March 27, 2025 • 57 mins
In this episode we explore some of the challenges in responding to wildlife emergencies. Our guest is Dr. Michael Ziccardi, a wildlife veterinarian with over 30 years of experience in oil wildlife preparedness and response. Dr. Ziccardi has been at the forefront of numerous wildlife rescue operations in the US and around the world. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the One Health Institute at the University of California, Davis and Director Emeritus of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network.
We explore the complexities of wildlife response in oil spills, and how the technical understanding, the response strategies and systems have been developed over the years. Dr. Ziccardi shares his insights on the challenges and advancements in this field, the importance of preparedness, and the collaborative efforts required to protect wildlife.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Paul Kelway (00:03):
Hello and welcome to the Response Force Multiplier
, a podcast that exploresemergency planning and response.
On the Response ForceMultiplier, we bring together
compelling experts and thoughtleaders to provide a fresh take
on key issues and cutting edgetechniques in this field.
In each episode we'll dive intoone aspect and we'll use OSRL's
(00:26):
unique pool of experts andcollaborators to distill that
down into actual tools andtechniques for better
preparedness and response toincidents and emergencies.
My name is Emma Smiley, we areOSRL and this is the Response
Force Multiplier.
And this is the Response ForceMultiplier.
Hello and welcome to theResponse Force Multiplier with
(00:48):
OSRL.
In this episode, we'll beexploring some of the challenges
in responding to wildlifeemergencies.
Our guest is Dr MichaelZaccardi, a wildlife
veterinarian with over 30 yearsof experience in old wildlife
preparedness and response.
Dr Sakadi has been at theforefront of numerous wildlife
rescue operations both in the USand around the world.
He currently serves as theExecutive Director of the One
(01:11):
Health Institute at theUniversity of California Davis
and is also Director Emeritus ofthe Oiled Wildlife Care Network
in California.
We'll explore the complexitiesof wildlife response in oil
spills and how the technicalunderstanding, the response
strategies and the systems havebeen developed over the years.
Dr Zaccardi shares his insightson the challenges and
advancements in this field, theimportance of preparedness and
(01:33):
the collaborative effortsrequired to protect wildlife.
So get ready to learn about theincredible work involved in
responding to wildlifeemergencies.
Let's dive into my interviewwith Dr Michael Zaccardi.
Well, thanks so much for doingthis, Mike.
I really appreciate it.
So I suppose, just to startthings off, let me just ask you
to briefly describe yourbackground and your role.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (01:56):
Happy to join you on this, paul.
My background is I'm a wildlifeveterinarian.
I've been so for more than 30years really, with my career
dedicated to betterunderstanding and mitigating
effects of oil on wildlife.
So did my veterinary degree,with an emphasis on free-ranging
wildlife, and moved on and dida master's and a PhD
(02:18):
specifically looking at how wecan detect oil in animals that
aren't physically covered, thenan oiled wildlife preparedness
and response for more than 30years.
Some of my first spillsinvolved here in California, but
followed that working with theOil Wildlife Care Network here
in California to help usestablish and continue the
(02:39):
program here.
And since then I've actuallymoved into the executive
director role at the One HealthInstitute here at the School of
Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis,getting more involved in
broader aspects in addition tothe global oil wildlife
preparedness response work, alsoworking more at the One Health
Interface disaster response, nowin charge of the disaster
(03:03):
response program for californiathat involved domestic animals
and livestock as well.
Paul Kelway (03:08):
Jack of all trades, master of none, I guess, is
probably the best way to say itwell, I'm not sure about the
latter, but I think that'sobviously one of the reasons why
it's good to talk to you aboutthis particular subject, because
not only have you been involvedin it for a long time, but
you've seen it from manydifferent perspectives and, in
california, globally, differenttypes of spills and challenges.
So hopefully we can get intosome of that here, sure, but I
(03:32):
think a natural starting pointis, I think, first of all, just
to understand how oil and othercontaminants actually affect
wildlife, because obviouslythat's the basis of
understanding how to respondeffectively.
So, just for those that aren'tso familiar, I guess, in terms
of the impacts and, I suppose,the types of animals that we're
most likely dealing with thosekinds of incidents, sure?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (03:55):
well, first it's important to
understand oil.
There are literally thousandsof different compounds in oil
and there are hundreds ofdifferent oil products, and so
every oil spill is different.
Every region of the world isdifferent in how that affects
animals.
But really, as far as the acuteeffects, we kind of divide it
(04:15):
up into external effects andinternal effects.
For birds and heavily furredmammals usually, usually the
external effects are the onesthat we're most concerned about,
so the actual physical coatingof the animals due to oil.
Some of the main reasons whyanimals are so at risk,
especially those species, isbecause they use their feathers
(04:39):
or their fur to stay warm in acold environment.
So what the feathers do is trapa layer of air next to the skin
and it's that insulativeproperty of the air next to them
that keeps animals warm,especially bobbing along in the
cold water.
So think of it as a dry suitfor us.
What happens with oil is itcreates a hole in that dry suit,
(05:02):
allows water to seep next tothe skin.
They can get very cold veryquickly.
When they get cold they have tomaintain their core body
temperature.
Their metabolism goes up to tryto stay warm.
They also can no longer stay atthe surface of the water,
especially for birds and mammalsthat need to be right at that
(05:22):
air-water interface.
So they have to expend moreenergy to stay up at that level
and because of these things theycan't dive under the water to
forage for food items, whichthey need for nutrition as well
as for hydration.
So really it's this combinedeffect of that external problems
(05:43):
which they can becomedebilitated and actually die in
a matter of hours due to thatcoating.
Now for the internal exposure.
One of the ways birds andfurred mammals try to repair
that dry suit is by preening orgrooming the oil off and so
really trying to remove that oil, and by doing that they can
(06:05):
actually ingest oil.
Ingesting oil can literallyaffect every organ in the entire
body Respiratory tract,gastrointestinal tract, liver,
kidneys.
It can affect the reproductivesystem as well.
So not only do you have thisexternal exposure which is
causing problems, but you havethe ingestion which can cause
(06:26):
more chronic effects.
So even if animals can repairthat damage or we can go out,
capture them, rehabilitate themand release them, they can have
these chronic effects that go onfor literally years.
So it's this multisystemicproblem which really can cause
(06:46):
issues in wildlife species, notonly individual animals, but
also population level effects,if the spill is significant
enough.
Paul Kelway (06:57):
I guess that's what makes it both complex and
complicated.
You're dealing with these peakevents, but actually how you
manage that peak momentultimately has long-term impacts
on wildlife.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (07:10):
So that journey, I guess, of
understanding how to actuallyrespond effectively and take
both of those things intoconsideration so absolutely so
it's one of the reasons why,over the past 30 years or so,
we've spent a lot of time andeffort, money, into research to
better understand not only howto respond more rapidly and to
care for animals better in thefacilities, but really
(07:32):
understanding those long-termchronic effects to really help
us direct our therapies anddirect our response capabilities
to do the best good for themost animals that are involved
response capabilities to do thebest good for the most animals
that are involved.
Paul Kelway (07:49):
In terms of how do you approach that, I think
people will generally have theirideas or preconceptions about
what is involved in respondingto an old wildlife incident, and
I think the obvious iconicpicture is often the washing oil
off animals.
It's sometimes the thing that,mistakenly, people might try to
do first, but obviously it'smuch broader than that.
So what would be a morecomplete definition of what
wildlife response?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (08:08):
is Because of the complexity, because of
how complicated response can be.
Really, the first and bestapproach is preventative
measures, both prevention of oilgetting into the environment in
the first place, but then alsohaving response strategies,
pre-established plans to knowhow we're going to respond
(08:30):
should an incident occur.
Really, the core operation isus planning for spills to occur
beforehand, and that involves alocal preparedness as well as
regional or even globalpreparedness.
Beyond that, if a spill doesoccur, we kind of divide
response operations into twomain areas both the field
(08:55):
operations and then facilityoperations or the animal care
Field operations.
First thing is getting outthere, doing initial
reconnaissance, seeing whatanimals are at risk, what's the
extent of the oil, where the oilis going and what populations
might be at risk, betterunderstanding the overall
picture of what's going on.
(09:15):
So doing that assessment andthe reconnaissance based on that
information.
Then getting out there andreally trying to keep animals
from being oiled in the firstplace.
So the easiest way to care foran oiled animal is for it not to
be oiled at all.
So doing hazing and deterrence,trying to scare animals away
from the oil spill so they'resafe, or actually attracting
(09:39):
them to safer areas if we can.
If all of those things don'twork and animals are indeed
oiled, it's then going out therequickly with trained and
skilled personnel to be able tocapture animals, to be able to
collect them safely, start to doinitial first aid as quickly as
possible.
(09:59):
So, as I mentioned earlier,some of the issues are often
them getting oil, not being ableto eat, not being hydrated in
the environment.
So if we can actually developstations right close to where
animals are captured andaffected and start to reverse
those initial effects before wecan bring them to a facility,
providing that first aid isreally crucial.
(10:21):
Aid is really crucial Only thenorganizing them to come back to
a facility where we can startto do full examinations to
determine exactly what's goingon with the animals, providing
initial aid there, doingexaminations, taking a small
amount of blood, doing fullphysical exams to see what the
internal effects might be, thengiving them good hydration, good
(10:44):
nutrition and giving them sometime to get over the shock of
being oiled and out of theenvironment.
As you mentioned, some of thethings we think about is the
bird or the mammal being washedimmediately.
That's actually one of theworst things to do because
that's very stressful for theanimals.
So what we want to do is togive them some time to get over
(11:06):
that initial shock, get them asstable as possible before we
then wash.
One of the reasons why, unlessthey absolutely have to, people
don't rush them into theemergency room to do surgery
they try to make sure they'restable before doing that, once
the animals are washedcompletely, before doing that.
(11:26):
Once the animals are washedcompletely, they do also need to
be rinsed.
It's interesting that thecontaminant on the feathers or
the fur we can wash off usingdishwashing liquid, but the soap
can also be a contaminant, sowe actually have to rinse all
that soap off.
And what that does?
It allows the structure of thefeathers or the structure of the
fur to regain that normalwaterproofing capabilities so
(11:49):
that they can then, over time,return to normal function.
And only when we arecomfortable and confident that
they are absolutely as normal asthey can be will we consider
releasing them back into a cleanenvironment, assuming that the
environment's been de-oiled inthe first place.
So very complex, complicatedprocess and much beyond just the
(12:11):
simple wash that we do see andknow.
Paul Kelway (12:13):
It's interesting because you're essentially
describing a race against timeat the beginning, but then one
that then has to be methodicaland considered in terms of
making the right choices for theright animals and then having
people who understand what thosechoices are.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (12:29):
Absolutely .
