FISH AND WILDLIFE CONTINGENCY PLANNING FOR OIL SPILLS: THE NEED FOR A NATIONAL WILDLIFE PLAN

摘要

If responders believe preplanning will help thembecome more successful during an oil spill, a recent survey showsthat they are not very successful at wildlife protection andresponse preplanning in Area Contingency Plans (ACPs), at leasthere on the Atlantic Coast. Wildlife planners in a few states, suchas California and Alaska, have committed considerable resourcesto develop statewide goals, best practices, and standards forwildlife planning and have also described tactical implementationfor wildlife protection. In most areas of the United States,however, planning for protection and rehabilitation of wildlife islimited to listing the name and phone number of the regionalwildlife volunteer organization.How is “success” achieved for wildlife protection and rehabilitation?Wildlife Resource Management Agencies have aresponsibility to support the ACP planning process as well as totell industry what they expect them to accomplish during an oilspill. Without goals and some tangible definition of success it isnot possible for planners neither to determine if they have doneadequate planning nor to determine if any given spill responseactually met the Wildlife Resource Management Agency's expectations.Wildlife Resource Management Agencies should provide theArea Committees with appropriate wildlife protection and responsegoals, recommended protocols, and best practices. Theobjective of the February 2001 workshop funded by the PrinceWilliam Sound Oil Spill Recovery Institute (OSRI) is to developnational standards and protocols relative to migratory birdsaffected or potentially affected by an oil spill. Perhaps these protocolsand standards could be published in a National WildlifePlan.A National Wildlife Plan should enable the Area Committee toidentify at least three things: (1) appropriate goals, such aswhich sensitive wildlife resources are most at risk and should beprotected; (2) appropriate protocols and strategies for the protectionand rehabilitation of wildlife including countermeasuresto protect wildlife habitats and the most useful wildlife hazingand preemptive capture strategies to protect the maximumnumber of the most critical resources; and (3) levels of wildlifeprotection and response resources needed to accomplish thesestrategies.The building of a National Wildlife Plan will require athoughtfully structured consensus process. One method would befor representatives of Wildlife Resource Management Agencies toactively participate in workshops or in an ecological riskassessment process designed to reach consensus on a wide rangeof wildlife issues.