea

lane

for

seve

ral m

onth

s. T

owar

ds th

e en

d Ja

nuar

y 20

03, o

ne o

f the

shi

psac

tive

in t

he s

alva

ge o

pera

tions

acc

iden

tally

col

lided

with

the

ves

sel,

caus

ing

ava

lve

to b

reak

and

ca.

170

tonn

es o

f fue

l esc

aped

from

the

ship

,. Th

e sp

ill o

ccur

-re

d at

a ti

me

whe

n th

e hi

ghes

t sea

sona

l con

cent

ratio

n of

sea

bird

s w

ere

win

terin

gof

f the

Bel

gian

Coa

st. A

lthou

gh th

e co

ast i

s on

ly 6

0 km

long

, in

the

thre

e w

eeks

fol-

low

ing

the

inci

dent

, ove

r 10,

000

oile

d bi

rds

wer

e co

llect

ed, o

f whi

ch c

a. 4

6% w

ere

aliv

e. A

n es

timat

ed 1

% o

f the

bio

-geo

grap

hic

popu

latio

n of

com

mon

gui

llem

ot (U

riaaa

lge)

and

razo

rbill

(Alc

a to

rda)

die

d as

a re

sult

of in

cide

nt.

The

follo

win

g da

ta c

hara

cter

ise

the

resp

onse

:• T

he c

ity o

f Ost

end

and

mili

tary

forc

es p

rovi

ded

acco

mm

odat

ion

for b

uild

ing

tem

-po

rary

wild

life

resp

onse

faci

litie

s.•T

he N

atur

e D

ivis

ion

of th

e Fl

emis

h G

over

nmen

t im

med

iate

ly to

ok th

e l

ead

in th

eco

ordi

natio

n of

the

oile

d w

ildlif

e re

spon

se,

and

appo

inte

d m

e t

o su

perv

ise

the

oper

atio

n an

d pr

ovid

ed a

con

side

rabl

e em

erge

ncy

bud

ge

t to

mee

t the

cos

t of

the

oper

atio

ns.

• The

“Civ

il P

rote

ctio

n S

ervi

ce” p

rovi

ded

tech

nica

l ass

ista

nce.

• W

ell-c

oord

inat

ed a

ctio

ns b

y th

e fir

e de

partm

ents

and

pol

ice

assi

sted

to

colle

ctde

ad a

nd li

ve b

irds

from

the

beac

hes.

• Bird

Pro

tect

ion

Flan

ders

took

resp

onsi

bilit

y fo

r the

fina

ncia

l adm

inis

tratio

n.• S

ea-A

larm

ass

iste

d w

ith in

volv

ing

othe

r reh

abilit

atio

n ce

ntre

s in

Eur

ope.

• S

cien

tists

took

car

e of

the

impa

ct a

sses

smen

t fro

m d

ay o

ne (

sele

ctio

ns b

y ve

ts,

coun

ting

of n

umbe

rs, s

peci

es a

nd re

gist

ratio

n of

loca

tions

).• B

ird c

asua

lties

cam

e in

by

high

dai

ly n

umbe

rs (1

,900

in fi

rst 3

day

s!),

quic

kly

over

-w

helm

ing

loca

l res

ourc

es (N

B: t

he O

sten

d R

ehab

ilita

tion

Cen

tre n

orm

ally

adm

itsbe

twee

n 1,

500

and

2,00

0 an

imal

s pe

r yea

r; 20

0 to

500

of t

hem

bei

ng o

iled)

.•

Too

few

exp

erie

nced

sta

ff m

embe

rs a

nd la

rge

num

bers

of i

nexp

erie

nced

vol

un-

teer

s ha

d to

dea

l with

the

resp

onse

.•T

he re

spon

se s

aw m

any

tech

nica

l pro

blem

s (o

ld b

uild

ing,

no

hot w

ater

, no

pool

s)w

hich

pre

-ve

nted

opt

imal

car

e to

the

oile

d bi

rds

in th

e re

habi

litatio

n ce

ntre

.

Beca

use

of th

e lim

ited

reso

urce

s, th

e ov

erw

helm

ing

num

ber o

f bird

cas

ualtie

s, a

nd “b

adlu

ck” i

n te

rms

of te

chni

cal p

robl

ems,

onl

y 13

% o

f the

live

cas

ualtie

s co

uld

be re

leas

edaf

ter s

ucce

ssfu

l reh

abilit

atio

n. H

owev

er, t

he re

spon

se w

as s

ucce

ssfu

l look

ing

at a

num

-be

r of o

ther

crit

eria

and

exp

erie

nces

:

• Ago

od te

am a

nd p

erso

nal c

onta

cts

• E

xper

ienc

ed s

taff

from

oth

er B

elgi

an r

ehab

ilita

tion

cent

res

to c

oord

inat

e th

e vo

l-un

teer

s• C

olle

gial

ity fr

om te

ams

from

RS

PC

A, Ö

lvog

elhi

lfe, P

roje

ct B

lueS

ea

• Per

man

ent g

roup

of v

ets

and

stud

ents

from

the

univ

ersi

ty o

f Liè

ge• A

ssis

tanc

e fro

m re

habi

litat

ion

cent

res

in B

elgi

um, H

olla

nd a

nd th

e U

K• E

xcel

lent

coo

pera

tion

in b

etw

een

all t

he in

volv

ed B

elgi

an in

stitu

tions

On

the

initia

tive

of th

e N

atur

e D

ivis

ion

of th

e Fl

emis

h G

over

nmen

t, th

e Tr

icol

or re

spon

-se

was

eva

luat

ed w

ithin

the

year

and

led

to th

e m

ount

ing

of a

nat

iona

l oile

d w

ildlife

resp

onse

pla

n (s

ee p

aper

by

Kath

y Be

lpae

me,

this

vol

ume)

. The

exp

erie

nces

hav

e al

sobo

oste

d th

e pl

ans

for a

new

reha

bilita

tion

cent

re to

be

built

in O

sten

d. A

noth

er s

pin-

off

from

the

resp

onse

has

bee

n th

e si

gnific

antly

impr

oved

ski

lls o

f loc

al s

taff

in d

ealin

g w

ithoi

led

bird

s. C

onta

cts

with

inte

rnat

iona

l exp

ertis

e gr

oups

hav

e be

en s

et u

p an

d al

read

yle

d to

incr

ease

d ex

chan

ge o

f kno

w-h

ow a

nd re

sear

ch in

to b

est p

ract

ices

.


35

Mr. Jan Åke HillarpSwedish Wildlife Rehabilitators Association(KFV:s Riksförbund)Sea Alarm FoundationSwedish Federation for Animal Welfare(Djurskyddet Sverige)

The Fu shan Hai accident in June 2003

On 31st May, 2003, in bright daylight the container carrier Gdynia collided with thecargo vessel Fu Shan Hai north of the Danish island of Bornholm. Eight hours laterthe latter vessel of 72,000 dwt, sank in water 65 metres deep. On board were 1,680tonnes of bunker oil, 110 tonnes of diesel and 55 tonnes of lubricating oil. Her cargowas 66,000 tons of fertilizers. She began to spill oil immediately. By 1st June, theCommunes and Rescue Services were alerted and measures were taken to meeta spill on the coast.

In Sweden, the Coast Guard has the responsibility to meet and fight pollution atsea. They have 30 cutters (12 always at sea), 60 smaller boats and three aircraft(CASA 212). Booms, skimmers and 15 sea-trailers each with 500 metre booms areother parts of their oil pollution response equipment. No chemicals are used. TheCoast Guard is setting up an operational staff according to the contingency plans.Their objectives are:

1. Stop pollution and prevent oil spreading.2. Recover oil at sea before it reaches the shore.3. Oil response is based on mechanical methods.4. If oil is reaching shores protect sensitive areas with booms and beach tarpaulins.

The spill happened in the Baltic, which has different properties to other Europeanwaters. The sea is relatively shallow, brackish (salinity 2 % to 13 %) and the watercold. Bacterial break down of the oil is very slow as is evaporation.