As you mentioned, getting outthere quickly and getting them
out of the environment and intoa captive environment to
rehabilitate them, it's crucial,but the longer we hold them,
the more likely they are to getsecondary problems.
These are wild animals.
They're not used to beingindoors, they're not used to
being handled or stressed by us,and so we need to get them out
(12:52):
of the environment quickly, butwe need to get them back into a
clean environment quickly aswell, so it is a balancing act
on both ends to be able to dothe best we can for those
animals that are on crisis.
Paul Kelway (13:06):
So you're describing a very sophisticated
approach to this, and it'sevolved as a field of response
over the years.
Obviously, lots has beenlearned.
How long has old wildliferesponse been around?
I mean, what did it look likein the early days?
And then, what have been someof those key developments
between then and now?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (13:23):
There are actually reports from the early
1900s of individual oiledanimals being on the beach and
people coming across them.
But as far as what we considerprofessionalized, organized
efforts around oiled wildliferesponse, really it's only from
the mid to late 1960s to early1970s where organizations
(13:47):
devoted themselves forlarge-scale responses that were
occurring Torrey Canyon in theUK, some of the spills that were
happening in California aroundthat time.
Really it was about that time,which also aligns itself with
the environmental awakeningsurrounding DDT and Rachel
Carson's Silent Spring, forexample.
It's about that time whereorganizations became more aware
(14:11):
and tried to professionalizewildlife response.
So really only the past 50years or so, A lot has been
learned since that time as faras how to care for animals, how
to keep people safe in additionto caring for those animals.
Some of the early reports aretrying to clean oiled birds with
(14:31):
gasoline or some real causticproducts, which did remove the
oil, but it did also causedamage to the animals.
We've learned over time by doingadditional spills, by putting
research towards it, by sharinginformation amongst
organizations as far as the bestway possible, really made
advances in our better abilityto care for animals and to
(14:56):
de-oil them and to betterunderstand the internal effects
as well, Because some of thosemore subtle chronic effects are
the ones that are very, verydifficult to understand.
So a lot of the advances havebeen both for generalized
rehabilitation techniques, butthen also understanding and
collecting the data necessary tolearn from each incident and
(15:19):
from each oiled animals as we go.
Some of that is learning, oncethey leave our hands, what
happens to them in theenvironment.
So actually putting trackingdevices on animals and releasing
them and following them overtime see just how well they do,
or whether or not they actuallyperish in the environment or
(15:40):
don't return to normalreproductive function as well.
So learning everything we canas we go has really pushed the
science and the professionforward in the past 50 years, I
guess that's one of thechallenges that's always put is
the efficacy of wildliferesponse and in terms of those
internal effects.
Paul Kelway (15:59):
we're understanding more and more all the time
right about those impacts andthe effects from recent
incidents and particular speciesthat get involved.
So how effective can we be,especially when considering
those internal effects, and whatelse do we need to know?
What else do we need toconsider to be more effective in
that way?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (16:21):
Again, continuing to apply the advances
in veterinary medicine towardswildlife response, better
understanding the more subtleeffects absolutely crucial,
especially for the more chroniceffects.
Prior to 2010, we really didn'tthink that cetacea, whales and
(16:41):
dolphins were substantiallyaffected during oil spills.
And then Macondo, wheredeepwater horizon occurred, and
what we found is, following theanimals in Barataria Bay just
offshore of the state ofLouisiana, refined chronic
effects that we were never awareof before.
(17:01):
And just by having the abilityto follow animals that were not
externally oiled but wereswimming in an area where an oil
spill occurred, and applyinggood science to those animals,
we actually see things thatwe've never seen before as far
as the effects and reproductiveefforts, challenges in lung
(17:23):
function and chronic disease inthose animals.
And so by learning that whatthat does is that allows us to
better implement strategies forprotection, making sure that,
especially in populations, say,of coastal bottomless dolphins
in that area, realizing thatkeeping that oil out of those
(17:45):
environments is so crucial forlong-term survival of a species
we never knew that before, buthaving the ability to apply the
strong science towards it, we'relearning things that we didn't
even realize before.
Paul Kelway (18:02):
Yeah, wow, that's amazing and really important.
And the other part of this thatwe haven't really touched on.
In this podcast we've looked atdifferent elements of emergency
response, oil spill response.
So you're talking about thisvery complicated field in and of
itself, with all of thesemoving parts, and generally
that's happening in the contextof a wider response to an oil
(18:25):
spill incident that is havingall sorts of other impacts, and
there's cleanup efforts andcontainment efforts.
So what's the integrationbetween that?
Why is that so important?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (18:54):
Probably one of the stronger advances in
the past 20 years or so withinthe oil spill response community
is the realization that aneffective oil wildlife response
needs to be integrated withinthe larger structure, considered
a terrible action that was doneby not-for-profit organizations
where animals would go into awarehouse and come out clean the
other side but wasn't reallyunderstood or appreciated by the
(19:15):
emergency response community asfar as what goes into it.
And over the past 20 years or so, we've spent a lot of time as
oil wildlife professionalstrying to learn the language of
emergency response as a wholeand to realize the information
that the emergency responsecommunity needs from wildlife
(19:39):
professionals so that we couldspeak their language, so they
would understand our language.
So by being more responsive byproviding data, by providing
information on a real-time basisthat can inform decision-making
for cleanup operators, forplanners, for media reasons,
(20:02):
because usually people want toknow what's going on with
wildlife during an oil spillresponse so by becoming part of
the system, it's actuallyhelping us respond better to
animals in crisis, but it's alsoproviding the information that
the larger oil spill responsecommunity needs to be able to do
(20:25):
the best thing possible.
So it's that integration that'sbeen absolutely crucial and
it's only more recently has thatbeen understood and really
embraced, both by wildliferehabilitators as well as oil
spill responders.
Paul Kelway (20:41):
Yeah, it's absolutely key, and I guess
California is one example ofwhere that integration takes
place.
And you talked about thatcommon language.
You talked about the WorldWildlife Care Network that you
have worked for for many years,so can you just talk a little
bit about how that works inrelation to the network as a
system for preparing andresponding to incidents and how
(21:03):
that actually then integratesinto that statewide or wider
response?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (21:09):
Following the Exxon Valdez oil spill in
Alaska in 1989, and then alarger response in Huntington
Beach in California in 1990, thestate of California decided
that they needed to have astronger oil spill response
system set up within the state.
(21:29):
There was federal legislationafter Exxon Valdez that helped
us to establish a federal system.
The state of California decidedthat was great, but they wanted
additional assurances, and soin 1990, legislation occurred
which created the Office of OilSpill Prevention and Response, a
department of then theDepartment of Fish and Game.
(21:51):
What that did is it created asystem to provide best
achievable protection of oilspill within the state so that
spills such as were happeningabout that time there was much
more infrastructure in place tobe able to respond to that.
A big part of that to be ableto respond to that, a big part
of that was being able torespond more effectively to
(22:12):
wildlife affected during thattime.
So in 1994, the OI WildlifeCare Network was formed as part
of that department and that wascreated to provide best
achievable care to animalsaffected in the state.
So it directed us to buildfacilities in five key areas of
the state.
(22:32):
It also charged the Universityof California at Davis, as part
of the veterinary school to bein charge of that program on
behalf of the state.
So what we've done is inpartnership with organizations
that were interested in workingtowards preparedness and
response to oil wildlife.
We've created a network of 46organizations throughout the
(22:57):
state that all agree to workcooperatively during spill
response under a singleorganizational structure so that
no matter where the spilloccurs anywhere in the state
marine, inland, north coast,south coast, etc.
A response can occur rapidlyand it's fully integrated into
the system.
(23:17):
So we've now responded to morethan 100 spills in the state.
California cared for more than10,000 animals during those
spills.
We have over 1,300 people inour database that we can call on
at a moment's notice should aspill occur anywhere in the
state.
We can actually mobilize thosepeople, get them to one or more
(23:39):
of 12 purpose-built facilitiesat this point to start
immediately responding to andcaring for animals in the state.
Paul Kelway (23:45):
It's a really impressive system and I know
certainly, globally speaking,it's looked at as one that lots
of other locations and regionshave learned from and interacted
with.
But it's a great example, asyou say, of that integration
taking place.
So that common language thatyou're using, obviously in terms
of incident management,incident response, is ICS, the
(24:06):
incident command system or theincident management system.
So where exactly does thatinterface happen?
If we're looking at it from anICS or IMS point of view,
because I know that's a rolethat you end up playing or have
played quite often, whetherthat's in California or
elsewhere in the States?
Can you just describe a littlebit about that, where that sort
of command and control structurethen interacts with the
(24:29):
operational management of thewildlife response?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (24:31):
In the state of California, wildlife
response typically works underthe operations section and it's
a separate branch withinoperations called the wildlife
branch.
So in California the wildlifebranch director person in charge
of that is a biologist from theCalifornia Department of Fish
and Wildlife.
(24:51):
Typically I'll play a deputyrole under that person and I'll
take a leadership activities forall the different areas that
OWCN is involved with and that'srecovery, hazing facility
operations, basically everythingto do with the hands-on
wildlife element.
Outside of California it candiffer.
(25:14):
Different ICS or IMS structuresmay have more wildlife in
planning under the environmentalunit.
Different systems, differentorganizations will have
different structures.
The key thing is thoseindividuals that are involved at
a command post are talking andso typically for me, if I'm
(25:34):
there, I'm working directlyunder operations and with
planning to make sure all of theinformation is being shared.
Whatever we're doing isreported to the people that need
it so they can act on it.
For example, the environmentalunit.
Oftentimes they are developingwhat's called resource at-risk
assessments, so they're actuallylooking at information out
(25:57):
there on species both common aswell as threatened and
endangered species that might beat risk.
The information that we'recollecting.
We're out there collectinganimals by providing it to them.
They have a betterunderstanding for what resources
may be at risk and how betterto plan for the days to come
should a spill continue to occur.
(26:17):
So it's really that integrationand understanding that IMS
structure and ICS structure tomake sure people are getting the
information they need and we'reproviding the data that they
require to report out absolutelyessential for that integration.
Paul Kelway (26:33):
yeah, because people are obviously tracking
the oil and the movements ofthat, but of course the
movements of animals is entirelydifferent and adds a whole
other level of complexity tothat.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (26:45):
Absolutely , especially for animals that
may be lightly oiled and have aflight distance or a swim
distance from that.
For example, when I wasinvolved in the Macondo
Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Ihelped lead the marine mammal
and sea turtle efforts for thatresponse and one of the first
(27:05):
things I did there was talk tothe biologists that were on
scene to determine if a dolphinswam through the oil plume that
was occurring at the time andwas slightly affected, but not
completely debilitated.
