LIFE LINE
December 2012
December 2010 The Newsletter of the International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF) December 2010 News… Experience… Ideas… Information… Development… December 2010 In this issue:
IMO reforms News from Morocco, the Netherlands, the UK, China, Iceland and the South Pacific Member Focus: Marine Rescue New South Wales, and ADES, Uruguay The IMO Awards for Exceptional Bravery at Sea and more!
December 2010 December 2010 December 2010
The future of SAR at the IMO? We live in difficult times, financially, and all of us are having to make savings. The UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) is no exception. When the IMO Council met in early November, it considered a range of reforms proposed by the IMO Secretariat, driven by the need to make economies on the budget.
December 2010 December 2010 December
One of the reforms proposed is a re-structuring of the various technical Sub-Committees that advise the Maritime Safety 2010 Committee and the Marine Environment Protection Committee – and part of that is the proposal that the Safety of Navigation and the Radiocommunications and SAR (COMSAR) Sub-Committees should be merged. To avoid an overload December of work, the IMO Secretariat suggested dealing with SAR separately, in a working group meeting only once every two years. The Council has asked the Committees to comment. 2010 While agreeing the need for reforms, the IMRF is opposed to this particular idea. The link between SAR and December communications is a vital one (literally), both as regards distress alerting and SAR response: the two subjects should 2010 continue to be considered together at the IMO. Similarly, with nearly half the IMO Member States yet to ratify the Maritime SAR Convention, and nearly two thirds yet to provide any details of their SAR resources – and with known gaps in the SAR system leading to many, many deaths each year – the IMRF firmly believes that there is a great dealDecember of work for the IMO still to do. The focus on SAR should be clearly maintained.
2010
IMO Member States overwhelmingly agree. When the Maritime Safety Committee discussed the reform proposals on 30 November, no-one supported the idea of dealing with SAR separately and biennially, and many States spoke against it. December The IMO Secretariat will now revise its plan; and the Committee will consider it again when it next meets in June.
2010
The question of workload remains. The IMRF has suggested to the Committee that the SAR working group jointly run by the IMO and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) must be preserved. The link it provides with ICAO is very December important, for ICAO and IMO are jointly responsible for the IAMSAR Manual upon which the global SAR system is based; 2010 and the group has proved itself highly effective: it can provide real support to the new Sub-Committee. The debate continues! And the IMRF will continue to play its part in it. It’s essential to lifesaving that we should. December
2010 The International Maritime Rescue Federation is a registered company limited by guarantee in the United Kingdom and registered as a charity in England and Wales Patron: Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization, 2004-2011
December 2010
Registered office: IMRF West Quay Road Poole BH15 1HZ United Kingdom Company Registration Number: 4852596 Charity Registration Number: 1100883
www.international-maritime-rescue.org
December 2010 December
LIFE LINE
December 2012
Editorial Welcome to the December edition of your newsletter: a pretty full edition, as the Contents list shows. And yet there is much more to tell you about – look out for our February edition, which, among much else, will include articles on our Rescue Boat Guidelines and Education projects; this year’s bravery awards presented by the Association for Rescue at Sea; and a number of developments at the International Maritime Organization, including the IMO’s ongoing reviews of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System, and of passenger ship safety after the Costa Concordia disaster. I’m sorry we couldn’t fit all this into this edition – but at least we can promise you things to look forward to in the New Year! Please do not just sit back and wait for February’s LIFE LINE, though. If you have a story to tell your international SAR colleagues, then let us have it. We can publish it in LIFE LINE and on our websites too: see the article on page 11. And remember: a picture is worth a thousand words, so let’s have your photos as well... Back to this edition. I hope we have something for everyone. As usual there is SAR news from around the world, including IMRF activities in South America, Europe and North Africa. There are our usual columns, too: ‘SAR Matters’, and the new one, ‘Member Focus’. Please feel free to contribute to these. ‘SAR Matters’ is a discussion column – in this edition it considers how distress alerting might be improved, particularly in the developing world. Is there something you would like to discuss? Or would you like to contribute to one of our past discussion threads? Well; you’re welcome! ‘Member Focus’ is part of the IMRF’s sharing of information. Learning a little about your colleagues’ problems and how they seek to overcome them can be a help when you look at your own. These are duplex communications, though! If your organisation hasn’t figured in ‘Member Focus’ yet, you know what to do! On page 1 of this edition we highlight too the restructuring process under way at the IMO. The IMRF has consultative status at the IMO: we represent the world’s maritime SAR organisations (our Members) there. As the initial reform proposals seemed to ‘downgrade’ SAR a little, perhaps under the impression that SAR is all sorted out – an impression which the IMRF would argue is an erroneous one! – we will be playing a full part in the debate, on your behalf. So: lots to read about and contribute to. I hope you enjoy doing so. And let me close by wishing you all the very best for the New Year. Dave Jardine-Smith news@international-maritimerescue.org