The spill hit the shore on the 3rd June and the local Rescue Service together withmilitary units started the cleaning of the beaches. The pollution was fought at seaby four Swedish, two Danish and one German Coast Guard vessels. Seven hund-red and fifty people volunteered, of which 600 helped with the clean up. These weretrained and equipped before they were allowed to act.

By the 5th June, 600 – 700 birds had been oiled, of which 300 were mute swans(Cygnus olor). Private actions to catch the birds begun and ten swans were caught.On the 6th some birds were shot in the morning and this, together with the too acti-ve efforts to catch the oiled individuals, caused them to become scattered themover almost 200 km of the coast (NB: the oil polluted only 30 km). Because of this,KFV:s Riksförbund (Swedish Wildlife Rehabilitators Association) contacted theRescue Leader (the local groups were alerted on the 3rd) to facilitate the co-ope-ration between the local groups and the Rescue Leader and to stop the use of shotguns as they were too noisy.

The Swedish Wildlife Rehabilitators Association consists of 21 local, mainly coas-tal, organisations and as many First Aiders. The latter, however, have no rehabilita-tion facilities. All rehabilitation centres in Sweden are small and generally take lessthan 200 patients per year. Every centre has a rehabilitator with national permits tohandle birds, hedgehog, hares and squirrel. A veterinarian advises every centre. Allwork, even veterinarian, is voluntary.

The oil disappeared during the night and showed up in new areas in the daytimeand by the 8th a total of 60 kilometres of the coast has been polluted though someparts have been cleaned for the second time. By the 12th communal personnel tookover and the work at sea ended. One thousand cubic metres of oil (no water orsand) had been recovered by the joint efforts of the Coast Guards and the RescueServices, but 600 cubic metres remained in the wreck and 200 cubic metres can-not be accounted for as it may have sunk, drifted away or evaporated.

One thousand two hundred tonnes is not much for a spill globally, but in the Baltic itis ranked as one of the ten worst, the worst being 16,000 tonnes in 1981. About2,000 tonnes annually comes from accidents at sea in the Baltic. Another 5,000 ton-nes come from deliberate spills at sea. Together this is approximately 10%of the totalyearly pollution to the Baltic, of which rivers yield 45,000 tons. The Swedish CoastGuard registers 200 – 300 oil spills annually. The top year was 1995 with 482 spills.One hundred million tonnes of oil is freighted annually through the Baltic, and this isexpected to increase by 300% by 2017. The amount of oil in the water is three timesgreater than in the Atlantic. At this moment 2,000 ships are sailing the Baltic, of these160 are tankers, some in a very poor condition. Despite this, there are, in fact, rela-tively few accidents, but about 200,000 long-tailed ducks (Clangula hyemalis) (about

opmaakannex 10-05-2005 11:18 Pagina 19

36

10% of the total Baltic wintering population) die from chronic oil spills every year.No estimates are made for other species.

Altogether 67 birds were taken into care, mainly mute swans and eider duck(Somateria mollissima). 42 birds were released after treatment, the last one on28thJune. The remainder died or were euthanised. Less than 100 birds were founddead and 20 shot in Sweden.

We were extremely lucky as the incident occurred at the beginning of the breedingseason, most shores were exposed sandy beaches with few birds and the oil justtouched the coast where most birds would have been found. The swans were ontheir way to their moulting areas and were, in most cases, not heavily oiled, so theycould go through the moult without too many problems in the warm weather andwater.The problem was the diving species like eider ducks and auks. Most were oiled on,or around, the island of Bornholm and ca. 15% of the razorbills (Alca torda) and guil-lemots (Uria aagle) and 5% of the eider ducks died. One hundred and twenty wereshot and altogether 1,000-1,500 birds died around the island as a result of the spill.In Denmark no birds were cleaned.

Lessons learnt:1. Oiled shores should be closed for the public.2. Only skilled persons should be allowed to catch birds.3. The oiled wildlife response should be controlled by the Rescue Leader.4. 0.22 calibre rifle should be used for oiled birds. It is not so noisy and has longer

range than a shotgun.5. We should have been better organised regionally.6. Oiled eider ducklings can be saved.7. The Internet is a good way to keep everybody informed.

Mr. Paul KelwayEmergency Relief Manager – IFAWOiled Wildlife Division

Rocknes Spill Oilded Wildlife Response: A Case Study

The Rocknes bulk carrier capsized on 19th January, 2004 resulting in the tragicdeath of over 18 crewmembers. An additional consequence of the accident was theleaking of approximately 450 tonnes of fuel oil into the fjords near Bergen, Norwaywith common eiders (Somateria mollissima) as the species predominantly affected.

IFAW became involved in the incident when a coalition of wildlife groups and inte-rested parties contacted them for support. This included an animal rights group,Noah, an environmental consultancy, NNI and a local veterinarian.

An oiled wildlife response of this kind had not been attempted in Norway before andthe current government policy had been to deploy trained hunters to shoot affectedanimals. The Coalition called ‘Action Clean Bird’ set up meetings with theNorwegian Coastal Administration and local authorities and were given permissionto mount a response but asked to consult with international expertise. IFAW deci-ded to support the operation to help maximise the chances of success, provide bestachievable care to the animals and ensure that this response could be used as apositive case study to inform discussions about wildlife response in the future.

Working outside the official response to the incident the wildlife response faced anumber of challenges, in particular in regard to having sufficient resources availa-ble. Boats had to be hired for search and collection of animals from the water. Thistook time to organise. The facility also needed to be adapted to provide reliable hotwater and much of the equipment required had to be constructed from local mate-rials.


37

Despite the lack of support from the authorities, community support was very strongand a great deal of equipment was donated free or discounted. However, this meantthat we could not always obtain supplies as quickly as we would have liked.

Proven rehabilitation protocols were implemented to ensure best achievable carefor the animals. All birds were banded and in total over 60% of the 131 birds treatedwere released, a significant achievement considering the challenges that had beenfaced. These included eider ducks as well as gulls (Larus spp.) and mallards (Anasplatyrhynchos). Some follow up studies are now under way to monitor the gulls.This is being partly funded by the authorities and conducted by NNI.

Although we were able to achieve some success, the response was hugely impac-ted by the lack of government support and the absence of a response plan. Thiswould have included the pre-identification of vital equipment and helped to ensurean immediate response. However, IFAW is aware of the current approach to thisissue by the authorities and so was extremely grateful for the opportunity to beinvolved. Hopefully this example will act as a positive case study that will encoura-ge further consideration of oiled wildlife response in the future. This could prove vitalif an incident were to occur in northern Norway where world populations of endan-gered Stellar’s eiders (Polysticta stelleri) are found.

Mr. Sascha Regmann

Project Blue Sea e.V., Gemany

Mystery oil spill - Germany 2004

• The first dead oiled sea ducks were reported on 5th February 2004 from the NorthSea coast of Schleswig-Holstein.

• After 7th February rescued birds were able to be cared for.• A total of over 3,000 affected seabirds were counted. • Common scoters (Melanitta nigra) in their winter quarters were mainly affected. • 338 birds (329 common scoter, 7 common eider (Somateria mollissima), 1 velvet

scoter (Melanitta fusca), 1 common guillemot (Uria aagle) were rescued alive anddealt with in the Rehabilitation Station of the Westküstenpark St. Peter-Ording andin the Dutch bird rescue centre “De Fûgelpits” .

• Examination of the oil samples taken from the plumage identified fuel oil and someengine oil which had been illegally jettisoned in the North Sea.

• The perpetrator of this pollution is still unknown.• A great gulf is obvious between those supporting rehabilitation and those opposing

the practice. • Hunters and community service workers were instructed to kill the oiled birds. • After successful rehabilitation a total of 271 birds (266 common scoter, 4 common

eider, 1 velvet scoter) were released back into the wild.

The following organisations were engaged in the rehabilitation of the oiled seabirdsin February and March 2004:-

Westküstenpark St.Peter-Ording, Project Blue Sea e.V., Tierhuus Insel Föhr e.V.,Oelvogelhilfe Germany e.V., Terra Mater e.V., Förderverein Westküstenpark e.V. (allGermany), Vogelopvangcentrum „De Fûgelpits“ (Netherlands).