Just what distance could theyhave swum before they succumbed
(27:26):
to the effects of oil?
Because that is the distance weneeded to actually start
searching, and the answer wasthe entire gulf of mexico.
At the time well, and that isbefore the oil started moving
and potentially moving up theeastern seaboard of the us as
well.
So understanding that andworking within the system to get
(27:48):
the data you need to be able tomount an effective response
absolutely takes a huge amountof input from all sorts of
people.
Paul Kelway (27:57):
That's incredible.
So you mentioned Macondo,Deepwater Horizon.
You've been involved in somebig incidents, so before just
looking at the US for now, canyou just take us into that
experience when it is asignificant incident and you're
getting that call and you'reessentially coming in at that
sort of ground level in a waywhere that command structure is
(28:19):
really being formed and you'rehaving to really think about
those very early priorities?
Just curious to describe whatthat's like.
How do you enter thatenvironment?
We talked a lot about thechallenge of focusing on what
you can control and staying in aplace where you can affect
things in the best way possible.
But what's that experience likeand how do you approach it?
(28:40):
What is it like trying to getthings up and running?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (28:43):
It can be a huge challenge.
It's exciting, it's anexperience you don't want to
have, but trying to create orderfrom chaos is, for better or
worse, where my career has endedup for me, so going in it's
really trying to get the bestinformation possible, get all of
(29:04):
the data you can to makedecisions, but needing to make
decisions knowing that you'renever going to have all the
information.
First days of Macondo we had noidea how much oil was going to
be released, where the oil wasgoing to go, when the spill was
(29:25):
going to stop, because we had noidea when the rig would
actually be capped.
It was a ways off of the coast,so we weren't exactly sure
where the oil was going to endup.
The species that were atgreatest risk in the early days
were animals that were out therewhere the deepwater horizon rig
(29:45):
was, and so a lot of those weredolphins, whales, sea turtles.
Most of our experience in thosespecies were dealing with them
when they washed ashore orstranded in previous spills, but
that was only a few spills thatthose animals had been affected
.
So we actually had to take ourprotocols and procedures that we
(30:07):
had developed and modify themalmost immediately for
surveillance and potentialrecovery of animals tens of
kilometers offshore.
Responding on a daily basis,where there were five different
(30:30):
incident command postsestablished for the response,
and trying to organizeinformation and organize
personnel and coming up with notonly what was needed today but
anticipating what the needs weregoing to be in the weeks to
come.
So you could build it andanticipation for that.
It was an immense challenge Forme.
Working with the NationalMarine Fisheries Service, part
(30:53):
of our NOAA office, wasincredible.
We had people from the nationaloffice that would come down and
work directly with me on tryingto scope that out, biologists
that knew a huge amount on thespecies there and the systems
that were in place.
But by working together with myoil spill expertise, their
species expertise and knowingthe stranding networks that have
(31:17):
been established in the US forthat, what we're able to do is
to really craft a system thatnot only could respond to the
animals that we were seeing andwe were collecting, but also
looking forward to things thatmight have been at risk.
Manatees were a big issue for usas well, because really oil
(31:39):
spills and manatees had neverdone before and they're very
difficult to keep in captivity.
So we had to come up with twodifferent facilities that were
on standby.
Should a manatee be recovered,that was oiled, that needed to
be cared for?
There was the potential of theoil spill going up the eastern
seaboard of the US, so we had tostage and prepare facilities
and personnel literallythroughout the US just in case
(32:03):
the spill continued to expandand not end.
It did go on for several monthsand thankfully the drilling
site was capped eventually.
But just the number of unknownsthat were there and trying to
plan for every contingency was ahuge, huge undertaking and I'm
(32:25):
very proud of the work that wedid during that response.
Paul Kelway (32:30):
It's unbelievable to hear you describing it and it
takes so much expertise, and ofcourse, the focus is on the
technical understanding andknow-how to respond to the
animals.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (32:39):
But you're asking personnel to be trained
and experienced, but you're alsoasking them to work under
extreme circumstances, as yousaid, without knowing
necessarily when things aregoing to end, and so, I guess,
try and take care of people andallow the whole operation to be
somewhat sustainable, and so Ican imagine those kinds of
things, the things peoplewouldn't necessarily think about
(33:00):
, but it's so, so important,even just the human aspect of
being successful with somethinglike this oh, absolutely the
sheer immensity of that response, the fact that every single day
was 30 to 40 degrees centigradeas far as heat stress and
needing to keep people safe infull personal protective
equipment but, at the same time,understanding that heat stroke
(33:23):
is a very realistic expectation,seeing the destruction,
devastation in that, seeinganimals in crisis, seeing the
cleanup operation that had tooccur and not knowing when it
was going to end, all of thosethings did take both a physical
as well as a mental toll on thepeople that responded.
Paul Kelway (33:44):
Well, thank you for unpacking that one.
It's really interesting just tohear about that response, and
we focused quite a lot so far onthings happening in the US.
Now I mean, if we were to justzoom out a bit and think about
the challenges of an incidentanywhere in the world, how
prepared are we for thatcompared to the way that
(34:07):
response happens in the UnitedStates?
I know that's a big question,but can you just put a bit of
context into how things work inCalifornia and the USS in
relation to the world at large?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (34:18):
We're very proud of the preparedness that
we have in California.
We're very fortunate to notonly have the political and
legislative support to be ableto do it, but also the funding
to be able to do it.
Different regions throughoutthe world have different levels
of preparedness.
You have certain regions, likeBrazil, like New Zealand, that
(34:38):
have excellent preparedness andorganizations that are in place
and really rely on globalexperts to come and help them at
(35:03):
the time of a spill and notnecessarily having plans in
place.
And one example of that I canthink of is the Prestige oil
spill in Galicia, in Spain.
That was a response where therewas no preparedness in place.
It was a very heavy product.
It was a community that 70%relied on the ocean for its
(35:26):
livelihood, as far as the peoplein those areas relying on it
for food, but then also forcommerce.
That was completely shut downby prestige and oftentimes when
that happens, you go in and doas much as you can.
There was an excellent responseset up by IFAW and the
(35:48):
organizations that were involvedwith that.
I was fortunate enough to comein and assist in that, but
because of a lot of thepreparedness that wasn't there
and the fact that a facility hadto be constructed and there was
just such widespread damage tothe environment early on.
Many of the animals that werecollected early ended up having
(36:09):
to be humanely euthanizedbecause it was the only thing we
could do for some of thoseanimals that came in.
It was very unlikely that theywould be able to be
rehabilitated and successfullyreleased at the end, and that's
an unfortunate reality in areasthat don't have a lot of that
infrastructure.
But, that being said, once theinfrastructure was in place, we
(36:30):
were able to collect animals, doexcellent work on those that
were collected later on and beable to return them back to the
environment as well.
So really a lot of it has to dowith how much infrastructure is
there, the willingness ofpartners for that response.
There were several excellentwildlife rehabilitation
(36:50):
organizations we worked directlywith.
They didn't have expertise inoil spill response but they were
absolutely dedicated to caringfor wildlife and so, bringing in
the oil spill knowledge and themanagement structure to that
and having people help with that, you can get a lot of good done
even in the face of nopreparedness at all.
(37:13):
But it is that preparedness andthat pre-planning and
understanding the systems thatcan lead to ultimate success and
responses in different regions.
Paul Kelway (37:25):
Yeah, absolutely, and you know that's a really
good example.
There was, I know, a number ofspills in Europe around that
time, the early 2000s, whichreally kickstarted a lot of
efforts to think about betterintegration and better
understanding of how to respond,to think about better
integration and betterunderstanding of how to respond,
and I know a lot of that workcontinues.
One of the projects that I knowyou and I have been involved in
(37:47):
for a number of years is theGlobal Old Wildlife Response
System, or GOWERS, and I thinkthis feeds into that
conversation about internationalresponse and the lack of
preparedness perhaps in certainparts of the world.
So just to quickly ask you,what is GOWERS and how does that
, as a service or as a system,support and advance that?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (38:05):
global picture.
Gowers is an organizationsomewhat like the OWC in that
it's a group of wildlifeorganizations that have agreed
to work together to create asystem to assist areas in both
preparedness and response.
So it's the 10 leading oilwildlife organizations
(38:26):
throughout the world, inpartnership with Sea Alarm
Foundation and OSRL, to be ableto create a system to provide
initial assessment services forregions where an oil spill
occurs and there may not becomplete understanding of what
is needed to mount a response.
So Gowers can mobilize a teamof four people to go in to do an
(38:52):
initial quick assessment of anarea and to make recommendations
to a client whether or not afull-scale oil wildlife response
is feasible and, if it is, whatthe best approach is to doing
that.
So which organization may bebest suited for it?
Which organizations in theregion could assist in that
(39:14):
effort?
What is kind of thatoverarching structure?
So, instead of cascadingresources in a disorganized
fashion, what it does is ittakes a bit of time to make sure
that what is set up is most fitfor purpose for the spell
response itself.
Paul Kelway (39:32):
So it's in less than ideal situations at least
being able to get a small teamof people like yourselves,
who've done this many times inmany situations, so they
understand the challenges ofgetting something up running and
they understand what's requiredof it, but to actually to get
them on the ground so they canat least be the ones that can
assess that and provide, I guess, a realistic understanding of
(39:55):
what can be done in thatsituation and then, I suppose
also to catalyze future efforts,future consideration for how
that location could be betterprepared in the future.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (40:07):
Absolutely .
What we talk about is Gowersbeing a tier three response,
which is international responsewhere there isn't either local
or regional preparedness orsystems in place.
What it is is that final safetynet, and so, in addition to
having an assessment team thatcan come in during a response to
(40:29):
provide that advice and thoserecommendations, as Gowers, as
an organization, we're alsointerested in working with
regions that are interested indeveloping preparedness, because
the best preparedness possibleis a local response.
If you have the localcapabilities to be able to
respond to an oil spill whereyou have people, systems, plans
(40:53):
in place locally, that can do it, that's going to be the most
effective means possible, and sous helping regions to be able
to establish and understandthose systems, that ultimately
is going to be the best way wecan provide information to keep
animals safe absolutely it's akey step forward.
Paul Kelway (41:16):
You know, in the sense, that the world is very
varied when it comes to parodys,but it's a key step forward.
You know, in the sense that theworld is very varied when it
comes to preparatory discipline.
It's a key step forward to havethat team and that network
working on offering that initialresponse.
So I suppose, building on thatI mean, one of the things we've
talked about to a number ofpeople on this podcast is also
about the importance ofdeveloping meaningful exercises
that genuinely help to bothdevelop and also to test
(41:40):
response resilience.
