PREPAREDNESS & RESPONSE
Preparedness can be defined “as a set of measures undertaken by governments, organisations, communities, and/or individuals to better respond and cope with the immediate aftermath of a disaster, whether it be man-made or caused by natural hazards”.
Wildlife preparedness operates under the same principal except the focus is on assisting animals that have been impacted by a disaster either man-made or due to natural causes. Examples of disasters that affect wildlife include disease outbreaks, mass abandonments and oil spills.
There are many threats facing seabirds which include food shortage, habitat destruction, extreme weather events, predation, marine pollution, human disturbance, and disease outbreaks. Historical disasters have had a negative impact on seabird populations. As seabird numbers continue to dwindle, a concerning picture is emerging that without effective mitigation measures many of these species could soon become extinct.
SANCCOB recognises that reactive response is insufficient and that proactively planning, and preparation is required to mitigate the effects and minimise the impact. SANCCOB collaborates with government, industry, NGOs, and other organisations to adequately plan tactics for affected seabirds.
SANCCOB’s focus areas for Preparedness and Response include, but are not limited to the following:
- Oiled Wildlife Preparedness and Emergency Response
- Disease Outbreaks
- Mass Abandonments
Consultancy
SANCCOB has responded to every major oil spill affecting seabirds along the Southern African coastline since its establishment in 1968, including Tier 3 incidents in Namibia and Tristan da Cunha in the Southern Ocean. Due to its long-standing expertise in this field, SANCCOB is the primary organisation listed in South Africa’s National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP) to respond to seabirds affected, or at risk of oil pollution. In terms of global preparedness, SANCCOB is a member of the Global Oiled Wildlife Response Systems (GOWRS), consisting of ten leading international oiled wildlife organisations available to respond to Tier 3 incidents 24/7/365.
SANCCOB maintains an oiled wildlife response team comprised of trained and experienced emergency managers, professional wildlife rehabilitators, biologists, and veterinarians. The response team are fully trained in the Incident Management System (IMS), are HAZWOPER certified and can be deployed 24/7/365 in the event of an oil pollution incident affecting sea- and coastal birds. The team also provides on-the-job training to wildlife contractors, government officials and volunteers.
SANCCOB maintains its preparedness through the following interventions each year:
- Internal deployment exercise for all SANCCOB staff
- Yearly washing and rinsing are practical for all SANCCOB rehabilitation staff
- Targeted oiled wildlife response training for the African Penguin and Seabird Rangers based on Dassen Island, Robben Island, Bird Island, Stony Point and Simon’s Town
- First responder training on oiled wildlife response for SANCCOB volunteers
- Monthly checks of the dedicated Wash Bay facilities in Cape Town and Gqeberha
- Biannual checks of the equipment stockpiles in Cape Town and Gqeberha
In addition, SANCCOB is the custodian of stockpiles of oiled wildlife response equipment for seabirds in South Africa, strategically located in Cape Town and Gqeberha. SANCCOB recently procured basic oiled wildlife response kits for the main seabird colonies, namely Dassen, Robben, Dyer and Bird Islands and the land-based colonies of Stony Point and Simon’s Town. These kits contain personal protective equipment and stabilisation equipment that rangers in the colonies can use in the event seabirds are oiled. As no rangers reside on St Croix Island, a smaller mobile kit that can be transported on and off the island during patrols was procured. The kit consists of essential personal protective equipment stored in a waterproof bag. The procurement of oiled wildlife response equipment for the stockpiles and basic colony kits is funded through the Association of Zoos and Aquaria’s (AZA) SAFE Disaster Relief Programme.
SANCCOB’s historical involvement in oil spill response makes it uniquely placed to offer the following consultancy services.
- Oiled wildlife preparedness contingency plans
- Preparedness capabilities and technical planning
- Oiled wildlife response retainer
- Marine wildlife response equipment identification and procurement
- First Responder theoretical and practical training
SANCCOB’s Preparedness and Response Manager, Monica Stassen can be contacted at Monica@sanccob.co.za for more information.
OILED WILDLIFE RESPONSE
South Africa is a maritime nation with a coastline of over 3 900km (including the coastline around the Prince Edwards Islands). In South Africa, oil spills are a major concern given that South Africa is along a major shipping route with an estimated 30 000 vessels that pass the South African coastline annually. Unfortunately, South Africa has experienced several devastating oil spills and is considered a global hotspot for oil pollution; examples include the Apollo in 1994 and the Treasure in 2000, both of which affected thousands of African penguins and other seabirds. South Africa permits offshore oil and gas exploration and extraction, posing a risk of oil pollution or well blow-outs.
South Africa hosts a high biodiversity of marine species including sea and coastal birds, many of which are of high conservation value. Seabirds are vulnerable to oil pollution, particularly African Penguins as they cannot fly nearby an area where birds are concentrated. Contingency planning before an oil spill occurs is key to ensuring an appropriate and timeous response strategy is selected and implemented. Emphasis should not be placed on quantity of oil spilled, but rather the location; areas that are ecologically and biologically sensitive can potentially result in a large-scale clean-up effort and wildlife response. Even small amounts of oil can have detrimental effects on seabirds both in the short term and in the long term.
