EUROWA experts present at Baltic oiled wildlife response webinar

On March 31st, Sascha Regmann, Vanessa Ryan and Agni Kaldma, representatives of the EUROWA Network, presented at a Baltic webinar ‘Oiled Wildlife Response – Methods and Opportunities’.

The webinar was organised by the OIL SPILL Project, which is funded by the EU’s Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme with the aim of enhancing oil spill response capability in the Baltic Sea Region. It was attended by 30 participants from Baltic countries, who learned about best practice and recent developments in oiled wildlife preparedness courtesy of EUROWA’s strong presence in the Baltic Region.

Sascha Regmann (PRO Bird, Germany), presented a range of case studies and response options from oil spill accidents in Germany, Spain, Norway and the Netherlands, illustrating them with multiple photographs and reflections on successes and things to be improved in these responses.

Agni Kaldma (EUROWA Technical Expert, Estonia) focused her presentation on the tasks and expertise needed in the care of oiled animals, highlighting the need for volunteers with different levels of oiled wildlife response knowledge (basic and advanced responders) but also general support for the many other tasks needed in these kind of operations (food preparation, logistics, health & safety, etc).

Vanessa Ryan (WWF Finland) gave an overview of developing oiled wildlife response in Europe. The presentation highlighted the importance of preparedness at a national, Regional and European level and why having the right wildlife data for the decision-making process is key. Vanessa also presented the EUROWA Network and introduced the EUROWA-2 project with its main objectives and outcomes.

More details of the webinar and copies of the three presentations can be found on the Interreg Baltic Sea website here.