Mr. Ivan Calvez

Centre de Documentation de Rechercheet d’Experimentations sur les PollutionsAccidentelles des Eaux (Cedre)

French National Contingency Plan:POLMAR organisation

The French national contingency planning towards accidental marine pollution isprovided by the POLMAR organisation, relating to the response processes to beimplemented in case of an accident involving an oil spill - or any other chemical spill.The structure of the response includes representatives of all the GovernmentDepartments concerned, and appropriate technical bodies, such as the Cedre(Centre for Documentation, Research and Experimentation on accidental water pol-lution).

The POLMAR plan includes three types of measures, that may be taken in respon-se to oil spills: (i) prevention measures to avoid such pollution occurring in the first place; (ii) preparatory response measures to allow the responsible authorities to be giventhe resources to respond rapidly in the case of accidents; (iii) response measures intended to limit the consequences.As regards to the oiled fauna, one of the lessons of the Erika oil spill, in France, wasa lack of co-ordination between administrations, authorities, wildlife conservationand care organisations (NGOs). This led to conflicts and problems, eventually cau-sing confusion in stranded bird counts (e.g. specimens “lost”, or counted twice, ormore, by the various organisations involved). Hence the idea of drafting updatedplans, in order to achieve better preparedness and to conciliate response activitieswith wildlife concerns, and with all these parties (authorities, NGOs, public services)

ANNEX 6SOME NATIONAL PROCESSES

working together. As stated in the POLMAR legal instruction dated 4th March 2002,all Land-POLMAR plans (response on the shoreline) should now include an “oiledfauna contingency plan”. To this aim, Working Groups have been constituted, incharge of drafting the plan, and co-ordinated by the DIREN (regional branch of theMinistry in charge of the Environment).Members of Working Groups are: DIREN, local and national wildlife conservation &care associations, National Office of Hunting and Wildlife, Departmental VeterinaryServices, Ifremer (French Oceanographic Institute), Cedre (technical advisor forFrench authorities in case of a spill), Conservatoire du Littoral (association in char-ge of coastal areas conservation), National Museum of Natural History…“Guidelines for the Update of Land/Polmar Plans” were written in 2003, the “oiledfauna contingency plan” being contained in Annex 11.5. According to this Guideline,the Polmar plan should include:

• the name(s) and contact points of NGO(s) responsible for co-ordinating wildliferesponse;

• rehabilitation operations in the area, sensitivity maps (developed by the workinggroup),existing care centres, and buildings potentially convertible if needed;

• alert, notification and mobilisation procedures;• lists of equipment needed for a centre to function;• legal procedures (for transport of oiled live animals for instance);• agreements between NGOs, administrations and authorities as regards food, • energy and fluid supplies, safety visits, waste recovery and treatment;• … etc.

Such working groups have already met in some Departments of France, and wor-ked together with success. Not only does this system allow them to draft efficientplans, it also gives these various parties the opportunity to meet on a regular basis,get to know each other, develop confidence and should reduce the risk of conflictsin case of a future crisis.

38


39

Ms. Kathy BelpaemeCo-ordination Centre for IntegratedCoastal Zone Management

National preparedness in Belgium

The accident with the Tricolor in January 2003, with its 9,117 beached birds, ofwhich more than 50% were alive at the time of beaching, and a maximum of 170tonnes of spilled oil, led to the general awareness that Belgium needs an inter-vention plan for oiled birds. Thanks to many volunteers, lots of enthusiastic scien-tists and civil servants, the situation at the beginning 2003 was approached in avery sound way. But after the last birds had been taken care of, after the last oilhad been cleaned from the beach, questions were being raised, such as:

• Who will pay for all the costs made? • What do we do with the toxic waste? • How can we build a better rehabilitation centre in the future? • How can we better co-ordinate in case of future incidents?

It was generally agreed that a formal intervention plan for oiled birds was nee-ded. The official order to start the process of drawing up an intervention plan wasgiven in autumn 2003 by the Minster of Environment. After two start-up meetings,the Co-ordination Centre for Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) wasassigned as a neutral co-ordinator and driving force behind the process.

The Co-ordination Centre is a co-operation between different authority levels,and its main aim is to tackle cross-sectoral questions in the Coastal Zone. Oilspills and their side effects fit nicely within the Co-ordination Centre’s work pack-age (several sectors involved, and at the scale of the whole coast), but the nee-ded expertise was not present within the Centre. Therefore Sea Alarm wasapproached to bring in technical expertise and a working group was established.

The composition of the working group is considered to be very important. Care wastaken not only to involve all relevant authorities and the governor, but also relevantNGOs, scientists, institutions, and wildlife rehabilitation centres are part of the group.

The intervention plan not only includes measures for handling oiled birds, but alsouseful background information such as address lists, logistics and available mate-rial and filing cards on the plan’s co-ordination and activation (Who is responsibleto co-ordinated the whole plan, and how can it be (de)activated?), costs and finan-ces (Who pays for what, and how do you register the cost to facilitate the claim?),animal treatment and waste management.

A general aim was to end up with a practical plan, and not a voluminous book.Therefore the intervention plan consists of three chapters:

1. Strategy containing the introduction and background information, 2. Operations containing all filing cards, 3. Data containing telephone directories, tables, maps etc.

In case of an incident, the operational chapter is the crucial document which clear-ly instructs all parties on their responsibilities and tasks. For each of the tasks a co-ordinator (function) is assigned. Some extra learning points from the Tricolor incident and the process are:

• Be sure the financial procedures are clear in the plan. If this is not the case, thewillingness to co-operate might be lacking.

• Build-in a regular updating procedure• Make sure your plan links up with existing contingency plans. • Do not interfere with existing and successful plans already in place.

Apart from the intervention plan for oiled birds, a parallel process with the coastalmunicipalities was set up, in order to draw up guidelines for the role of municipali-ties in case of coastal (oil) incidents. The Guidelines will include, e.g. good practi-ces for beach cleaning, advice for handling toxic waste, and the approach for sideeffects of an incident (media, volunteers, safety, transport of birds, etc.).

The intervention plan is nearly ready (October 2004), the next important step is tohave the intervention plan endorsed at a political level. Having the agreement ofthe working group does not guarantee that the politicians and superiors also agree.The endorsement procedure still has to be decided upon, but the working group isvery much in favour of the rational approach. The perfect consensus model mighttake much more time, and a disaster does not wait for consensus!


40

Mr. Eugene Clonan

Irish Coast Guard

The Irish Coast Guard

The Irish Coast Guard has two main functions:• Search & Rescue and Safety Awareness • Pollution & Salvage, which includes contingency planning, prevention and respon-

se at sea and cleanup on the coast.

As well as providing a national marine search and rescue response service the IrishCoast Guard (IRCG) provides a response to marine casualty incidents and alsomonitors/intervenes in marine salvage operations. The IRCG are also charged withdeveloping and co-coordinating an effective regime in relation to marine pollutionresponse. Irish Coast Guard functions are mandated through Government policy and variouspieces of national legislation, EU Directives and International Conventions. Themost important of which are mentioned below,

The Sea Pollution Act 1991 gives effect to the MARPOL Convention and theIntervention Convention.The Sea Pollution (Amendment) Act 1999 gives effect to the InternationalConvention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation, 1990.

Government decision (3rd May 1988), assigned the responsibility to the IRCG forthe removal of oil from the coastline and, in the event of major pollution incident, thedirection of co-ordination of the onshore response to the Irish Coast Guard.

The Salvage and Wreck Act requires the IRCG, on being made aware of a vesselin difficulty, to take such steps as they (IRCG) think fit to save lives vessel, cargoand apparel of the vessel including steps to minimise the threat of pollution. TheDirector and Chief of Operations Irish Coast Guard are authorised/officers underthe Sea Pollution Act 1991 and Oil Pollution with authority to act in such circum-stances & to give directions, for the purpose of preventing, mitigating or eliminatingdanger from pollution or threat of pollution by oil. (Similar to the UK’s SOSREP).

The aim of the Irish Coast Guard is to develop and co-ordinate an effective regimefor preparedness and response to spills of oil and other hazardous and noxioussubstances (HNS), and to provide an efficient and effective response to marinecasualty incidents by monitoring/intervening if required in marine casualty opera-tions.

