Why to prepare for an oiled wildlife response?

Seabirds, in particular, can come ashore in large numbers if an oil spill hits at the wrong place and in the wrong season. There are examples of European incidents where several hundreds or even over a thousand live oiled individuals have washed ashore per day. Oil drifting towards feeding areas, breeding areas (birds), haul out sites (seals and sea lions) or nesting beaches (sea turtles) requires dedicated measures to be taken as part of the response operations.

Apart from trying ways of stopping the oil reaching these areas or preventing animals from becoming affected, it should be anticipated that oil will cause casualties. A worst case scenario will pose considerable and immediate logistical challenges to the authorities in charge of the shoreline response operations.

If they wash ashore, dead and live animals need to be collected and dealt with for a range of different reasons. The authorities may have to deal with a range of organisations and/or members of the public who wish to get themselves involved in in the response, including scientists, rehabilitation groups and individuals who are volunteering or appear on site without announcement.

Having a regularly exercised plan in place that can be executed by specially trained people offers the best guarantee that during a response all these interests are optimally dealt with according to pre-defined objectives, principles and strategies.