www.international-maritime-rescue.org
Contents The Future of SAR at the IMO ................... Editorial ................................. Dates for the Diary ................................. News from the South Pacific ................... Be a Blue Water Survivor ................... ADES, Uruguay ................................. Latin-American Marine Rescue Meeting .... Marine Rescue New South Wales .... SAR Matters ................................. European Regional Development Meeting .... News from Morocco ................................. IMO Awards for Exceptional Bravery .... News from China ................................. From Fax to Facebook ................................. An OSC SAR vessel ................................. Miracle on the Yangtze ................................. SAR Europe ................................. IMRF Web News ................................. SAR and the Weather ................................. Mass Rescue ................................. The Ultimate Float Test ................................. Honours for our Patron ................................. Send us your news & pictures ...................
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Dates for the Diary COMSAR 17
21-25 January 2013
The 17th session of the IMO’s Radiocommunications and Search and Rescue Sub-Committee. For details, please contact d.jardinesmith@international-maritime-rescue.org
IQPC’s SAR Europe
19-21 March 2013
A major SAR conference in Portsmouth, England, preceded by a mass rescue operations focus day run in association with the IMRF. For details, see page 11 and www.searchandrescueeurope.com
Exercise Black Swan
1-5 April 2013
A major live mass rescue operations exercise coordinated by the United States Coast Guard. More details in due course.
World Maritime Rescue Congress 1-4 June 2015 Advance notice of the IMRF’s next Congress and quadrennial general meeting. Further details in due course. If you have a SAR event of international interest which you would like to see listed here, please send the details to: news@international-maritime-rescue.org
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December 2012
News from the South Pacific
Be a Blue Water Survivor
An Action Plan to address concerns about the safety of domestic ferries in the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) has been adopted by a forum on the subject, organised by the IMO and held in Suva, Fiji, 30 October to 2 November.
We are grateful to SPC for permission to quote from another article in Pacific Maritime Watch.
Recent losses of domestic ferries worldwide, including the sinking of the Rabaul Queen in Papua New Guinea in February 2012, have increased awareness of the need for a more holistic approach to domestic ferry safety. The Pacific Forum provided an opportunity for PICTs, development partners, organisations such as Interferry (who, like the IMRF, hold consultative status at the IMO) and the maritime industry as a whole, to collaborate. The intention now is to develop regional support to address specific national solutions. The Pacific Forum focused on safety programmes, ship-specific concerns, l e g i s l a t i ve , regulatory and c o m p l i a n c e m a t t e r s , s ea f a r e r training and certification, operational issues, safety awareness, and SAR. The goal was to identify outcomes that can be put into practice by national Maritime Administrations and the maritime industry, resulting in safer ferry operations throughout the region. Through the Action Plan, participants in the Forum hope to sensitise the authorities in the region to the need for urgent measures to be taken to address their core concerns. The Pacific Forum followed a successful Regional Forum on Domestic Ferry Safety held in Bali in December 2011. It was organized by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and the IMO under its Integrated Technical Cooperation Programme, and was attended by 45 participants: administrators and policy makers, shipowners, operators and maritime training institutions. Fifteen countries from the Pacific Islands region were represented. www.international-maritime-rescue.org
Rhapsody of the Seas docks in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (www.spc.int) publish a newsletter, Pacific Maritime Watch, which makes very interesting reading. A recent edition addressed the problem of increasing cruise traffic, in ever larger ships. Avnita Goundar of the SPC writes: “While Pacific Island governments clearly benefit from the cruise industry as millions of dollars get injected into national economies, a trend that is worrying authorities is an increase in the size of ships that are calling at small Pacific Island ports. Bigger ships come with bigger risks. “The Pacific is one of the top ten destinations for cruise ship passengers. New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and French Polynesia are popular destinations. Samoa, American Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga and Papua New Guinea have also experienced a surge in cruise ship visits. “Pacific Island countries have SAR plans that guide them in the event of a maritime disaster. But for a disaster on the scale of Costa Concordia, these plans may not work. “Saving lives at sea can be a costly mission for SAR authorities, especially those in the Pacific Islands, where remoteness is often a major factor. “With the increase in the number of big cruise ship visits to the region, SAR authorities now have to be prepared for potential mass rescue operations that may exceed their capacity. Yet, with the exception of New Caledonia, none of the Pacific Island countries has a mass rescue operation plan in place. “SPC is helping PICTs to take stock of this growing industry and is supporting the development of appropriate disaster response plans.”