Irelands Pollution Responsibility Zone covers an area stretching to 200 miles off thewest coast and to the median line between Ireland and the UK in the Irish Sea andCeltic Sea. The area is comparable to Ireland’s EEZ and the area covers approx200,000 m2. The zone is a resource of high value in terms of ecological and socio-economic use.It is a very ecological sensitive area with a wide variety of fauna and flora. It sup-ports an active leisure industry with a large number of blue flag beaches and alsocommerce including fisheries marine transport and natural resources.

At a marine pollution/casualty incident, IRCG staff may be deployed on scene aspart of the Coast Guard Incident Command System which involve setting up aresponse centre near to the incident. This Centre consists of three units, a sea pol-lution response, shoreline pollution response and marine casualty, salvage respon-se. The Response Centre and each of the units are under the direction and co-ordi-nation of the Coast Guard.

Strategy for combating at sea Based on reports received from aerial surveillance, a plan for the combat operationis drafted and executed. The main strategy is to recover floating oil from the seasurface applying mechanical recovery systems.

Strategy for combating on-shoreLocal Authorities will remove the oil from the shoreline under the direction of theCoast Guard. Depending on the type of oil, the recovery will be executed by handor a combination of booming/ recovery systems and manpower.Response to oil spills is based on a Tiered approach.


41

Tier 1 Port/Local Authorities must be able to respond to an incident using local orinternal resources/stockpiles. These resources are stockpiled locally andare based on risk assessment.

Tier 2 Local plus external resources, includes equipment from the national stock-pile.

Tier 3 National and international response.

The Irish Coast Guard maintains a national stockpile of oil spill response equipmentfor a tier 2 response and above at its main store in Blanchardstown, Dublin and twosmaller stockpiles at Killybegs and Castletownbere. The equipment consists of offs-hore and coastal booms, oil recovery devices such as skimmers and manual equip-ment for on shore clean up and portable temporary storage tanks. The nationalstockpile is made up of 70% onshore recovery and 30% at sea recovery equipment.Familiarisation training is carried out at these locations every year for LocalAuthority and Port Authority personnel.IRCG has a standing contract with an international equipment provider for support,aerial dispersant spraying and personnel.

In the event of a request from abroad the IRCG makes available 30% of its stock-pile.

The Irish Coast Guard will ensure that the most appropriate oil spill response stra-tegy will be used with regard for net environment, economic benefit analysis.

The Irish Coast Guard is currently reviewing its contingency planning and particu-larly the following areas,

• Emergency Towing• Aerial Surveillance• Oil Recovery Vessels• Chemical Response Teams• OPRC HNS Protocol

Mr. Martin HeubeckShetland Oil Terminal EnvironmentalAdvisory Group (SOTEAG)

Oiled Wildlife Contingeny Plan in ShetlandOil spill contingency planning for the Shetland Oil Terminal, one of the largest oilexporting terminals in Europe, dates from 1974 when the Sullom VoeEnvironmental Advisory Group (SVEAG) was formed. July 1974 was a significantdate in the history of environmental concern in Shetland, when three representati-ves of the British Petroleum Company, and two University academics, visitedShetland and proposed to the (then) Zetland County Council (ZCC) that an envi-ronmental advisory group should be established to supervise the development,construction and operation of the oil terminal at Sullom Voe. This group, formed bythe ZCC, functioned until 1976, and produced the one of the first non-statutoryEnvironmental Impact Assessments (EIA) for the infrastructure and construction ofthe terminal. By 1977, when the terminal was still being built, SVEAG was recon-stituted by the Shetland Islands Council (SIC) as The Shetland Oil TerminalEnvironmental Advisory Group (SOTEAG) to widen its membership, but mostimportantly, to change to an independent Chairman and Secretary the Chair givento one of the original academic instigators of SVEAG the late Professor GeorgeDunnet from the University of Aberdeen.

From this solid foundation in 1977, and throughout its twenty-seven year history,SOTEAG has continued to take responsibility for environmental input into oil spillcontingency planning for Shetland that embodies clean-up procedures most approp-riate for prescribed areas of Sullom Voe, based on detailed knowledge of both thesensitivity of the shoreline, and environmental features such as the seasonal pre-sence of vulnerable species of birds or marine mammals likely to be affected.SOTEAG, still independently chaired by a senior academic from the University ofAberdeen, provides environmental advice to, and is funded by, a joint venture com-pany The Sullom Voe Association (SVA) Ltd, established in 1975, which is a public,


42

limited liability, non profit-making company, responsible for the policy for the opera-tion/development of Sullom Voe Terminal. It has two senior executives from theShetland Islands Council and one representative each from Shell’s and BP’s twomajor pipeline systems (Brent and Ninian) acting on behalf of (originally) some 33oil industry partners operating in North Sea. BP operates the Terminal on behalf ofthese industry partners, whilst the SIC, by Act of Parliament (ZCC Act 1974), ope-rate the port of Sullom Voe and own the land on which the terminal is built.

The policy for the establishment of the Shetland Wildlife Response Co-ordinatingCommittee (WRCC) developed out of SOTEAG’s experience of assessing the envi-ronmental affects of one serious oil spill in Sullom Voe in 1978 (Esso Bernicia) andthe lessons learned from experiences of others, such as the Exxon Valdez in Alaskain 1989. After analysing existing policy information, and at the request of its sisterorganisation - the Sullom Voe Oil Spills Advisory Committee (SVOSAC) to SVA Ltd.– SOTEAG advised on an appropriate strategy for dealing with wildlife casualties inthe event of a major oil spill in Shetland. The WRCC was set up in 1990 under theauspices and Chairmanship of SOTEAG, but its development planswere immediately ratified and severely tested when the Braer went aground off thesouth coast of Shetland in January 1993, losing its entire cargo.

The WRCC1s Terms of Reference includes responsibility for policy and proceduresfor dealing with oiled wildlife casualties and corpses resulting from a significant spill.Membership is formalised, and brings together all local organisations that wouldbecome involved with the wildlife aspects of a serious oil spill anywhere in Shetland:the SIC, the Terminal Operator (BP), the Scottish Society of the Protection ofCruelty to Animals (SSPCA), the Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary (rehabilitation of mari-ne mammals), Scottish Natural Heritage (central government1s conservation body),the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and the Shetland Bird Club(national and local conservation bodies), the Scottish EnvironmentProtection Agency (SEPA), the Shetland Biological Records Centre, a local veteri-nary practice and the local police. Formal links are also maintained with organisa-tions outside Shetland which could provide expertise in an emergency. The aimsof the WRCC are to:

(1) measure the impact of an oil pollution incident by the collection and recording ofas many wildlife victims as is practicable, (2) rehabilitate as many oiled birds and marine mammals as is reasonable andpracticable, (3) factual information to the Incident Co-ordination Centre, and then to the mediaand wider public.

The WRCC meets at least once a year to review and update the Wildlife ResponsePlan for Shetland, taking account of experiences gained in local oil spill exercises,

actual oil spills within Shetland or elsewhere, and changes in legislation. ThisWildlife Response Plan is incorporated into the two oil spill plans that exist for thewhole coastline of Shetland, andspecifically for Sullom Voe Harbour. One of the strengths of the WRCC is that allparticipants - industry, central and government, government conservation agenciesand NGOs - share the same objective of a controlled, safe, efficient and cost-effec-tive response to a major oil spill. An added advantage is that Shetland is a relati-vely small community, so that key players know each other professionally - andeven socially - between times of crisis.

SOTEAG is also responsible for the monitoring strategy for Sullom Voe Terminaloperations and developments, including the passage of tankers around Shetlandwaters. Its full-time seabird monitoring programme, which has run for some thirtyyears, includes an element of organised, routine beached bird surveys throughoutShetland, which provide a core of experienced volunteers in the event of an incident.


43

Mr. Patrick JosephClaims Manager, International Oil Pol-lution Compensation Fund (IOPC Fund)

The International Oil Pollution Compensation RegimeCompensation for pollution damage caused by spills of persistent oil from tankers isgoverned by an international regime elaborated under the auspices of the InternationalMaritime Organization (IMO). The framework for the regime is the 1992 Civil LiabilityConvention and the 1992 Fund Convention.

