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IFAW updates
(Pontevedra, Spain – 8 January 2003)
Dozens of rehabilitated
sea birds will be returned to the wild off the coast of Spain
this week thanks to the International Fund for Animal Welfare
(IFAW) Emergency Relief (ER) team. These latest releases cap
a two-month wildlife rescue and rehabilitation effort by the
IFAW ER team, which collaborated closely with local authorities
in responding to one of the world’s worst-ever oil spills.
As the tanker Prestige sank to the sea floor
off the coast of Spain last November, environmentalists prepared
for a spill worse than the Exxon Valdez. Concerns grew as
affected wildlife – including rare and endangered sea
birds – began appearing on the beaches covered thick
with oil. At the request of SEO/Birdlife, the Spanish ornithological
society, the IFAW ER team quickly deployed international experts
from the International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC)
and established a rescue and rehabilitation center in Pontevedra,
Spain.
Released birds include gannets, shags, cormorants,
razorbills, guillemots, storm petrels, scoters, Atlantic puffins,
and several species of gulls. To date, the team has successfully
treated, rehabilitated and released more than 180 birds back
to the wild.
“We are heartened by the release of these
birds, but the long-term effects of this spill could last
years,” said IFAW ER team member Barbara
Callahan. “Two months after the Prestige went down
oiled animals are still being found each day. Along with continuing
rescue and rehabilitation, we are working to assist authorities
to increase local capacity during oil spills and help develop
contingency plans for future impact.”
For the past several weeks the IFAW ER team has
been training local volunteers and responders to take over
the Pontevedra center and prepare for more oiled wildlife.
Xunta, the Spanish environmental authority, plans to continue
the rescue and rehabilitation of marine animals as well as
the tedious process of cleaning the beaches affected by the
spill.
“We are very grateful to the IFAW Emergency
Relief team and the many concerned individuals who have come
to Spain to assist these animals,” said Vicente Piorno,
Xunta Coordinator for the Center. “The unique expertise
IFAW has shared with us has made a critical difference and
better prepared us to handle the tasks ahead. We very much
look forward to further collaboration.”
Why we're here
First rescued birds released back to the wild
(Lisbon, Portugal - 14 December 2002)
The first oiled birds rescued from the Prestige
tanker disaster in Spain were released back to the wild in
Portugal today, by the International Fund for Animal Welfare
(IFAW -- www.ifaw.org ) and the Spanish environment authority
Xunta. The birds had been cared for at the main wildlife rehabilitation
center for the crisis, which is being run in Pontevedra, Spain
by IFAW’s Emergency Relief Team.
It was necessary to release the birds in Portugal
as the oil spill, the worst in Spain’s history, has affected
Spain’s entire northwest coastline. Twenty-two fully
rehabilitated birds were transported seven hours by truck
to Bahia de Setubal in Portugal, just outside of Lisbon, where
they were released into one of Portugal’s national marine
reserves. The released birds included razorbills, guillemots,
puffins, loons, scoters and gulls.
IFAW representatives at the release were joined
by Xunta’s Director General for Natural Conservation,
Francisco Bobadilla, and Portugal’s Director General
of the National Institute for Nature Conservation, Carlos
Albuquerque.
Since the start of the crisis three weeks ago,
hundreds of birds have arrived at the center covered in oil
and suffering from hypothermia and dehydration. The IFAW ER
Team first stabilizes the birds with fluids and food fed by
tube, and once they are strong enough they are washed and
dried, before being put into recovery pools to regain their
waterproofing. The center is currently caring for 334 birds.
The IFAW ER Team in Pontevedra has vets and wildlife
rehabilitation experts from eight countries around the world
and about 50 local volunteers.
Jay Holcomb,
the IFAW ER Team Leader, said, “This is what we have
been waiting for since the first birds arrived. It is at last
some good news in what has been a wildlife tragedy.
“It has been difficult to find a location
where the birds could be released because the whole of the
coast in this part of Spain is getting oil washed ashore.
In consultation with all the Spanish experts we have chosen
this area of Portugal because it already has good colonies
of birds and it is not too far for us to transport them.”
* * *
(Pontevedra, Spain -- 6 December 2002)
Spain volunteers to the rescue?
Hope that number of birds will increase thanks
to volunteers
It is hoped that
many more birds can be rescued from the hundreds of small
oil patches now hitting the northwest coast of Spain as an
army of 3,000 volunteers arrives to help over the national
holiday weekend says the International Fund for Animal Welfare
(IFAW).
With hundreds of kilometers of coastline to cover
it is hoped that the volunteers from all over Spain will make
a significant difference to the success of the search and
rescue operation.
The original giant slick has now broken up into
countless smaller ones and these are blanketing the National
Maritime Atlantic Islands Park, which is home to tens of thousands
of migrating and indigenous bird species.
“We have been very concerned that although
we have had hundreds of birds come to the rehabilitation center
we are running, that many thousands more are out there dying
and have not be found up until now because of lack of people
searching,” said Jay
Holcomb, leader of IFAW’s Emergency Relief Team.
“Hopefully with this massive influx of volunteers
things will improve. The oil patches are now all over this
marine wildlife reserve park and coming ashore in big numbers
much further south, which is the most sensitive area for the
birds.”
IFAW’s ER Team in cooperation with the local
wildlife authority Xunta has set up the rehab center at Pontevedra.
It is manned by 15 veterinarians and wildlife rehabilitation
experts, who have flown in from seven countries around the
world. There are also about 50 local volunteers at the center
every day.
The center is currently caring for 288 birds,
including razor bills, gannets, cormorants, kittiwakes, and
rare species such as the yellow-legged gull that is only found
in Galicia.
* * *
Note:
On November 15th, 2002, IFAW's Emergency Relief
(ER) Team joined local animal groups in efforts to rescue
animals oiled by the stricken Prestige tanker off the north-west
coast of Spain.
The ER Team's oiled wildlife experts have been
called in to assist by SEO/Birdlife Spain (Spanish Society
for Ornithology) as fears grow that thousands of birds could
suffer effects from the slick that has already soiled 125
miles of Spanish coastline. The team is now working closely
with regional wildlife authorities and WWF Spain
IFAW’s Emergency Relief Team is managed cooperatively
by IFAW and the International Bird Rescue Research Center
(IBRRC), which brings over 30 years of experience responding
to oiled wildlife. The team is comprised of leaders in the
field of wildlife rehabilitation, biology, veterinary medicine
and management who are professionals from Australia, Brazil,
Canada, Germany, South Africa, UK and USA.
In 2000 the team jointly led the response to the
Treasure oil spill in Cape Town, South Africa, with Sanccob,
which was the largest of its kind. This required a three-month
operation involving 12,000 volunteers and ultimately of the
20,000 oiled African penguins, 90% were released back into
the wild. The IFAW ER Team has attended more than a dozen
major oil spill wildlife disasters around the world in recent
years. IFAW's ER team now has such experience that it is recognized
as having a global presence that supersedes other oiled wildlife
response organizations. The team arrived in Spain November
21.
* * *
Media Contact:
Nick Jenkins (IFAW) – UK Tel: 44 7799 883355;
or 44 1634 830888; 44 (20) 7587 6733; E-mail: njenkins@ifaw.org.
For more information visit www.ifaw.org
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