Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) recently announced the opening of a new base in Saldanha Bay, South Africa. OSRL has worked closely with Sea Alarm and other oiled wildlife response organisations for many years, maintaining stockpiles of equipment for oiled wildlife response, which can be shipped anywhere in the world on very short notice.
The coast of South Africa has been the site of multiple spills affecting Cape gannets and several key colonies of endangered African penguins over the years.Two spills, the Treasure and the Apollo Sea, were responsible for the oiling of over 40,000 penguins. Most recently, the South African Foundation for Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) rescued and rehabilitated nearly 300 gannets and penguins after the Kiani Satu ran aground in August of 2013.
The new OSRL base, which houses a state of the art subsea well capping stack, will be able to respond more rapidly to spills in the area, aiding in reducing the impact of spills in the region. Oiled wildlife response organisations welcome their presence in South Africa.