The Civil Liability Conventions govern the liability of shipowners for oil pollution damage.The Conventions lay down the principle of strict liability for shipowners and creates a sys-tem of compulsory liability insurance. The shipowner is normally entitled to limit his liabi-lity to an amount, which is linked to the tonnage of his ship.

The 1992 Fund Convention, which is supplementary to the 1992 Civil Liability Convention,establishes a regime for compensating victims when the compensation under the appli-cable Civil Liability Convention is inadequate. The total sum available for compensationunder these two Conventions is 203 million Special Drawing Rights (SDR) (239 millioneuro). In early 2005 a Protocol establishing a Supplementary Fund will come into forceincreasing the total amount of compensation available to 750 million SDR (884 millioneuro) in those States that ratify the Protocol including the amounts available in the under-lying Conventions.

The Fund Convention established an intergovernmental organisation to administer thecompensation regime. The Organisation has its headquarters in London. As at 8thOctober 2004, there were 94 States party to the 1992 Civil Liability Convention and 86 ofthese were also party to the 1992 Fund Convention.

Types of claims covered by the ConventionsUnder the Conventions, compensation is payable for pollution damage under one of thefollowing five categories:• Property damage• Costs of clean up operations at sea and ashore

ANNEX 7ROLE AND ACTIVITIES OF

SOME INTERNATIONALORGANISATIONS

• Economic losses by fishermen or those engaged in mariculture• Economic losses in the tourism sector• Environmental reinstatement

Claims under the Conventions are assessed according to criteria laid down by represen-tatives of the Governments of Member States. These criteria are set out in the 1992 FundClaims Manual, which is a practical guide to the presentation of claims for compensation.

Compensation for Wildlife RehabilitationAs a consequence of concerns for animal welfare in the wake of a spill, efforts are oftenmade to clean contaminated animals, particularly oiled birds, mammals and reptiles. Thecapture, cleaning and rehabilitation of oiled wildlife requires trained personnel and thework is normally carried out by special interest groups, often with the assistance of vol-unteers who establish cleaning stations close to the spill location. Cleaning is difficult andslow and causes the animals further distress, and undertaken only if there is a reasona-ble chance of the animals surviving the process.

Claims for the costs of treatment of oiled wildlife essentially fall within the criteria set outfor the recovery of clean-up costs. Details of the number of animals treated and the num-ber successfully released back into the wild should be provided in support of this claim.Claims for reasonable costs associated with the provision of local reception facilitiesappropriate to the scale of the problem, materials, medication and food are normally com-pensable under the international regime as are reasonable food and accommodationcosts of volunteers.

If several special interest groups undertake cleaning and rehabilitation activities theseshould be properly co-ordinated to avoid duplication of effort. If these groups undertakingthe work mounted campaigns to raise public funds for the purpose of maintaining fieldoperations for a specific incident, details should be provided, including the costs of thecampaigns, the amounts raised and how the money was used. Deductions will be madefor funds raised from the public for the specific purpose of maintaining the field operationsfor a specific incident.

Claims for the costs mentioned above are not accepted when it could have been foreseenthat the measures taken would be ineffective, for example if it was clear from the outsetthat an animal would not have survived the cleaning process. On the other hand, the factthat the measures proved to be ineffective is not in itself a reason for rejection of a claim.

In October 2004, the 1992 Fund Assembly adopted the text of a new Claims Manual,which includes a short section on the treatment of claims for the cleaning and rehabilita-tion of oiled wildlife. A copy of this manual will be available for downloading from theFund’s website by the end of 2004.For more detailed information, please refer to the Fund’s website at www.iopcfund.org.Alternatively, if there are any queries, delegates are welcome to e-mail us their queries [email protected].


44

Mr. Jim ThornboroughEmergency Response Adviser, BPShipping

The IPIECA Oil Spill Working Group

The International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association(IPIECA secretariat: London) was founded in 1974 as a Global Membershipbetween national and multinational petroleum companies and associations, andaims at interaction and cooperation with UN and other international organizations.IPIECA has Special Consultative Status as an NGO because of its affiliation withthe UN body ECOSOC. IPIECA’s activities focus on key global issues, like globalclimate change, biodiversity, social responsibility, oil spill preparedness & response,fuels and vehicles, and health.

IPIECA’s Oil Spill Working Group (OSWG) includes membership of 25 multination-al oil companies, 12 regional associations and 13 technical partners. The OSWGaims to:• Enhance the state of preparedness and response to marine oil spill incidents in

priority locations around the world;• Promote Net Environmental Benefit Analysis, Tiered response, ratification of con-

ventions;• Facilitate cooperation between industry and government at National, Regional, &

International levels.

Its mission is implemented in three ways:• Through education and communication (the ‘Report Series’);• Sponsoring and supporting international conferences (IOSC, Interspill, Spillcon),

and training workshops;• By our partnership with IMO in the Global Initiative (GI) programme.

The “Guide to Oiled Wildlife Planning” is an example of the kind of documents thatare produced in IPIECA’s Report Series. Another recent IPIECA publication is the2004 Update of Action Against Oil Pollution (1981), which provides an overview ofintergovernmental and industry organisations (IMO, UNEP, INTERTANKO, ICS,IOPC Fund, IPIECA, CONCAWE, EUROPIA, ITOPF, OPOL, OCIMF, OGP and P&IClubs) concerned with oil spills in the marine environment.

The ‘Global Initiative’ is an example of “Oil Spill Partnership in Practice”. It is anongoing initiative by IPIECA and IMO, which started in 1996, and it aims to• Assist countries in developing a national structure for dealing with oil spills through

the mobilisation of external assistance and industry support at national & regionallevels;

• Encourage ratification and implementation on OPRC and conventions relating toliability and compensation.

The success of this work is measured, e.g. through increases of ratifications inAfrican Countries of different oil spill related conventions between 1996 and 2004:• 1992 Civil Liability Convention from 1 to 17• 1992 Fund Convention from 1 to 17• 1990 OPRC Convention from 4 to 11

The Global Initiative is a multitude of activities, including e.g.:• Communications• A consistent message through the Report Series, video, briefing papers and GI

Newsletters• Technical Missions• Progressing Convention ratification and approval of National Plans• Sensitivity mapping workshops• IMO model training courses• Conferences, workshops & seminars• Facilitation and presentations

As part of the Global Initiative, and the work of the Oil Spill Working Group, region-al initiatives have been developed (MOIG, REMPEC, Caspian EnvironmentProgramme), and special partnerships have started (e.g. the OSPRI partnership).More information can be found via www.ipieca.org.


45

Dr.

Rob

Hol

land

Oil

Spill

Res

pons

e Lt

d.

Oil

Spill

Res

pons

e Li

mite

d (O

SRL)

and

the

Glo

bal A

llian

ce

Oil

Spi

ll R

espo

nse

Ltd,

OS

RL,

is th

e w

orld

’s la

rges

t int

erna

tiona

l oil

spill

resp

on-

se o

rgan

isat

ion.

Eas

t Asi

a R

espo

nse

Ltd,

EA

RL,

is th

e la

rges

t suc

h or

gani

satio

nin

the

Asi

a P

acifi

c re

gion

and

tog

ethe

r th

ey f

orm

a f

orm

idab

le A

llian

ce d

ealin

gw

ith e

mer

genc

ies

swift

ly a

nd p

rofe

ssio

nally

whe

neve

r and

whe

reve

r in

the

wor

ldth

ey o

ccur

. Oil

spill

s im

pact

not

onl

y on

the

envi

ronm

ent b

ut th

e fin

anci

al h

ealth

and

repu

tatio

n of

the

oil i

ndus

try. A

gain

st a

bac

kgro

und

of c

ontin

uing

pub

lic a

wa-

rene

ss a

nd c

once

rn f

or t

he e

nviro

nmen

t, oi

l sp

ills

are

certa

in t

o at

tract

muc

hm

edia

inte

rest

. Th

e A

llian

ce is

abo

ut p

ract

ical

and

real

istic

dam

age

limita

tion

toth

e en

viro

nmen

t, cl

ient

s’bu

sine

sses

and

thei

r rep

utat

ions

. It i

s al

so a

bout

incr

e-as

ing

the

awar

enes

s of

oil

spill

issu

es a

nd e

nsur

ing

ther

e is

pro

per

prep

ared

-ne

ss f

or a

n in

cide

nt.

