SUBMON is part of the consortium of the EUROWA-2 project, which will begin in January 2021, focusing on the development of oiled wildlife preparedness in Europe. EUROWA-2 will be a 2-year project co-funded by the European Commission’s Civil Protection Financial Instrument. The project is a follow-up to the first EUROWA project, which ran in 2015-16, during which the EUROWA mutual assistance philosophy and training modules were developed.

EUROWA-2 will further strengthen Europe’s capacity to deal with marine wildlife emergencies via integrated mutual assistance between coastal countries and the availability of a European network of internationally qualified EUROWA experts. The project builds on existing European mechanisms for mutual assistance between countries and aims towards having coordinated teams of qualified EUROWA experts that can be internationally mobilised to assist in an emergency, under the command of the leading national authorities. The project will also engage European authorities to help develop processes for proactive management of pollution incidents that allow the integration of a timely and effective wildlife response.

The organisations that make up the EUROWA network will be supported through the project in deepening relationships with their national authorities and engaging them in the need to devote more attention to preparedness for wildlife emergencies. EUROWA-2 also seeks to expand the existing network to other European countries; to add new elements to the EUROWA expertise portfolio (namely sea turtle response, risk analysis and impact assessment); and to make training courses and exercises available for network members and their authorities. SUBMON’s main job in this project will be to develop guidelines for oiled sea turtle response. Sea Alarm Foundation will be coordinating this project, in cooperation with SUBMON, WWF Finland and Royal NIOZ (the Netherlands).

Stay tuned through SeaAlarm’s newsletters and the soon-to-be-developed dedicated website www.eurowa.eu.