POSOW course transitions into the EUROWA portfolio

Since 2014, the European standard for first responder oiled wildlife training has been the POSOW Wildlife course for volunteers, which was developed under Sea Alarm’s coordination, as part of the first EU funded POSOW project (2013-2014).

The EU funded EUROWA project (2015-2016) developed complementary course modules for responders who would operate at more advanced levels. Within the EUROWA course portfolio, the POSOW Wildlife course served as the core of the BASIC course.

In day-to-day practice however, it became clear that EUROWA needed a manual of its own for this course to fit into the portfolio of manuals EUROWA has developed over the years. Because the POSOW course was still very much fit for purpose, but included some specific Mediterranean topics, Sea Alarm and the POSOW lead organisations, CEDRE and REMPEC, discussed ways the existing course could fit both EUROWA and POSOW purposes.

It was agreed that future content of the POSOW course would be based on the more recently updated EUROWA BASIC course standards, and the responsibility for keeping the course current would be transferred to the EUROWA expert network, led by Sea Alarm. In this way the course could be published in a two-fold way, i.e. as a new EUROWA manual without the Mediterranean-specific content and, under the POSOW portfolio, in its original format for Mediterranean purposes.

On the basis of this agreement, a EUROWA house style document, which is now “Part G” of the EUROWA portfolio, was developed to accommodate the POSOW course. This new EUROWA manual has already been translated into Dutch and German, and published to serve training programs in the Netherlands and Germany. The English version is currently underway.

As the EUROWA BASIC course is the one that is most frequently provided internationally, the new manual and its POSOW counterpart both serve an important purpose in many countries in and outside of Europe. This is another step towards increasing the EUROWA family of documents, and the progressive development of an increasing and ever better prepared community of trained responders in Europe.