Thi

s in

volv

es m

ore

than

just

spi

ll re

spon

se.

OS

RL

and

EA

RL

prov

ide

som

e of

the

wor

ld’s

bes

t tra

inin

g an

d co

nsul

tanc

y se

rvic

es to

hel

ppr

epar

e in

-hou

se te

ams

to h

andl

e th

e si

tuat

ion

and

min

imis

e th

e im

pact

. Oil

spil-

ls a

re c

rises

that

nee

d to

be

man

aged

. Stra

tegi

es h

ave

to b

e pl

anne

d an

d pe

rs-

onne

l tra

ined

in a

dvan

ce to

wor

k ef

fect

ivel

y. T

he A

llian

ce’s

com

preh

ensi

ve s

er-

vice

s dr

aw o

n th

e ex

perie

nce

and

expe

rtise

gai

ned

from

atte

ndin

g nu

mer

ous

inci

dent

s ar

ound

the

wor

ld.

Cur

rent

ly o

ver

twen

ty o

f th

e m

ost

resp

onsi

ble

and

com

mitt

ed o

il co

mpa

nies

ow

n th

e A

llian

ce. F

ull m

embe

rshi

p is

ava

ilabl

e to

any

inte

rnat

iona

l oil

com

pany

and

Ass

ocia

te m

embe

rshi

p is

ava

ilabl

e fo

r si

ngle

site

oper

atio

ns. T

he A

llian

ce is

on

call

to re

spon

d to

its

mem

bers

’nee

ds im

med

iate

-ly

, 24

hour

s a

day,

365

day

s a

year

.

Res

pons

eTh

e A

llian

ce is

per

man

ently

on

call

to p

rovi

de a

dvic

e an

d pr

actic

al a

ssis

tanc

e in

the

even

t of a

spi

ll or

thre

at o

f a s

pill.

Effe

ctiv

e re

spon

se re

lies

upon

trai

ned

pers

onne

l, w

orki

ng to

a c

ompr

ehen

sive

pla

nth

at h

as th

e pr

oper

reso

urce

s an

d ha

s be

en re

gula

rly e

xerc

ised

. Th

e A

llian

ce n

oton

ly p

rovi

des

the

reso

urce

s of

per

sonn

el a

nd e

quip

men

t, bu

t ass

ists

in th

e ex

erci

-si

ng th

roug

h on

cal

l ass

ista

nce

for t

able

top

exer

cise

s to

full

depl

oym

ents

.

Com

bine

d w

ith a

long

trac

k hi

stor

y of

suc

cess

and

pro

ven

relia

bilit

y, th

e A

llian

ceof

fers

its

mem

bers

acc

ess

to th

e m

ost c

ost e

ffect

ive

and

reas

surin

g re

spon

se c

apa-

bilit

y in

the

wor

ld:

•Com

pete

nce

to in

tegr

ate

into

and

wor

k w

ith o

ther

resp

onse

team

s lo

cally

on-

site

•Lar

ge a

nd v

arie

d st

ate-

of-th

e-ar

t equ

ipm

ent s

tock

pile

s•M

ulti-

skill

ed, e

xper

ienc

ed a

nd h

ighl

y qu

alifi

ed p

erso

nnel

• Ded

icat

ed a

ircra

ft an

d br

oker

to e

nsur

e th

e qu

icke

st p

ossi

ble

resp

onse

•The

Alli

ance

can

als

o pr

ovid

e ot

her o

pera

tiona

l sup

port

incl

udin

g:• S

pill

resp

onse

equ

ipm

ent h

ire d

urin

g dr

illin

g op

erat

ions

• Tie

r 2 re

spon

se in

the

UK

•Aer

ial s

urve

illanc

e an

d di

sper

sant

spr

ayin

g in

Uni

ted

King

dom

Con

tinen

tal S

helf

• Equ

ipm

ent m

aint

enan

ce a

udits

Trai

ning

The

Alli

ance

has

long

bee

n re

cogn

ised

as

the

oil i

ndus

try’s

pre

mie

r oil

spill

train

ing

prov

ider

, offe

ring

a br

oad

rang

e of

trie

d an

d te

sted

cou

rses

at i

ts p

urpo

se-b

uilt

faci

li-tie

s in

Sou

tham

pton

and

Sin

gapo

re a

nd a

t oth

er p

rime

loca

tions

wor

ld-w

ide.

Ove

r the

last

ten

year

s m

ore

than

9,0

00 d

eleg

ates

hav

e be

nefit

ed fr

om tr

aini

ng c

ours

es p

rovi

-de

d by

the

Allia

nce

in s

ome

48 c

ount

ries,

del

iver

ed b

y ou

r ded

icat

ed te

am o

f exp

e-rie

nced

pro

fess

iona

l res

pond

ers.

The

Alli

ance

’s s

uite

of t

rain

ing

cour

ses

incl

ude:

•P

ublis

hed/

Ope

n C

ours

es:

“Indu

stry

st

anda

rd”

flags

hip

cour

ses,

O

il S

pill

Cle

aran

ce, O

il S

pill

Man

agem

ent,

Oil

Spi

ll R

efre

sher

& E

ssen

tials

, AM

anag

er’s

Gui

de to

Oil

Spi

lls•

“Spe

cial

ist

cour

ses”

: S

hore

line

Sup

ervi

sor/B

each

mas

ter,

Inla

nd

Spi

lls,

Col

dW

eath

er R

espo

nse,

Env

ironm

enta

l Im

pact

s, C

laim

s &

Com

pens

atio

n, R

espo

nder

Hea

lth a

nd S

afet

y•I

MO

mod

el tr

aini

ng c

ours

es: L

evel

1 -

Firs

t Res

pond

er, L

evel

2 -

Sup

ervi

sor/O

n-sc

ene

Com

man

der,

Leve

l 3 –

Sen

ior M

anag

ers

and

adm

inis

trato

rs•

Clie

nt –

Tai

lore

d C

ours

es, C

lient

s ca

n op

t for

tailo

red

train

ing

offe

ring:

Tar

gete

dtra

inin

g fo

cuse

d on

spe

cific

nee

ds, T

otal

flex

ibili

ty, C

onve

nien

t loc

atio

ns, T

imin

g to

suit

the

clie

nt


46

Acc

redi

ted

Qua

lity

Trai

ning

The

Alli

ance

is c

omm

itted

to th

e In

tern

atio

nal M

ariti

me

Org

aniz

atio

n’s

initi

ativ

es to

prom

ote

train

ing

for o

il sp

ill p

repa

redn

ess

and

resp

onse

. The

Alli

ance

is a

ccre

dite

dto

del

iver

IM

O M

odel

Tra

inin

g C

ours

es a

nd U

K c

ours

es o

n be

half

of t

he U

KM

ariti

me

and

Coa

stgu

ard

Age

ncy.