So how does this apply to oldwildlife response and how
important are those exercises?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (41:50):
exercises are absolutely critical.
You can have the best plan inthe world written and on a
bookshelf, but if that plan isnever tested, actively worked on
and modified based on real lifescenarios, you're never going
to be sure it is the best waypossible.
So exercises are crucial tothat and the integration of
(42:15):
wildlife into existing oil spillexercises or even disaster
exercises is a really effectiveway of testing those things.
We never consider an oilwildlife response plan ever
finalized.
It's always in draft formbecause every plan should be an
active document, always betesting, applying new lessons
(42:37):
learned to that, figuring outdifferent ways of improving your
systems and really continuingto modify, adjust, base it on
new information, new knowledgeand actively challenging the
system.
My staff really don't like meto be in charge of well-spilled
(42:59):
drills, because I do challengethe system when I'm in charge of
them to really try to find thegaps in our preparedness and
then really working on means tofill those gaps during non-spill
time, absolutely essential foreffective planning.
Paul Kelway (43:18):
And I know we've talked about different
approaches to exercise and howsometimes there can be these
very large scale exercises butif they're not really designed
effectively they can feel tosome extent like a wasted
opportunity.
Those are the cost of gettingall of those people together.
I know some of my colleagueshave talked about sometimes the
benefits of taking a sort ofmore bite-sized approach but
(43:38):
really injecting some realisminto those situations.
So how do you look at that froma wildlife response point of
view in terms of testing orexercising different elements of
the system?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (43:50):
yeah, we have a number of different ways
that we integrate drills andexercises in our systems.
One is a simple notificationexercise to make sure our
notification systems are inplace, initial planning is done
and then exercise is concluded.
Other ones are tabletopexercises where we can do either
in person or virtually, wherewe sit around with the scenario,
(44:13):
work through the scenario, donot deploy assets but determine
what assets might be needed,determine their availabilities,
their capabilities of going outand really working within the
systems, with some challengesthrown in, what we call injects,
to be able to change and alterthe system, to see the
(44:33):
resilience of the systems thatare in place.
We have limited deploymentdrills where we may test one
specific aspect of oil wildliferesponse.
So, for example, it may besimply an exercise that tests
our ability to go out into thefield and establish recovery
teams or hazing deterrent teams.
(44:54):
So it's just testing onespecific element.
And then the final one is whatwe call a full deployment drill
where we're testing all thedifferent elements command, post
, field activities, facilityactivities and all the movements
of animals in between them.
Regular ways to be able to testall the different elements
(45:21):
makes for a real comprehensivedrill program to be able to test
those.
Things Can take a lot of work,both in the drill preparedness
as well as the response.
One thing we've encouragedindustry if they are doing
drills and they want tointegrate wildlife is to bring a
wildlife expert into theplanning phase in addition to
the response phase, becausethere are a number of exercises
(45:41):
we've been involved with wherethe information we receive is
there are 30 animals that arereported on Beach X, what do you
do?
And our response is we send ateam out.
Our response is we send a teamout, and if that is simply a box
(46:04):
ticking exercise, it's not aseffective as if somebody was in
the planning process that cangive okay, you've gone out.
You've seen 30 birds, 15 ofthem are endangered species, 10
of which are dead and are beingpreyed on by a scavenger, which
is also an endangered species.
So, adding the complexity,along with those injects to be
able to really testdecision-making and nuances
(46:27):
further down the chain, that'swhere the real challenge is from
a response and a planningperspective.
But that is where somebody withextensive knowledge of wildlife
is really needed in thatplanning to be able to make sure
that level of sophistication iswithin the exercise design.
Paul Kelway (46:52):
That's fascinating.
Yes, it has implications on theincident response, but from a
crisis management perspectivewhich is another thing we talk
about on this podcast is,wildlife is an emotive subject.
It's one, as you say, that themedia and the public are very
interested in and if that getsescalated in terms of the number
(47:13):
of animals that are impacted,that obviously has major
implications potentially on theresponse organization itself,
the responsible party.
So I guess my question is whatare the implications from a
crisis management of wildliferesponse and what are some of
the key learnings or key thingsto consider in that regard?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (47:31):
Yeah, the point you made of wildlife being
affected during disasters beingan emotive topic is absolutely
spot on.
Usually, wildlife are one ofthe first issues that come up
during an oil spill response,and one of the worst answers to
give in that type of situationis no comment, because the
(47:56):
public, if they do not getinformation from the crisis
managers or the incidentmanagement team, they are going
to find information and it maynot be as informed as those that
are involved in the cleanup.
So one of the things that we dois, first and foremost, setting
up systems to report animals inif they're observed or
(48:19):
collected.
So setting up a toll-freehotline or whatever for the
public to report those in thatwe can respond to serve, so that
it could be integrated within amedia inquiries, etc.
So that some information iscoming in, the crisis managers
(48:46):
have the ability to answer thosequestions with facts, instead
of either avoiding them or nothaving the information they need
.
I think it is actually bestpractice to try to be as open
and honest with what is beingseen and what is being done
during these disaster responseOne.
(49:08):
It's going to really prove thatpeople are caring for and
responding to animals and theenvironment that has been
damaged by this accident.
Two, if there is a system inplace, people are going to be
less likely to take it onthemselves to go out and try to
recover and care for animals.
(49:29):
That's not going to be good forthe wildlife, it's not going to
be good for the people involvedbecause, well, it is a
hazardous substance and so, bythe public understanding that
something is being done, andbeing done effectively and
professionally, it's going todecrease that chance.
And three, it is best practice.
(49:49):
If an organization, by no faultof their own, has an emergency,
an accident that occurs, andthey're willing to invest in
wildlife response actuallyoccurring, I think it's only
fair for them to say exactlywhat's going on and to say that
something is being done to theenvironment to try to correct it
(50:12):
.
I've been involved in incidentswhere there has been a global.
You will not report anyinformation related to wildlife
bombas.
What that creates is a sense ofdistrust from the public on
what is going on, because thepublic doesn't understand what
is going on or what is not goingon.
(50:34):
It can actually build from thatdistrust on the wildlife side
and actually apply it to theincident as a whole.
So I think reporting out ongood work that is being done on
the wildlife side can actuallyhave ancillary benefits to their
incident as a whole.
Paul Kelway (50:50):
Yeah, it's another great reason for really
integrating wildlife response inall aspects and all levels, and
you know, as you say, theimportance of managing the
message and, especially in thisday and age, the potential for
misinformation, for that to havenegative impacts on the
response itself and certainly,as you say, potentially on
(51:11):
people's safety as well ifthey're seeing themselves as
citizens that are out theretrying to report or save the day
themselves.
Absolutely so.
We've covered a lot of groundand we've talked a lot about oil
.
We've talked about how wildliferesponse has come a long way.
What are the current futurerisks that keep you up at night,
what are the challenges thatare current or are coming into
(51:32):
view, and what are thepriorities in terms of your work
that you're looking at now?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (51:39):
It is always going to be the unknown
that you try to anticipate andprepare for, but you don't know
it.
There are alternative fuelsthat are starting to be produced
and used that are differentfrom petroleum, may have the
same external effects becausethey can be a contaminant on
animals, but we have absolutelyno idea what they can do
(52:01):
internally on those animals.
So better understanding some ofthe challenges and risks
associated with those I think isa good one.
There is an increase inexploration that is occurring in
certain areas of the world andsome of those areas are not as
prepared for oil spill responseand oil wildlife response.
(52:22):
So trying to assist in thoseareas and really try to
emphasize the importance of oilwildlife preparedness as those
regions are explored further, Ithink is important.
Deepwater exploration is anotherone.
Really, macondo was one of thefirst large-scale incidents
(52:44):
where that occurred and some ofthe challenges in that response
was the product was verydifferent when it came to the
surface and it was verydifferent than other products we
had seen.
So again, continuing tounderstand where society is
going, as far as fuel useregions etc.
(53:06):
Is better understanding thatand better integrating into the
preparedness.
Planning for that, I think isreally really important.
I think.
Also, continuing to really pushthe envelope on research, how
we can better understand how oilaffects wildlife, how we can
respond better, putting time,effort and funding towards that
(53:28):
research to be able to do that,and then to continue to partner
with different organizations,different regions, governmental
and non-governmentalorganizations, industry and
not-for-profit wildlifeorganizations to again build a
stronger, larger communityaround wildlife response, I
(53:49):
think is absolutely crucial.
Continuing to bring people intothe system and to better
understand that.
Paul Kelway (53:54):
I think all of those things are absolutely
crucial, and I guess thechallenge is somewhat compounded
by the fact that wildlifepopulations are under stress
from a variety of challenges.
So when you then have anincident that maybe comes on top
of that, then the stakes areperhaps even higher than they
(54:15):
would normally be.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (54:17):
Absolutely .
The more we learn about thecomplexity of our natural
environment, the more we realizethere is never one cause for
problems.
It's usually multifactorial innature and, as you mentioned,
systems are under threat, areunder different stressors,
either through the environmentbeing changed due to warming or
(54:39):
cooling, prey shifts and changes, all sorts of different things
and layering on top of that adisaster such as oil, which can
make it even more challenging.
We've had oil spills duringwhat are called unusual
mortality events in marinemammals here in California,
where you have populations ofseals and sea lions that are
(55:03):
under stress and debilitated forother reasons, and then they
become oiled and it becomes evenmore problematic.
Paul Kelway (55:11):
So I could see those types of synergistic
problems continuing to occurthroughout the world and you
mentioned the collaborativeelement and you know, I think
that just only emphasizes theimportance of that.
You know, all of thesechallenges require people coming
together and looking at it fromdifferent angles, but
essentially trying tocollectively address some of the
(55:33):
same challenges with, in someinstances, limited resources.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (55:38):
Absolutely , and that's one of the reasons
why I moved into the executivedirector of the One Health
Institute role, because I doreally see oil spills as a one
health issue.
Wildlife is just one part of it,but human health issues,
environmental health issues, asfar as the drivers for
environmental damage that areoccurring, Think of seafood
(56:02):
safety and people I mean thatconfluence of animal health and
human health right there, All ofthose things thinking about
that.
But also economics, Thinking ofthe economic outputs and like
the example we talked aboutearlier in prestige outputs and
like the example we talked aboutearlier in prestige, thinking
(56:23):
about the economic drivers thatare occurring on that and
whether or not decisions thatare being made take that into
consideration in addition tosimply the ecological effects.
Once you get into all thedifferent layers that a disaster
like an oil spill can occur, itcan be really really complex,
but fascinating in the abilityto implement change as the spill
(56:48):
is cleaning up, as theenvironment is trying to return
back to normal function.
