Basic course and four new trainers in Poland

WWF Poland are continuing their programme of oiled wildife response training, with a a BASIC oiled wildife responder course being organised in October 2024 in Gdańsk.

The EUROWA BASIC course gives volunteers, beginners to oiled wildlife response, with a practical overview of how they could organise themselves to deal with live birds coming ashore during an oil spill, under the supervision of more experienced professional responders. The course was held on 5-6th October in Gdańsk Wyspa Sobieszewska, organised and hosted by WWF Poland.

The trainees were WWF Blue Patrol Volunteers, a volunteer group devoted to helping seals, harbour porpoises and birds. Some participants from partner organisations and others that actively work on wildlife rescue and rehabilitation also took part. A large group of 39 partcipants successfully completed the course over two days, lead by WWF Poland trainers Aleksandra Botur, Magdalena Zadrąg, Aleksandra Sławska and Konrad Wrzecionkowski. The course was supervised by lead trainer Agnieszka Czujkowska from the Bird Asylum at Warsaw Zoo, a long time partner of WWF Poland for oiled wildife preparedness and response activities. In completing their mission, all four trainers were qualified as BASIC EUROWA trainers, meaning they are now able to run the course to more Polish volunteers in the future.

The trainers managed the participants in two groups for the practical sessions of bird capture on the beach and initial intake actions at a Beachhead Collection Point. The Belgian member of the Roboduck family was taken along to the course and every volunteer had a chance to catch him once or twice!