Why is SANCCOB involved?
- SANCCOB is legally mandated to respond to oil affected seabird according to legislation in South Africa.
- SANCCOB aims to protect species of conservation value including those that are endemic to the region or listed on the IUCN Red Data List.
- SANCCOB has a moral obligation to humanely minimise wildlife suffering.
To address increased recognition of oiled wildlife as a core component of tiered preparedness for oil spills, the Global Oiled Wildlife Response System (GOWRS) was initiated in 2015 to develop a Tier 3 (international) system for oiled wildlife response. This project brought together ten of the world’s leading oiled wildlife preparedness and response organisations to develop key readiness guidance documents for ensuring professional, effective preparedness and response.
The organisations currently involved in the GOWRS network include the following:
Aiuká (Brazil); Focus Wildlife International (US/Canada); International Bird Rescue (USA); Oiled Wildlife Care Network, UC Davis (USA); PRO Bird (Germany); RSPCA (UK); SANCCOB (South Africa); Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research Inc. (USA); Wildbase, Massey University (NZ); and Wildlife Rescue Centre Ostend (Belgium).
The GOWRS Project is now operational and as of 2022, this wildlife response has become part of Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) Service Level Agreement (SLA). GOWRS is a ready‐to‐deploy Assessment Team of four wildlife response experts, drawn from 10 leading international wildlife response organisations, which will be available 24/7/365 to deploy for a four‐day in‐country incident assessment.
More information on GOWRS can be found here.
DISASTERS
Oiled Wildlife Response
South Africa is a maritime nation with a coastline of over 3 900km (including the coastline around the Prince Edwards Islands). In South Africa, oil spills are a major concern given that South Africa is along a major shipping route with an estimated 30 000 vessels that pass the South African coastline annually. Unfortunately, South Africa has experienced several devastating oil spills and is considered a global hotspot for oil pollution; examples include the Apollo in 1994 and the Treasure in 2000, both of which affected thousands of African penguins and other seabirds. South Africa permits offshore oil and gas exploration and extraction, posing a risk of oil pollution or well blow-outs.
South Africa hosts a high biodiversity of marine species including sea and coastal birds, many of which are of high conservation value. Seabirds are vulnerable to oil pollution, particularly African Penguins as they cannot fly nearby an area where birds are concentrated. Contingency planning before an oil spill occurs is key to ensuring an appropriate and timeous response strategy is selected and implemented. Emphasis should not be placed on quantity of oil spilled, but rather the location; areas that are ecologically and biologically sensitive can potentially result in a large-scale clean-up effort and wildlife response. Even small amounts of oil can have detrimental effects on seabirds both in the short term and in the long term.
Why is SANCCOB involved?
- SANCCOB is legally mandated to respond to oil affected seabird according to legislation in South Africa.
- SANCCOB aims to protect species of conservation value including those that are endemic to the region or listed on the IUCN Red Data List.
- SANCCOB has a moral obligation to humanely minimise wildlife suffering.
Summary of the top 10 most notable oil spills that SANCCOB responded to where seabirds were affected
|
Year
|
Incident
|
Location
|
Sea birds Affected
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
1968
|
Esso Essen – 4092 tons of crude
|
Cape Point
|
|
|
1983
|
Saldanha Bay
|
5,000 Cape gannets & 800 African penguins
|
|
|
1994
|
Apollo Sea - 2400 tons heavy fuel oil
|
Robben Island
|
10,000 African penguins
|
|
1995
|
Mystery Spill
|
Dyer island
|
1,600 African penguins
|
|
2000
|
Treasure - 1300 tons heavy fuel oil
|
Robben Island & Dassen Island
|
~21,000 African penguins
50 Cape cormorants
30 Cape gannets
~19 500 African penguins pre-emptively captured and released.
|
|
2011
|
MS Oliva
|
Tristan da Cunha
|
4,000 Rockhopper penguins
|
|
2012
|
Seli 1 (Chronic spillage)
|
Table Bay
|
254 – African penguins
33 – African penguin chicks abandoned
3 – African penguin eggs abandoned
2 – Cape gannets
|
|
2013
|
Kiani Satu
|
Buffels Bay
|
|
|
2016
|
Energy Challenger (Offshore Ship-to-Ship bunkering operation)
|
Algoa Bay
|
103 African penguins
20 African penguin chicks
30 African penguin chicks (abandoned)
|
|
2019
|
MV Chrysanthi S - (Offshore Ship-to-Ship bunkering operation)
|
Algoa Bay
|
92 African penguins
9 African penguin chicks (abandoned)
3 African penguin Eggs (not viable)
13 Cape gannets
5 Cape cormorants
|
This table is a sample of the most notable oil spills where seabirds were affected. There are several other incidents that SANCCOB responded to that are not represented in the table.
