This video was streamed live and recorded on November 10, 2021
Just over a month ago a ruptured pipeline started pouring oil into the ocean off Huntington Beach in Southern California. Among the agencies responding to the spill was the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, a program of the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. The OWCN was established in 1994 in partnership with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife – Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) as a reaction to the devastating Exxon Valdez oil spill and the American Trader spill in Huntington Beach. Today, it brings together 44 organizations and 1,600 trained personnel to rescue birds and animals caught up in oil spill disasters.
Joining us on this episode of UC Davis LIVE are two people who responded to last month’s spill:
- Mike Ziccardi is director of the OWCN and executive director of the UC Davis One Health Institute. Since 1996, he has acted as an oil spill response veterinarian and coordinator during more than 75 spills nationally and internationally. During spills, Ziccardi often works as the deputy wildlife branch director at the command post, or as care and processing group supervisor or clinical veterinarian at the rehabilitation facility
- Jamie Sherman is a care veterinarian for the OWCN. In addition to her research and veterinary studies, Sherman spent 10 years working for CDFW, caring for orphaned and injured wildlife and assisting with large-scale population field studies of bighorn sheep, mule deer and elk