Thinking about all those thingsin a holistic way absolutely
can be very, very powerful.
Paul Kelway (57:09):
Thank you for listening to the Response Force
Multiplier from RSRL.
Please like and subscribewherever you get your podcasts
and stay tuned for more episodesas we continue to explore key
issues in emergency response andcrisis management.
For more information, head toosrlcom.
Hello and welcome to the Response Force Multiplier
, a podcast that exploresemergency planning and response.
On the Response ForceMultiplier, we bring together
compelling experts and thoughtleaders to provide a fresh take
on key issues and cutting edgetechniques in this field.
In each episode we'll dive intoone aspect and we'll use OSRL's
(00:26):
unique pool of experts andcollaborators to distill that
down into actual tools andtechniques for better
preparedness and response toincidents and emergencies.
My name is Emma Smiley, we areOSRL and this is the Response
Force Multiplier.
And this is the Response ForceMultiplier.
Hello and welcome to theResponse Force Multiplier with
(00:48):
OSRL.
In this episode, we'll beexploring some of the challenges
in responding to wildlifeemergencies.
Our guest is Dr MichaelZaccardi, a wildlife
veterinarian with over 30 yearsof experience in old wildlife
preparedness and response.
Dr Sakadi has been at theforefront of numerous wildlife
rescue operations both in the USand around the world.
He currently serves as theExecutive Director of the One
(01:11):
Health Institute at theUniversity of California Davis
and is also Director Emeritus ofthe Oiled Wildlife Care Network
in California.
We'll explore the complexitiesof wildlife response in oil
spills and how the technicalunderstanding, the response
strategies and the systems havebeen developed over the years.
Dr Zaccardi shares his insightson the challenges and
advancements in this field, theimportance of preparedness and
(01:33):
the collaborative effortsrequired to protect wildlife.
So get ready to learn about theincredible work involved in
responding to wildlifeemergencies.
Let's dive into my interviewwith Dr Michael Zaccardi.
Well, thanks so much for doingthis, Mike.
I really appreciate it.
So I suppose, just to startthings off, let me just ask you
to briefly describe yourbackground and your role.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (01:56):
Happy to join you on this, paul.
My background is I'm a wildlifeveterinarian.
I've been so for more than 30years really, with my career
dedicated to betterunderstanding and mitigating
effects of oil on wildlife.
So did my veterinary degree,with an emphasis on free-ranging
wildlife, and moved on and dida master's and a PhD
(02:18):
specifically looking at how wecan detect oil in animals that
aren't physically covered, thenan oiled wildlife preparedness
and response for more than 30years.
Some of my first spillsinvolved here in California, but
followed that working with theOil Wildlife Care Network here
in California to help usestablish and continue the
(02:39):
program here.
And since then I've actuallymoved into the executive
director role at the One HealthInstitute here at the School of
Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis,getting more involved in
broader aspects in addition tothe global oil wildlife
preparedness response work, alsoworking more at the One Health
Interface disaster response, nowin charge of the disaster
(03:03):
response program for californiathat involved domestic animals
and livestock as well.
Paul Kelway (03:08):
Jack of all trades, master of none, I guess, is
probably the best way to say itwell, I'm not sure about the
latter, but I think that'sobviously one of the reasons why
it's good to talk to you aboutthis particular subject, because
not only have you been involvedin it for a long time, but
you've seen it from manydifferent perspectives and, in
california, globally, differenttypes of spills and challenges.
So hopefully we can get intosome of that here, sure, but I
(03:32):
think a natural starting pointis, I think, first of all, just
to understand how oil and othercontaminants actually affect
wildlife, because obviouslythat's the basis of
understanding how to respondeffectively.
So, just for those that aren'tso familiar, I guess, in terms
of the impacts and, I suppose,the types of animals that we're
most likely dealing with thosekinds of incidents, sure?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (03:55):
well, first it's important to
understand oil.
There are literally thousandsof different compounds in oil
and there are hundreds ofdifferent oil products, and so
every oil spill is different.
Every region of the world isdifferent in how that affects
animals.
But really, as far as the acuteeffects, we kind of divide it
(04:15):
up into external effects andinternal effects.
For birds and heavily furredmammals usually, usually the
external effects are the onesthat we're most concerned about,
so the actual physical coatingof the animals due to oil.
Some of the main reasons whyanimals are so at risk,
especially those species, isbecause they use their feathers
(04:39):
or their fur to stay warm in acold environment.
So what the feathers do is trapa layer of air next to the skin
and it's that insulativeproperty of the air next to them
that keeps animals warm,especially bobbing along in the
cold water.
So think of it as a dry suitfor us.
What happens with oil is itcreates a hole in that dry suit,
(05:02):
allows water to seep next tothe skin.
They can get very cold veryquickly.
When they get cold they have tomaintain their core body
temperature.
Their metabolism goes up to tryto stay warm.
They also can no longer stay atthe surface of the water,
especially for birds and mammalsthat need to be right at that
(05:22):
air-water interface.
So they have to expend moreenergy to stay up at that level
and because of these things theycan't dive under the water to
forage for food items, whichthey need for nutrition as well
as for hydration.
So really it's this combinedeffect of that external problems
(05:43):
which they can becomedebilitated and actually die in
a matter of hours due to thatcoating.
Now for the internal exposure.
One of the ways birds andfurred mammals try to repair
that dry suit is by preening orgrooming the oil off and so
really trying to remove that oil, and by doing that they can
(06:05):
actually ingest oil.
Ingesting oil can literallyaffect every organ in the entire
body Respiratory tract,gastrointestinal tract, liver,
kidneys.
It can affect the reproductivesystem as well.
So not only do you have thisexternal exposure which is
causing problems, but you havethe ingestion which can cause
(06:26):
more chronic effects.
So even if animals can repairthat damage or we can go out,
capture them, rehabilitate themand release them, they can have
these chronic effects that go onfor literally years.
So it's this multisystemicproblem which really can cause
(06:46):
issues in wildlife species, notonly individual animals, but
also population level effects,if the spill is significant
enough.
Paul Kelway (06:57):
I guess that's what makes it both complex and
complicated.
You're dealing with these peakevents, but actually how you
manage that peak momentultimately has long-term impacts
on wildlife.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (07:10):
So that journey, I guess, of
understanding how to actuallyrespond effectively and take
both of those things intoconsideration so absolutely so
it's one of the reasons why,over the past 30 years or so,
we've spent a lot of time andeffort, money, into research to
better understand not only howto respond more rapidly and to
care for animals better in thefacilities, but really
(07:32):
understanding those long-termchronic effects to really help
us direct our therapies anddirect our response capabilities
to do the best good for themost animals that are involved
response capabilities to do thebest good for the most animals
that are involved.
Paul Kelway (07:49):
In terms of how do you approach that, I think
people will generally have theirideas or preconceptions about
what is involved in respondingto an old wildlife incident, and
I think the obvious iconicpicture is often the washing oil
off animals.
It's sometimes the thing that,mistakenly, people might try to
do first, but obviously it'smuch broader than that.
So what would be a morecomplete definition of what
wildlife response?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (08:08):
is Because of the complexity, because of
how complicated response can be.
Really, the first and bestapproach is preventative
measures, both prevention of oilgetting into the environment in
the first place, but then alsohaving response strategies,
pre-established plans to knowhow we're going to respond
(08:30):
should an incident occur.
Really, the core operation isus planning for spills to occur
beforehand, and that involves alocal preparedness as well as
regional or even globalpreparedness.
Beyond that, if a spill doesoccur, we kind of divide
response operations into twomain areas both the field
(08:55):
operations and then facilityoperations or the animal care
Field operations.
First thing is getting outthere, doing initial
reconnaissance, seeing whatanimals are at risk, what's the
extent of the oil, where the oilis going and what populations
might be at risk, betterunderstanding the overall
picture of what's going on.
(09:15):
So doing that assessment andthe reconnaissance based on that
information.
Then getting out there andreally trying to keep animals
from being oiled in the firstplace.
So the easiest way to care foran oiled animal is for it not to
be oiled at all.
So doing hazing and deterrence,trying to scare animals away
from the oil spill so they'resafe, or actually attracting
(09:39):
them to safer areas if we can.
If all of those things don'twork and animals are indeed
oiled, it's then going out therequickly with trained and
skilled personnel to be able tocapture animals, to be able to
collect them safely, start to doinitial first aid as quickly as
possible.
(09:59):
So, as I mentioned earlier,some of the issues are often
them getting oil, not being ableto eat, not being hydrated in
the environment.
So if we can actually developstations right close to where
animals are captured andaffected and start to reverse
those initial effects before wecan bring them to a facility,
providing that first aid isreally crucial.
(10:21):
Aid is really crucial Only thenorganizing them to come back to
a facility where we can startto do full examinations to
determine exactly what's goingon with the animals, providing
initial aid there, doingexaminations, taking a small
amount of blood, doing fullphysical exams to see what the
internal effects might be, thengiving them good hydration, good
(10:44):
nutrition and giving them sometime to get over the shock of
being oiled and out of theenvironment.
As you mentioned, some of thethings we think about is the
bird or the mammal being washedimmediately.
That's actually one of theworst things to do because
that's very stressful for theanimals.
So what we want to do is togive them some time to get over
(11:06):
that initial shock, get them asstable as possible before we
then wash.
One of the reasons why, unlessthey absolutely have to, people
don't rush them into theemergency room to do surgery
they try to make sure they'restable before doing that, once
the animals are washedcompletely, before doing that.
(11:26):
Once the animals are washedcompletely, they do also need to
be rinsed.
It's interesting that thecontaminant on the feathers or
the fur we can wash off usingdishwashing liquid, but the soap
can also be a contaminant, sowe actually have to rinse all
that soap off.
And what that does?
It allows the structure of thefeathers or the structure of the
fur to regain that normalwaterproofing capabilities so
(11:49):
that they can then, over time,return to normal function.
And only when we arecomfortable and confident that
they are absolutely as normal asthey can be will we consider
releasing them back into a cleanenvironment, assuming that the
environment's been de-oiled inthe first place.
So very complex, complicatedprocess and much beyond just the
(12:11):
simple wash that we do see andknow.
Paul Kelway (12:13):
It's interesting because you're essentially
describing a race against timeat the beginning, but then one
that then has to be methodicaland considered in terms of
making the right choices for theright animals and then having
people who understand what thosechoices are.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (12:29):
Absolutely .
As you mentioned, getting outthere quickly and getting them
out of the environment and intoa captive environment to
rehabilitate them, it's crucial,but the longer we hold them,
the more likely they are to getsecondary problems.
These are wild animals.