Con

sulta

ncy

The

Alli

ance

dra

ws

upon

a w

orld

-wid

e ne

twor

k of

exp

erie

nced

con

sulta

nts

whi

ch,

com

bine

d w

ith a

team

of s

taff

in S

outh

ampt

on a

nd S

inga

pore

, giv

es a

n un

para

llele

dab

ility

to p

rovi

de c

onsu

ltanc

y se

rvic

es in

clud

ing:

• C

ontin

genc

y P

lann

ing:

Com

pany

/Inte

rnat

iona

l co

rpor

ate

plan

s, N

atio

nal

plan

s,P

ort a

nd fa

cilit

y-sp

ecifi

c pl

ans,

Pla

n re

view

s, c

apab

ility

rev

iew

s an

d ris

k as

sess

-m

ents

• E

nviro

nmen

tal

sens

itivi

ty m

appi

ng,

Site

-spe

cific

res

pons

e st

rate

gy,

Em

bedd

edvi

deo

foot

age

and

phot

o lib

rary

• O

il S

pill

Mod

ellin

g: O

il sp

ill w

eath

erin

g an

d fa

te a

naly

sis,

Tra

ject

ory

mod

ellin

g,S

toch

astic

(pro

babi

lity)

mod

ellin

g, H

ind-

cast

mod

ellin

g•

Exe

rcis

es:

Not

ifica

tion

exer

cise

s, T

able

-top

exer

cise

s, E

quip

men

t de

ploy

men

tex

erci

ses,

Inci

dent

man

agem

ent d

rills

. Ful

l sca

le T

ier 3

exe

rcis

e m

anag

emen

t•

Ded

icat

ed S

ervi

ces

and

Focu

sed

long

er te

rm a

dvis

ory

serv

ices

: Reg

iona

l pla

n-ni

ng a

dvic

e, S

peci

fic p

roje

ct d

evel

opm

ent,

On-

site

han

ds o

n im

plem

enta

tion,

One

-sto

p sh

op fo

r all

serv

ices

Oil

Indu

stry

Sup

port

Bes

ides

pro

vidi

ng k

ey re

spon

se s

ervi

ces,

com

preh

ensi

ve tr

aini

ng a

nd c

onsu

ltanc

y,th

e A

llian

ce is

a s

ourc

e of

tech

nica

l exp

ertis

e an

d su

ppor

t to

help

the

indu

stry

sol

vere

spon

se p

robl

ems

and

prov

ide

cost

-effe

ctiv

e so

lutio

ns

The

Alli

ance

ass

ists

oil

com

pani

es in

impr

ovin

g th

eir

resp

onse

cap

abili

ty b

y es

ta-

blis

hing

effe

ctiv

e pr

oced

ures

to m

aint

ain

thei

r on-

site

equ

ipm

ent t

hrou

gh th

e in

tro-

duct

ion

of c

ost-e

ffect

ive

resp

onse

reg

imes

. Th

e A

llian

ce c

ondu

cts

audi

ts a

ndas

sess

men

ts, h

elps

iden

tify

the

mos

t sui

tabl

e eq

uipm

ent,

train

s an

d ed

ucat

es s

taff

and

ensu

res

prop

er m

aint

enan

ce re

gim

es a

re in

pla

ce.

Ake

y as

pect

of a

ny p

roje

ct u

nder

take

n by

the

Alli

ance

is th

e ob

ject

ive

of im

prov

ing

resp

onse

and

hen

ce th

e ov

eral

l enh

ance

men

t of t

he o

il in

dust

ry’s

cap

abili

ty w

orld

-w

ide

On

beha

lf of

the

colle

ctiv

e oi

l ind

ustry

, the

Alli

ance

pro

mot

es th

e tie

red

resp

onse

conc

ept

and

dire

ctly

sup

ports

bot

h IP

IEC

Aan

d th

e IM

O in

the

pro

mot

ion

of t

heO

PR

C c

onve

ntio

n

Mr.

Paul

Kel

way

Emer

genc

y R

elie

f M

anag

er

– IF

AWO

iled

Wild

life

Div

isio

n

IFAW

’s r

ole

in o

iled

wild

life

resp

onse

FAW

was

est

ablis

hed

in 1

969

and

over

the

year

s ha

s gr

own

into

a le

adin

g in

tern

a-tio

nal a

nim

al w

elfa

re o

rgan

isat

ion

with

ove

r tw

o m

illio

n su

ppor

ters

. Its

wor

k is

aim

edat

pro

tect

ing

both

wild

and

dom

estic

ani

mal

s th

roug

h lo

ng-te

rm c

ampa

igns

and

res-

cue

and

relie

f ope

ratio

ns. O

ur m

issi

on is

to fi

nd s

olut

ions

that

ben

efit

both

ani

mal

san

d pe

ople

and

IFAW

wor

ks w

ith c

omm

uniti

es a

nd o

rgan

izat

ions

aro

und

the

wor

ldto

ach

ieve

this

.

IFAW

’s O

iled

Wild

life

Div

isio

n is

par

t of t

he E

mer

genc

y R

elie

f Pro

gram

and

is o

neof

fou

r di

visi

ons.

The

tea

m i

s co

-man

aged

by

IFAW

and

the

Int

erna

tiona

l B

irdR

escu

e R

esea

rch

Cen

ter (

IBR

RC

), w

hich

has

bee

n de

dica

ted

to o

iled

wild

life

reha

-bi

litat

ion

for 3

0 ye

ars.

IFAW

has

bee

n in

volv

ed in

this

fiel

d si

nce

1989

. Sin

ce th

en th

e te

am h

as g

row

n an

dsu

ppor

ted

man

y of

the

maj

or o

iled

wild

life

resp

onse

s in

rec

ent y

ears

. The

big

gest

resp

onse

rem

ains

the

Tre

asur

e sp

ill in

200

0 w

hen

over

20,

000

Afri

can

peng

uins

(Sph

enis

cus

dem

ersu

s) w

ere

oile

d. IF

AW w

orke

d ha

nd in

han

d w

ith th

e lo

cal r

eha-

bilit

atio

n or

gani

satio

n, S

AN

CC

OB

, und

er th

e di

rect

ion

of C

ape

Nat

ure

Con

serv

atio

nto

man

age

the

reha

bilit

atio

n ef

fort.

Ove

r 90%

wer

e su

cces

sful

ly re

habi

litat

ed. T

his

resp

onse

was

so

succ

essf

ul b

ecau

se o

f the

effe

ctiv

e pr

e-pl

anni

ng, g

ood

coor

dina

-tio

n be

twee

n st

akeh

olde

rs, i

t was

par

t of t

he o

vera

ll re

spon

se to

spi

ll an

d th

ere

was

a cl

ear m

anag

emen

t stru

ctur

e w

orki

ng to

pro

ven

reha

bilit

atio

n pr

otoc

ols.

IFAW

rec

ogni

ses

that

firs

t and

fore

mos

t pre

vent

ion

is th

e m

ost e

ffect

ive

long

-term

solu

tion

to o

iled

wild

life.

How

ever

, giv

en th

at a

ccid

ents

do

happ

en, w

e al

so a

im to

resp

ond

effe

ctiv

ely

and

redu

ce th

e im

pact

of o

il sp

ills

on w

ildlif

e as

wel

l as

impr

ove


47

the

abili

ty to

resp

ond

loca

lly a

nd b

e be

tter p

repa

red

in th

e fu

ture

. Th

is is

ach

ieve

dth

roug

h th

e pr

oduc

tion

of w

ildlif

e co

ntin

genc

y pl

ans

and

by h

ostin

g fo

rmal

wild

life

train

ings

.

Dur

ing

a re

spon

se w

e ar

e al

way

s se

nsiti

ve to

loca

l ow

ners

hip

of th

e sp

ill a

nd w

illon

ly b

ecom

e in

volv

ed if

we

have

bee

n in

vite

d to

do

so a

nd h

ave

appr

oval

of t

helo

cal a

utho

ritie

s. W

e w

ork

hand

in h

and

with

loca

l org

s an

d vo

lunt

eers

to p

rovi

deef

fect

ive

man

agem

ent o

f res

ourc

es a

nd to

impl

emen

t pro

ven

prot

ocol

s in

ord

er to

prov

ide

‘bes

t ach

ieva

ble

care

.’

In c

oncl

usio

n, IF

AW c

an h

elp

as p

art o

f the

team

, wor

king

at a

num

ber o

f lev

els

and

base

d on

our

exp

erie

nce

wor

king

in o

iled

wild

life

resp

onse

and

reh

abilit

atio

n ov

erm

any

year

s. H

owev

er, I

FAW

is n

ot th

e so

lutio

n. F

or th

at w

e m

ust a

ll w

ork

toge

ther

,w

hich

is w

hy th

is c

onfe

renc

e an

d th

e la

unch

of t

he IP

IEC

Agu

idel

ines

on

oile

d w

ild-

life

plan

ning

are

so

impo

rtant

and

exc

iting

.