Disease Outbreaks
Disease outbreaks can have a significant impact on wild seabirds, especially those suffering from other environmental stressors. Contingency planning and appropriate intervention can reduce the impact of the outbreak. SANCCOB has been at the forefront of the response to several seabird-related disease outbreaks, including avian influenza, avian cholera, and avian malaria. Disease mortality can be high enough to cause a population-level effect in some species. Often treatment is not possible and severely compromised seabirds with a poor prognosis may require euthanasia. SANCCOB aids conservation authorities through our seabird disease surveillance programme and by developing disease outbreak response protocols which include veterinary expertise for the diagnosis and care of affected birds, monitoring and reporting disease effects, human health and safety and appropriate carcass disposal. SANCCOB has recently collaborated with conservation authorities, research institutes and other NGOs to develop a national contingency plan for disease outbreak management in seabirds.
Case study - Avian Influenza
South Africa’s worst recorded seabird disease outbreaks occurred in 2018 and 2021. Thousands of seabirds died from outbreaks of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) a new and particularly dangerous strain of bird flu.
Over 1 000 African Penguins are reported to have died from avian influenza during these outbreaks. Other seabirds were affected even more severely, over 24 000 endangered Cape Cormorants died in 2021, and more than 5 000 swift terns and 1500 endangered Cape Gannets also died. Hundreds of other terns and gulls were also recorded as having died from this disease. The true numbers of seabird deaths could be even higher because not all the birds that die in an outbreak are found or reported.
SANCCOB’s long-standing history of disease research and surveillance was crucial in response to the avian influenza outbreak in the wild. We were able to assist the State Veterinary Service, the Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Environment, the conservation authorities, universities and other stakeholders during the outbreak.
Mass Abandonment
Climate change, lack of food, unpredictable weather patterns, habitat destruction are all causes that result in adult seabirds abandoning their chicks. In recent years, there has been an increase in the frequency of seabird egg and chick abandonment incidents. Conservation authorities assess the appropriate time to intervene and transfer eggs and chicks to SANCCOB to be artificially hand reared.
Often abandoned chicks arrive at SANCCOB severely dehydrated, malnourished, and occasionally injured from an unsuccessful predation which impacts their chances of survival. SANCCOB is working with conservation authorities to ensure that abandoned chicks are removed as quickly as possible to minimise the risk of dehydration, weight loss and predation. SANCCOB as an organization is developing internal contingency plans to ensure that we can respond timeously and effectively to mass abandonments in the future.
Case study - Lesser Flamingo Chicks
In January 2019, SANCCOB Cape Town admitted 560 Lesser flamingo chicks, due to abandonment by their parents during a drought affecting Kamfers Dam in Kimberley. The chicks arrived in very poor condition and severely dehydrated, and unfortunately, some chicks did not survive the journey to Cape Town.
This was a first for SANCCOB; having never hand-reared flamingo chicks before so a steep learning curve unfolded for the team. Partner zoos and aquariums travelled from across the world to share their flamingo rearing and husbandry experience to assist us. This was an intense time during the first couple of weeks. Mortality was high during the first week; deaths ranged from general dehydration to yolk sac infection and salmonella.
SANCCOB received an enormous amount of support from the public; from donating much-needed items from our wish list to volunteering their time. The surviving Lesser flamingo juveniles were hand reared over several months and were transferred by air to a purpose-built quarantine facility in Kimberley for further evaluation before release back at Kamfers Dam. Each released juvenile flamingo was fitted with a numbered colour band on its leg, which will be used for post-release monitoring purposes.
Case study - Cape Cormorant Chicks
In January 2021, SANCCOB admitted over 2000 Cape Cormorant chicks from Robben Island and Jutten Island after they were abandoned by their parents. Many of the chicks were in poor condition when rescued. The unavoidable stress of capture, transportation and stabilisation plus their poor condition resulted in many of the most compromised chicks dying in the first week. 90% of all mortalities observed, happened within the first eight days after rescue. Cape cormorants are known to be a challenging species to care for in a rehabilitation facility due to their tendency to imprint on humans. Despite this challenge, the SANCCOB team hand-reared more than 1,000 birds.
Lack of food is the suspected reason for the mass abandonment, with low levels of small pelagic fish stocks, primarily sardine, cited by environmental scientists. The mismatch between the timing of breeding and hot weather conditions as experienced in January 2021 was also a factor. Rising temperatures due to climate change will further negatively affect fish availability, so these mass abandonments may become more frequent. Cape cormorants are listed as Endangered by the IUCN, and further reductions of their main prey, extreme weather events and other threats may well take this previously abundant species to the brink of extinction.
The high number of birds rescued made this response the second-largest seabird rescue since the MV Treasure oil spill in 2000. This incident highlighted the importance of the African Penguin Seabird Ranger who first alerted SANCCOB of the incident.