They're not used to beingindoors, they're not used to
being handled or stressed by us,and so we need to get them out
(12:52):
of the environment quickly, butwe need to get them back into a
clean environment quickly aswell, so it is a balancing act
on both ends to be able to dothe best we can for those
animals that are on crisis.
Paul Kelway (13:06):
So you're describing a very sophisticated
approach to this, and it'sevolved as a field of response
over the years.
Obviously, lots has beenlearned.
How long has old wildliferesponse been around?
I mean, what did it look likein the early days?
And then, what have been someof those key developments
between then and now?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (13:23):
There are actually reports from the early
1900s of individual oiledanimals being on the beach and
people coming across them.
But as far as what we considerprofessionalized, organized
efforts around oiled wildliferesponse, really it's only from
the mid to late 1960s to early1970s where organizations
(13:47):
devoted themselves forlarge-scale responses that were
occurring Torrey Canyon in theUK, some of the spills that were
happening in California aroundthat time.
Really it was about that time,which also aligns itself with
the environmental awakeningsurrounding DDT and Rachel
Carson's Silent Spring, forexample.
It's about that time whereorganizations became more aware
(14:11):
and tried to professionalizewildlife response.
So really only the past 50years or so, A lot has been
learned since that time as faras how to care for animals, how
to keep people safe in additionto caring for those animals.
Some of the early reports aretrying to clean oiled birds with
(14:31):
gasoline or some real causticproducts, which did remove the
oil, but it did also causedamage to the animals.
We've learned over time by doingadditional spills, by putting
research towards it, by sharinginformation amongst
organizations as far as the bestway possible, really made
advances in our better abilityto care for animals and to
(14:56):
de-oil them and to betterunderstand the internal effects
as well, Because some of thosemore subtle chronic effects are
the ones that are very, verydifficult to understand.
So a lot of the advances havebeen both for generalized
rehabilitation techniques, butthen also understanding and
collecting the data necessary tolearn from each incident and
(15:19):
from each oiled animals as we go.
Some of that is learning, oncethey leave our hands, what
happens to them in theenvironment.
So actually putting trackingdevices on animals and releasing
them and following them overtime see just how well they do,
or whether or not they actuallyperish in the environment or
(15:40):
don't return to normalreproductive function as well.
So learning everything we canas we go has really pushed the
science and the professionforward in the past 50 years, I
guess that's one of thechallenges that's always put is
the efficacy of wildliferesponse and in terms of those
internal effects.
Paul Kelway (15:59):
we're understanding more and more all the time
right about those impacts andthe effects from recent
incidents and particular speciesthat get involved.
So how effective can we be,especially when considering
those internal effects, and whatelse do we need to know?
What else do we need toconsider to be more effective in
that way?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (16:21):
Again, continuing to apply the advances
in veterinary medicine towardswildlife response, better
understanding the more subtleeffects absolutely crucial,
especially for the more chroniceffects.
Prior to 2010, we really didn'tthink that cetacea, whales and
(16:41):
dolphins were substantiallyaffected during oil spills.
And then Macondo, wheredeepwater horizon occurred, and
what we found is, following theanimals in Barataria Bay just
offshore of the state ofLouisiana, refined chronic
effects that we were never awareof before.
(17:01):
And just by having the abilityto follow animals that were not
externally oiled but wereswimming in an area where an oil
spill occurred, and applyinggood science to those animals,
we actually see things thatwe've never seen before as far
as the effects and reproductiveefforts, challenges in lung
(17:23):
function and chronic disease inthose animals.
And so by learning that whatthat does is that allows us to
better implement strategies forprotection, making sure that,
especially in populations, say,of coastal bottomless dolphins
in that area, realizing thatkeeping that oil out of those
(17:45):
environments is so crucial forlong-term survival of a species
we never knew that before, buthaving the ability to apply the
strong science towards it, we'relearning things that we didn't
even realize before.
Paul Kelway (18:02):
Yeah, wow, that's amazing and really important.
And the other part of this thatwe haven't really touched on.
In this podcast we've looked atdifferent elements of emergency
response, oil spill response.
So you're talking about thisvery complicated field in and of
itself, with all of thesemoving parts, and generally
that's happening in the contextof a wider response to an oil
(18:25):
spill incident that is havingall sorts of other impacts, and
there's cleanup efforts andcontainment efforts.
So what's the integrationbetween that?
Why is that so important?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (18:54):
Probably one of the stronger advances in
the past 20 years or so withinthe oil spill response community
is the realization that aneffective oil wildlife response
needs to be integrated withinthe larger structure, considered
a terrible action that was doneby not-for-profit organizations
where animals would go into awarehouse and come out clean the
other side but wasn't reallyunderstood or appreciated by the
(19:15):
emergency response community asfar as what goes into it.
And over the past 20 years or so, we've spent a lot of time as
oil wildlife professionalstrying to learn the language of
emergency response as a wholeand to realize the information
that the emergency responsecommunity needs from wildlife
(19:39):
professionals so that we couldspeak their language, so they
would understand our language.
So by being more responsive byproviding data, by providing
information on a real-time basisthat can inform decision-making
for cleanup operators, forplanners, for media reasons,
(20:02):
because usually people want toknow what's going on with
wildlife during an oil spillresponse so by becoming part of
the system, it's actuallyhelping us respond better to
animals in crisis, but it's alsoproviding the information that
the larger oil spill responsecommunity needs to be able to do
(20:25):
the best thing possible.
So it's that integration that'sbeen absolutely crucial and
it's only more recently has thatbeen understood and really
embraced, both by wildliferehabilitators as well as oil
spill responders.
Paul Kelway (20:41):
Yeah, it's absolutely key, and I guess
California is one example ofwhere that integration takes
place.
And you talked about thatcommon language.
You talked about the WorldWildlife Care Network that you
have worked for for many years,so can you just talk a little
bit about how that works inrelation to the network as a
system for preparing andresponding to incidents and how
(21:03):
that actually then integratesinto that statewide or wider
response?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (21:09):
Following the Exxon Valdez oil spill in
Alaska in 1989, and then alarger response in Huntington
Beach in California in 1990, thestate of California decided
that they needed to have astronger oil spill response
system set up within the state.
(21:29):
There was federal legislationafter Exxon Valdez that helped
us to establish a federal system.
The state of California decidedthat was great, but they wanted
additional assurances, and soin 1990, legislation occurred
which created the Office of OilSpill Prevention and Response, a
department of then theDepartment of Fish and Game.
(21:51):
What that did is it created asystem to provide best
achievable protection of oilspill within the state so that
spills such as were happeningabout that time there was much
more infrastructure in place tobe able to respond to that.
A big part of that to be ableto respond to that, a big part
of that was being able torespond more effectively to
(22:12):
wildlife affected during thattime.
So in 1994, the OI WildlifeCare Network was formed as part
of that department and that wascreated to provide best
achievable care to animalsaffected in the state.
So it directed us to buildfacilities in five key areas of
the state.
(22:32):
It also charged the Universityof California at Davis, as part
of the veterinary school to bein charge of that program on
behalf of the state.
So what we've done is inpartnership with organizations
that were interested in workingtowards preparedness and
response to oil wildlife.
We've created a network of 46organizations throughout the
(22:57):
state that all agree to workcooperatively during spill
response under a singleorganizational structure so that
no matter where the spilloccurs anywhere in the state
marine, inland, north coast,south coast, etc.
A response can occur rapidlyand it's fully integrated into
the system.
(23:17):
So we've now responded to morethan 100 spills in the state.
California cared for more than10,000 animals during those
spills.
We have over 1,300 people inour database that we can call on
at a moment's notice should aspill occur anywhere in the
state.
We can actually mobilize thosepeople, get them to one or more
(23:39):
of 12 purpose-built facilitiesat this point to start
immediately responding to andcaring for animals in the state.
Paul Kelway (23:45):
It's a really impressive system and I know
certainly, globally speaking,it's looked at as one that lots
of other locations and regionshave learned from and interacted
with.
But it's a great example, asyou say, of that integration
taking place.
So that common language thatyou're using, obviously in terms
of incident management,incident response, is ICS, the
(24:06):
incident command system or theincident management system.
So where exactly does thatinterface happen?
If we're looking at it from anICS or IMS point of view,
because I know that's a rolethat you end up playing or have
played quite often, whetherthat's in California or
elsewhere in the States?
Can you just describe a littlebit about that, where that sort
of command and control structurethen interacts with the
(24:29):
operational management of thewildlife response?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (24:31):
In the state of California, wildlife
response typically works underthe operations section and it's
a separate branch withinoperations called the wildlife
branch.
So in California the wildlifebranch director person in charge
of that is a biologist from theCalifornia Department of Fish
and Wildlife.
(24:51):
Typically I'll play a deputyrole under that person and I'll
take a leadership activities forall the different areas that
OWCN is involved with and that'srecovery, hazing facility
operations, basically everythingto do with the hands-on
wildlife element.
Outside of California it candiffer.
(25:14):
Different ICS or IMS structuresmay have more wildlife in
planning under the environmentalunit.
Different systems, differentorganizations will have
different structures.
The key thing is thoseindividuals that are involved at
a command post are talking andso typically for me, if I'm
(25:34):
there, I'm working directlyunder operations and with
planning to make sure all of theinformation is being shared.
Whatever we're doing isreported to the people that need
it so they can act on it.
For example, the environmentalunit.
Oftentimes they are developingwhat's called resource at-risk
assessments, so they're actuallylooking at information out
(25:57):
there on species both common aswell as threatened and
endangered species that might beat risk.
The information that we'recollecting.
We're out there collectinganimals by providing it to them.
They have a betterunderstanding for what resources
may be at risk and how betterto plan for the days to come
should a spill continue to occur.
(26:17):
So it's really that integrationand understanding that IMS
structure and ICS structure tomake sure people are getting the
information they need and we'reproviding the data that they
require to report out absolutelyessential for that integration.
Paul Kelway (26:33):
yeah, because people are obviously tracking
the oil and the movements ofthat, but of course the
movements of animals is entirelydifferent and adds a whole
other level of complexity tothat.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (26:45):
Absolutely , especially for animals that
may be lightly oiled and have aflight distance or a swim
distance from that.
For example, when I wasinvolved in the Macondo
Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Ihelped lead the marine mammal
and sea turtle efforts for thatresponse and one of the first
(27:05):
things I did there was talk tothe biologists that were on
scene to determine if a dolphinswam through the oil plume that
was occurring at the time andwas slightly affected, but not
completely debilitated.
Just what distance could theyhave swum before they succumbed
(27:26):
to the effects of oil?
Because that is the distance weneeded to actually start
searching, and the answer wasthe entire gulf of mexico.
At the time well, and that isbefore the oil started moving
and potentially moving up theeastern seaboard of the us as
well.