Hug

o N

ijkam

p

Dire

ctor

Sea

Ala

rm F

ound

atio

n

The

Act

iviti

es o

f the

Sea

Ala

rm F

ound

atio

nTh

e S

ea A

larm

Fou

ndat

ion

aim

s to

faci

litat

e an

d m

otiv

ate

stra

tegi

c al

lianc

es a

mon

gN

GO

’s, i

ndus

try a

nd g

over

nmen

tal o

rgan

isat

ions

in o

rder

to r

espo

nd e

ffect

ivel

y to

oile

d w

ildlif

e in

cide

nts,

wor

k to

war

ds p

repa

redn

ess

for s

uch

a re

spon

se, a

nd w

he-

reve

r po

ssib

le,

tow

ards

oil

spill

pre

vent

ion.

In

its a

ctiv

ities

, th

e Fo

unda

tion

is a

nap

oliti

cal o

rgan

isat

ion

with

one

issu

e: to

sol

ve th

e pr

oble

ms

of a

n oi

led

wild

life

inci

-de

nt, b

y be

ing

a fa

cilit

ator

th

at le

ads

to a

gre

ater

inte

rnat

iona

l pre

pare

dnes

s an

dpr

ofes

sion

alis

m,

and,

in

the

case

of

an i

ncid

ent,

a co

ordi

nate

d, w

ell

orga

nise

dre

spon

se. I

n its

act

iviti

es, t

he F

ound

atio

n ai

ms

at fu

ll tra

nspa

renc

y.

Sea

Ala

rm w

orks

clo

sely

with

an

inte

rnat

iona

l wild

life

netw

ork

in E

urop

e, a

nd a

glo

-ba

l net

wor

k of

oile

d w

ildlif

e re

spon

se e

xper

ts n

etw

ork

(the

Inte

rnat

iona

l Alli

ance

of

Oile

d W

ildlif

e R

espo

nder

s).

Als

o cl

ose

cont

acts

are

mai

ntai

ned

with

par

ties

inin

dust

ry (o

il sp

ill re

spon

ders

, shi

p ow

ner o

rgan

isat

ions

, mar

itim

e in

sure

rs, s

alva

gein

dust

ry),

gove

rnm

enta

l or

gani

satio

ns

(reg

iona

l ag

reem

ents

, E

urop

ean

Com

mis

sion

, nat

iona

l aut

horit

ies)

and

inte

rnat

iona

lly o

pera

ting

anim

al w

elfa

re a

ndco

nser

vatio

n gr

oups

.

Sea

Ala

rm’s

act

iviti

es c

once

ntra

te a

roun

d co

mm

unic

atio

n, p

repa

redn

ess

and

resp

onse

.

Diff

eren

t fo

rmat

s of

com

mun

icat

ion

have

bee

n se

t up

: a

web

site

, a

new

slet

ter,

are

port

serie

s an

d a

serie

s of

Sea

Ala

rm C

onfe

renc

es.

By

mea

ns o

f in

form

atio

nex

chan

ge, t

he F

ound

atio

n ai

ms

to in

form

all

parti

es a

bout

pro

gres

s in

the

field

s of

prep

ared

ness

, res

pons

e an

d pr

even

tion,

and

its

own

activ

ities

.

Sea

Ala

rm a

dvoc

ates

pre

pare

dnes

s, to

resp

onsi

ble

parti

es b

y m

eans

of a

rticl

es a

nd


48

pres

enta

tions

, net

wor

king

, the

dev

elop

men

t of t

ools

and

sta

ndar

ds, c

onsu

ltanc

ies

and

train

ing.

Dur

ing

and

afte

r th

e re

spon

se to

an

inci

dent

, Sea

Ala

rm is

ava

ilabl

e to

ass

ist a

ndad

vice

s on

com

mun

icat

ion,

coo

rdin

atio

n an

d m

anag

emen

t, cl

aim

ant

icip

atio

n,ra

tiona

l app

roac

h, re

cord

kee

ping

. Als

o S

ea A

larm

is a

ble

to a

ssis

t loc

al p

artie

s to

cont

act t

he m

ariti

me

insu

rers

and

com

pens

atio

n re

gim

e to

com

mun

icat

e st

rate

gyan

d de

velo

pmen

ts,

faci

litat

e th

e sm

ooth

int

egra

tion

of n

atio

nal

and

inte

rnat

iona

lex

perti

se in

to th

e re

spon

se, m

ake

avai

labl

e to

ols

and

info

rmat

ion

(dat

abas

es, g

ui-

delin

es, e

tc).

Mor

e in

form

atio

n ca

n be

foun

d vi

a w

ww

.sea

-ala

rm.o

rg.


49

Ms. Barbara Callahan

IFAW ER Team, International BirdRescue Research Center

Oiled Wildlife Response and Rehabilitation: An Overview

This paper gives an overview of an Oiled Wildlife Response and RehabilitationProgramme, explaining the different goals and components of an oiled wildliferesponse and how successes can be defined. Additionally, it will review the effectsof oil on wildlife, the window of opportunity in which to successfully rehabilitate oiledseabirds and the need for a competent management team to be put in place, duringa response, that can effectively move animals through the rehabilitation process ina timely enough manner to prevent captive care related deaths.

Brief case studies with lessons learned will be discussed from both the Treasureand the Prestige oiled wildlife responses.

The key message from this paper is that mounting an oiled wildlife response andrehabilitating oiled wildlife is a complicated endeavour and the success of anyresponse is directly related to the level of planning that has been done in advanceof the emergency response.

ANNEX 8CLOSSING SESSION

Mr. Hugo Nijkamp

Director Sea Alarm Foundation

International co-operation on oiled wildlife inci-dentsThe need for well organised oiled wildlife responses mainly becomes apparentwhen marine oil incidents happen in or near areas of high animal abundance.Examples of recent incidents in Europe are Braer, Sea Empress, Erika, Prestige,Tricolor, Fu Shan Hai, Pallas, Baltic Carrier.

In this Conference we have seen in which way oil at sea can affect animals, andwhich kind of responses have been mounted by national and international organi-sations. Responses to the treatment of oiled animals require professional appro-aches in, e.g., the mounting of a reliable impact assessment, and the cleaning andrehabilitation of stricken animals. Large responses do require the involvement oflarge numbers of volunteers, which in turn require a professional approach in theirmanagement. Especially the most recent incidents have demonstrated that theseprofessional approaches exist and that experiences are increasingly shared at aninternational level.

It is important to continue to professionalise oiled wildlife response. Each of the pastincidents demonstrated that there is a large public interest in this work, demonstra-ted by, e.g., assistance from local communities, media coverage and the visits ofVIPs to the rehabilitation centres, once they are up and running. The experience inmany cases is that an oiled wildlife incident and the response take an importantplace in the memory of individuals that were involved as a volunteer of profession-al, but also in the collective memory. It is therefore important that oiled wildlife inci-dents be taken seriously by national authorities who are responsible for oil spillresponse and planning.


50

To bring oiled wildlife response to a higher professional level requires that expe-riences are shared at local, national and international levels, and that responses arecritically evaluated. Only in this way, can better approaches be developed and plan-ned for. However, it is an important observation from the Conference that the recentresponses in Europe were much dependant on the creativity, the experience andthe inputs of wildlife response organisations alone. Only few authorities take aninterest in the development of, and planning for, professional approaches in oiledwildlife incidents. There is, however, some good news.

Since 2000, some important developments have been initiated by oiled wildliferesponders at an international level. Leading wildlife responders have set up theInternational Alliance of Oiled Wildlife Responders, which is a promising platform forthe exchange of global experience and the development of standards. In Europe,Sea Alarm continues to connect wildlife responders and develop regional initiativesto improve exchange of information and the level of cooperation. Both initiativeshave lead to some successful interventions in recent spills, and have a promisingpotential for dealing with future incidents. This has been recognised by the respon-se industry, and this sector has increasingly become a useful ally, providing moralsupport and assistance with the development of international standards. A first mile-stone in the cooperation between oiled wildlife responders, the oil industry and theoil response industry is the IPIECA Guide to oiled wildlife response planning.

In conclusion, promising steps towards international cooperation in the field of oiledwildlife responses have been taken, although in Europe much work needs to bedone. Wildlife responders and the oil spill response industry have much commonground to cooperate on development oiled wildlife response standards. Togetherthey should call on authorities in coastal countries in Europe and elsewhere to usethe new IPIECA Guide and start integrating oiled wildlife response into their currentoil spill response plans.


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