So understanding that andworking within the system to get
(27:48):
the data you need to be able tomount an effective response
absolutely takes a huge amountof input from all sorts of
people.
Paul Kelway (27:57):
That's incredible.
So you mentioned Macondo,Deepwater Horizon.
You've been involved in somebig incidents, so before just
looking at the US for now, canyou just take us into that
experience when it is asignificant incident and you're
getting that call and you'reessentially coming in at that
sort of ground level in a waywhere that command structure is
(28:19):
really being formed and you'rehaving to really think about
those very early priorities?
Just curious to describe whatthat's like.
How do you enter thatenvironment?
We talked a lot about thechallenge of focusing on what
you can control and staying in aplace where you can affect
things in the best way possible.
But what's that experience likeand how do you approach it?
(28:40):
What is it like trying to getthings up and running?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (28:43):
It can be a huge challenge.
It's exciting, it's anexperience you don't want to
have, but trying to create orderfrom chaos is, for better or
worse, where my career has endedup for me, so going in it's
really trying to get the bestinformation possible, get all of
(29:04):
the data you can to makedecisions, but needing to make
decisions knowing that you'renever going to have all the
information.
First days of Macondo we had noidea how much oil was going to
be released, where the oil wasgoing to go, when the spill was
(29:25):
going to stop, because we had noidea when the rig would
actually be capped.
It was a ways off of the coast,so we weren't exactly sure
where the oil was going to endup.
The species that were atgreatest risk in the early days
were animals that were out therewhere the deepwater horizon rig
(29:45):
was, and so a lot of those weredolphins, whales, sea turtles.
Most of our experience in thosespecies were dealing with them
when they washed ashore orstranded in previous spills, but
that was only a few spills thatthose animals had been affected
.
So we actually had to take ourprotocols and procedures that we
(30:07):
had developed and modify themalmost immediately for
surveillance and potentialrecovery of animals tens of
kilometers offshore.
Responding on a daily basis,where there were five different
(30:30):
incident command postsestablished for the response,
and trying to organizeinformation and organize
personnel and coming up with notonly what was needed today but
anticipating what the needs weregoing to be in the weeks to
come.
So you could build it andanticipation for that.
It was an immense challenge Forme.
Working with the NationalMarine Fisheries Service, part
(30:53):
of our NOAA office, wasincredible.
We had people from the nationaloffice that would come down and
work directly with me on tryingto scope that out, biologists
that knew a huge amount on thespecies there and the systems
that were in place.
But by working together with myoil spill expertise, their
species expertise and knowingthe stranding networks that have
(31:17):
been established in the US forthat, what we're able to do is
to really craft a system thatnot only could respond to the
animals that we were seeing andwe were collecting, but also
looking forward to things thatmight have been at risk.
Manatees were a big issue for usas well, because really oil
(31:39):
spills and manatees had neverdone before and they're very
difficult to keep in captivity.
So we had to come up with twodifferent facilities that were
on standby.
Should a manatee be recovered,that was oiled, that needed to
be cared for?
There was the potential of theoil spill going up the eastern
seaboard of the US, so we had tostage and prepare facilities
and personnel literallythroughout the US just in case
(32:03):
the spill continued to expandand not end.
It did go on for several monthsand thankfully the drilling
site was capped eventually.
But just the number of unknownsthat were there and trying to
plan for every contingency was ahuge, huge undertaking and I'm
(32:25):
very proud of the work that wedid during that response.
Paul Kelway (32:30):
It's unbelievable to hear you describing it and it
takes so much expertise, and ofcourse, the focus is on the
technical understanding andknow-how to respond to the
animals.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (32:39):
But you're asking personnel to be trained
and experienced, but you're alsoasking them to work under
extreme circumstances, as yousaid, without knowing
necessarily when things aregoing to end, and so, I guess,
try and take care of people andallow the whole operation to be
somewhat sustainable, and so Ican imagine those kinds of
things, the things peoplewouldn't necessarily think about
(33:00):
, but it's so, so important,even just the human aspect of
being successful with somethinglike this oh, absolutely the
sheer immensity of that response, the fact that every single day
was 30 to 40 degrees centigradeas far as heat stress and
needing to keep people safe infull personal protective
equipment but, at the same time,understanding that heat stroke
(33:23):
is a very realistic expectation,seeing the destruction,
devastation in that, seeinganimals in crisis, seeing the
cleanup operation that had tooccur and not knowing when it
was going to end, all of thosethings did take both a physical
as well as a mental toll on thepeople that responded.
Paul Kelway (33:44):
Well, thank you for unpacking that one.
It's really interesting just tohear about that response, and
we focused quite a lot so far onthings happening in the US.
Now I mean, if we were to justzoom out a bit and think about
the challenges of an incidentanywhere in the world, how
prepared are we for thatcompared to the way that
(34:07):
response happens in the UnitedStates?
I know that's a big question,but can you just put a bit of
context into how things work inCalifornia and the USS in
relation to the world at large?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (34:18):
We're very proud of the preparedness that
we have in California.
We're very fortunate to notonly have the political and
legislative support to be ableto do it, but also the funding
to be able to do it.
Different regions throughoutthe world have different levels
of preparedness.
You have certain regions, likeBrazil, like New Zealand, that
(34:38):
have excellent preparedness andorganizations that are in place
and really rely on globalexperts to come and help them at
(35:03):
the time of a spill and notnecessarily having plans in
place.
And one example of that I canthink of is the Prestige oil
spill in Galicia, in Spain.
That was a response where therewas no preparedness in place.
It was a very heavy product.
It was a community that 70%relied on the ocean for its
(35:26):
livelihood, as far as the peoplein those areas relying on it
for food, but then also forcommerce.
That was completely shut downby prestige and oftentimes when
that happens, you go in and doas much as you can.
There was an excellent responseset up by IFAW and the
(35:48):
organizations that were involvedwith that.
I was fortunate enough to comein and assist in that, but
because of a lot of thepreparedness that wasn't there
and the fact that a facility hadto be constructed and there was
just such widespread damage tothe environment early on.
Many of the animals that werecollected early ended up having
(36:09):
to be humanely euthanizedbecause it was the only thing we
could do for some of thoseanimals that came in.
It was very unlikely that theywould be able to be
rehabilitated and successfullyreleased at the end, and that's
an unfortunate reality in areasthat don't have a lot of that
infrastructure.
But, that being said, once theinfrastructure was in place, we
(36:30):
were able to collect animals, doexcellent work on those that
were collected later on and beable to return them back to the
environment as well.
So really a lot of it has to dowith how much infrastructure is
there, the willingness ofpartners for that response.
There were several excellentwildlife rehabilitation
(36:50):
organizations we worked directlywith.
They didn't have expertise inoil spill response but they were
absolutely dedicated to caringfor wildlife and so, bringing in
the oil spill knowledge and themanagement structure to that
and having people help with that, you can get a lot of good done
even in the face of nopreparedness at all.
(37:13):
But it is that preparedness andthat pre-planning and
understanding the systems thatcan lead to ultimate success and
responses in different regions.
Paul Kelway (37:25):
Yeah, absolutely, and you know that's a really
good example.
There was, I know, a number ofspills in Europe around that
time, the early 2000s, whichreally kickstarted a lot of
efforts to think about betterintegration and better
understanding of how to respond,to think about better
integration and betterunderstanding of how to respond,
and I know a lot of that workcontinues.
One of the projects that I knowyou and I have been involved in
(37:47):
for a number of years is theGlobal Old Wildlife Response
System, or GOWERS, and I thinkthis feeds into that
conversation about internationalresponse and the lack of
preparedness perhaps in certainparts of the world.
So just to quickly ask you,what is GOWERS and how does that
, as a service or as a system,support and advance that?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (38:05):
global picture.
Gowers is an organizationsomewhat like the OWC in that
it's a group of wildlifeorganizations that have agreed
to work together to create asystem to assist areas in both
preparedness and response.
So it's the 10 leading oilwildlife organizations
(38:26):
throughout the world, inpartnership with Sea Alarm
Foundation and OSRL, to be ableto create a system to provide
initial assessment services forregions where an oil spill
occurs and there may not becomplete understanding of what
is needed to mount a response.
So Gowers can mobilize a teamof four people to go in to do an
(38:52):
initial quick assessment of anarea and to make recommendations
to a client whether or not afull-scale oil wildlife response
is feasible and, if it is, whatthe best approach is to doing
that.
So which organization may bebest suited for it?
Which organizations in theregion could assist in that
(39:14):
effort?
What is kind of thatoverarching structure?
So, instead of cascadingresources in a disorganized
fashion, what it does is ittakes a bit of time to make sure
that what is set up is most fitfor purpose for the spell
response itself.
Paul Kelway (39:32):
So it's in less than ideal situations at least
being able to get a small teamof people like yourselves,
who've done this many times inmany situations, so they
understand the challenges ofgetting something up running and
they understand what's requiredof it, but to actually to get
them on the ground so they canat least be the ones that can
assess that and provide, I guess, a realistic understanding of
(39:55):
what can be done in thatsituation and then, I suppose
also to catalyze future efforts,future consideration for how
that location could be betterprepared in the future.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (40:07):
Absolutely .
What we talk about is Gowersbeing a tier three response,
which is international responsewhere there isn't either local
or regional preparedness orsystems in place.
What it is is that final safetynet, and so, in addition to
having an assessment team thatcan come in during a response to
(40:29):
provide that advice and thoserecommendations, as Gowers, as
an organization, we're alsointerested in working with
regions that are interested indeveloping preparedness, because
the best preparedness possibleis a local response.
If you have the localcapabilities to be able to
respond to an oil spill whereyou have people, systems, plans
(40:53):
in place locally, that can do it, that's going to be the most
effective means possible, and sous helping regions to be able
to establish and understandthose systems, that ultimately
is going to be the best way wecan provide information to keep
animals safe absolutely it's akey step forward.
Paul Kelway (41:16):
You know, in the sense, that the world is very
varied when it comes to parodys,but it's a key step forward.
You know, in the sense that theworld is very varied when it
comes to preparatory discipline.
It's a key step forward to havethat team and that network
working on offering that initialresponse.
So I suppose, building on thatI mean, one of the things we've
talked about to a number ofpeople on this podcast is also
about the importance ofdeveloping meaningful exercises
that genuinely help to bothdevelop and also to test
(41:40):
response resilience.
So how does this apply to oldwildlife response and how
important are those exercises?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (41:50):
exercises are absolutely critical.
You can have the best plan inthe world written and on a
bookshelf, but if that plan isnever tested, actively worked on
and modified based on real lifescenarios, you're never going
to be sure it is the best waypossible.
So exercises are crucial tothat and the integration of
(42:15):
wildlife into existing oil spillexercises or even disaster
exercises is a really effectiveway of testing those things.
We never consider an oilwildlife response plan ever
finalized.
It's always in draft formbecause every plan should be an
active document, always betesting, applying new lessons
(42:37):
learned to that, figuring outdifferent ways of improving your
systems and really continuingto modify, adjust, base it on
new information, new knowledgeand actively challenging the
system.
My staff really don't like meto be in charge of well-spilled
(42:59):
drills, because I do challengethe system when I'm in charge of
them to really try to find thegaps in our preparedness and
then really working on means tofill those gaps during non-spill
time, absolutely essential foreffective planning.
Paul Kelway (43:18):
And I know we've talked about different
approaches to exercise and howsometimes there can be these
very large scale exercises butif they're not really designed
effectively they can feel tosome extent like a wasted
opportunity.
Those are the cost of gettingall of those people together.
I know some of my colleagueshave talked about sometimes the
benefits of taking a sort ofmore bite-sized approach but
(43:38):
really injecting some realisminto those situations.
So how do you look at that froma wildlife response point of
view in terms of testing orexercising different elements of
the system?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (43:50):
yeah, we have a number of different ways
that we integrate drills andexercises in our systems.
One is a simple notificationexercise to make sure our
notification systems are inplace, initial planning is done
and then exercise is concluded.
Other ones are tabletopexercises where we can do either
in person or virtually, wherewe sit around with the scenario,
(44:13):
work through the scenario, donot deploy assets but determine
what assets might be needed,determine their availabilities,
their capabilities of going outand really working within the
systems, with some challengesthrown in, what we call injects,
to be able to change and alterthe system, to see the
(44:33):
resilience of the systems thatare in place.
We have limited deploymentdrills where we may test one
specific aspect of oil wildliferesponse.
So, for example, it may besimply an exercise that tests
our ability to go out into thefield and establish recovery
teams or hazing deterrent teams.
(44:54):
So it's just testing onespecific element.
And then the final one is whatwe call a full deployment drill
where we're testing all thedifferent elements command, post
, field activities, facilityactivities and all the movements
of animals in between them.
Regular ways to be able to testall the different elements
(45:21):
makes for a real comprehensivedrill program to be able to test
those.
Things Can take a lot of work,both in the drill preparedness
as well as the response.
One thing we've encouragedindustry if they are doing
drills and they want tointegrate wildlife is to bring a
wildlife expert into theplanning phase in addition to
the response phase, becausethere are a number of exercises
(45:41):
we've been involved with wherethe information we receive is
there are 30 animals that arereported on Beach X, what do you
do?
And our response is we send ateam out.
Our response is we send a teamout, and if that is simply a box
(46:04):
ticking exercise, it's not aseffective as if somebody was in
the planning process that cangive okay, you've gone out.
You've seen 30 birds, 15 ofthem are endangered species, 10
of which are dead and are beingpreyed on by a scavenger, which
is also an endangered species.
So, adding the complexity,along with those injects to be
able to really testdecision-making and nuances
(46:27):
further down the chain, that'swhere the real challenge is from
a response and a planningperspective.
But that is where somebody withextensive knowledge of wildlife
is really needed in thatplanning to be able to make sure
that level of sophistication iswithin the exercise design.
Paul Kelway (46:52):
That's fascinating.
Yes, it has implications on theincident response, but from a
crisis management perspectivewhich is another thing we talk
about on this podcast is,wildlife is an emotive subject.
It's one, as you say, that themedia and the public are very
interested in and if that getsescalated in terms of the number
(47:13):
of animals that are impacted,that obviously has major
implications potentially on theresponse organization itself,
the responsible party.
So I guess my question is whatare the implications from a
crisis management of wildliferesponse and what are some of
the key learnings or key thingsto consider in that regard?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (47:31):
Yeah, the point you made of wildlife being
affected during disasters beingan emotive topic is absolutely
spot on.
Usually, wildlife are one ofthe first issues that come up
during an oil spill response,and one of the worst answers to
give in that type of situationis no comment, because the
(47:56):
public, if they do not getinformation from the crisis
managers or the incidentmanagement team, they are going
to find information and it maynot be as informed as those that
are involved in the cleanup.
So one of the things that we dois, first and foremost, setting
up systems to report animals inif they're observed or
(48:19):
collected.
So setting up a toll-freehotline or whatever for the
public to report those in thatwe can respond to serve, so that
it could be integrated within amedia inquiries, etc.
So that some information iscoming in, the crisis managers
(48:46):
have the ability to answer thosequestions with facts, instead
of either avoiding them or nothaving the information they need
.
I think it is actually bestpractice to try to be as open
and honest with what is beingseen and what is being done
during these disaster responseOne.
(49:08):
It's going to really prove thatpeople are caring for and
responding to animals and theenvironment that has been
damaged by this accident.
Two, if there is a system inplace, people are going to be
less likely to take it onthemselves to go out and try to
recover and care for animals.
(49:29):
That's not going to be good forthe wildlife, it's not going to
be good for the people involvedbecause, well, it is a
hazardous substance and so, bythe public understanding that
something is being done, andbeing done effectively and
professionally, it's going todecrease that chance.
And three, it is best practice.
(49:49):
If an organization, by no faultof their own, has an emergency,
an accident that occurs, andthey're willing to invest in
wildlife response actuallyoccurring, I think it's only
fair for them to say exactlywhat's going on and to say that
something is being done to theenvironment to try to correct it
(50:12):
.
I've been involved in incidentswhere there has been a global.
You will not report anyinformation related to wildlife
bombas.
What that creates is a sense ofdistrust from the public on
what is going on, because thepublic doesn't understand what
is going on or what is not goingon.
(50:34):
It can actually build from thatdistrust on the wildlife side
and actually apply it to theincident as a whole.
So I think reporting out ongood work that is being done on
the wildlife side can actuallyhave ancillary benefits to their
incident as a whole.
Paul Kelway (50:50):
Yeah, it's another great reason for really
integrating wildlife response inall aspects and all levels, and
you know, as you say, theimportance of managing the
message and, especially in thisday and age, the potential for
misinformation, for that to havenegative impacts on the
response itself and certainly,as you say, potentially on
(51:11):
people's safety as well ifthey're seeing themselves as
citizens that are out theretrying to report or save the day
themselves.
Absolutely so.
We've covered a lot of groundand we've talked a lot about oil
.
We've talked about how wildliferesponse has come a long way.
What are the current futurerisks that keep you up at night,
what are the challenges thatare current or are coming into
(51:32):
view, and what are thepriorities in terms of your work
that you're looking at now?
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (51:39):
It is always going to be the unknown
that you try to anticipate andprepare for, but you don't know
it.
There are alternative fuelsthat are starting to be produced
and used that are differentfrom petroleum, may have the
same external effects becausethey can be a contaminant on
animals, but we have absolutelyno idea what they can do
(52:01):
internally on those animals.
So better understanding some ofthe challenges and risks
associated with those I think isa good one.
There is an increase inexploration that is occurring in
certain areas of the world andsome of those areas are not as
prepared for oil spill responseand oil wildlife response.
(52:22):
So trying to assist in thoseareas and really try to
emphasize the importance of oilwildlife preparedness as those
regions are explored further, Ithink is important.
Deepwater exploration is anotherone.
Really, macondo was one of thefirst large-scale incidents
(52:44):
where that occurred and some ofthe challenges in that response
was the product was verydifferent when it came to the
surface and it was verydifferent than other products we
had seen.
So again, continuing tounderstand where society is
going, as far as fuel useregions etc.
(53:06):
Is better understanding thatand better integrating into the
preparedness.
Planning for that, I think isreally really important.
I think.
Also, continuing to really pushthe envelope on research, how
we can better understand how oilaffects wildlife, how we can
respond better, putting time,effort and funding towards that
(53:28):
research to be able to do that,and then to continue to partner
with different organizations,different regions, governmental
and non-governmentalorganizations, industry and
not-for-profit wildlifeorganizations to again build a
stronger, larger communityaround wildlife response, I
(53:49):
think is absolutely crucial.
Continuing to bring people intothe system and to better
understand that.
Paul Kelway (53:54):
I think all of those things are absolutely
crucial, and I guess thechallenge is somewhat compounded
by the fact that wildlifepopulations are under stress
from a variety of challenges.
So when you then have anincident that maybe comes on top
of that, then the stakes areperhaps even higher than they
(54:15):
would normally be.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (54:17):
Absolutely .
The more we learn about thecomplexity of our natural
environment, the more we realizethere is never one cause for
problems.
It's usually multifactorial innature and, as you mentioned,
systems are under threat, areunder different stressors,
either through the environmentbeing changed due to warming or
(54:39):
cooling, prey shifts and changes, all sorts of different things
and layering on top of that adisaster such as oil, which can
make it even more challenging.
We've had oil spills duringwhat are called unusual
mortality events in marinemammals here in California,
where you have populations ofseals and sea lions that are
(55:03):
under stress and debilitated forother reasons, and then they
become oiled and it becomes evenmore problematic.
Paul Kelway (55:11):
So I could see those types of synergistic
problems continuing to occurthroughout the world and you
mentioned the collaborativeelement and you know, I think
that just only emphasizes theimportance of that.
You know, all of thesechallenges require people coming
together and looking at it fromdifferent angles, but
essentially trying tocollectively address some of the
(55:33):
same challenges with, in someinstances, limited resources.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi (55:38):
Absolutely , and that's one of the reasons
why I moved into the executivedirector of the One Health
Institute role, because I doreally see oil spills as a one
health issue.
Wildlife is just one part of it,but human health issues,
environmental health issues, asfar as the drivers for
environmental damage that areoccurring, Think of seafood
(56:02):
safety and people I mean thatconfluence of animal health and
human health right there, All ofthose things thinking about
that.
But also economics, Thinking ofthe economic outputs and like
the example we talked aboutearlier in prestige outputs and
like the example we talked aboutearlier in prestige, thinking
(56:23):
about the economic drivers thatare occurring on that and
whether or not decisions thatare being made take that into
consideration in addition tosimply the ecological effects.
Once you get into all thedifferent layers that a disaster
like an oil spill can occur, itcan be really really complex,
but fascinating in the abilityto implement change as the spill
(56:48):
is cleaning up, as theenvironment is trying to return
back to normal function.
Thinking about all those thingsin a holistic way absolutely
can be very, very powerful.
Paul Kelway (57:09):
Thank you for listening to the Response Force
Multiplier from RSRL.
Please like and subscribewherever you get your podcasts
and stay tuned for more episodesas we continue to explore key
issues in emergency response andcrisis management.
For more information, head toosrlcom.
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