Richard Roberts and Mark Morin of the United States Coast Guard were speaking at a forum in Majuro, in the Marshall Islands, as part of continued efforts to improve SAR response and communications in the region. Their main point was that those heading out into ‘blue water’ have to be prepared. “You’ve got to think of all the contingencies,” Roberts said: “What’s the most important safety device on a boat?” “A radio,” came one answer. “A cell phone,” came another. But the best piece of equipment of all for islanders is, according to Roberts, a PFD (a personal flotation device such as a lifejacket). If it can be afforded, the next most important piece of equipment is an EPIRB. The Coast Guard’s work would be a lot easier if every boat heading out to sea had a properly registered EPIRB aboard, improving distress alerting, and taking the ‘search’ out of SAR. The two men stressed the amount of time it takes to get a USCG C-130 to the Marshalls from Hawaii to conduct a search. “We have four C-130s for SAR,” Morin said. “This plane takes about 8 hours to fly to Majuro, but by the time the request comes in and the case is briefed, it may take much longer. The crew will also need to rest for 10 hours after arrival before they can fly again.” Once a boat is known to be missing, there needs to be a dedicated local search and detective work done. It helps the USCG if it is provided with as much information about the missing boat and its crew as possible. “And whatever you do,” said Cdr Morin, “Don’t leave the boat. If the boat sinks, don’t leave the debris. Find something to hang on to, like a cooler or the gas tank. “I’ll say it again: don’t leave the boat!” page 3
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December 2012
Member Focus: ADES Asociación Honoraria de Salvamentos Marítimos y Fluviales
Responding to several tragedies in Uruguayan waters which occurred during the years 1954 and 1955, a group of citizens decided to found a voluntary rescue institution to provide cover 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with equipment and trained crews suited to the task. The main aim was to respond to calls for help in the shortest possible time. The new organisation’s structure was modelled on the world’s first maritime lifesaving institution, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in the British Isles. The relationship between ADES and the RNLI has remained a permanent and important one, based on friendship and reciprocity.
Since that time there has been continuous renewal of the fleet with more modern vessels equipped with the latest rescue technology. ADES h a s g r o wn a n d d e ve l o p e d appropriately, and currently has five bases which, together, provide allweather rescue boat cover along the national waterfront.
With the support of important figures in Uruguayan national life, in an act of affirmation and in a truly humanitarian spirit, the Honorary Association for Maritime and River Rescue was founded on July 23, 1955.
www.international-maritime-rescue.org
IMRF Trustees and project managers were present at a meeting of LatinAmerican SAR organisations organised by ADES in Montevideo, Uruguay, 30 October to 3 November. (See the South America meetings page on the IMRF website.) Attendees discussed fundraising for SAR, and water safety education programmes, designed to remove the need for SAR by preventing the accident in the first place. International experience was shared in presentations and round-table discussions.
For further information please visit www.ades.org.uy and/or www.facebook.com/ADES.UY
Sometimes the sea strikes at the rescuers too. A severe storm struck Montevideo on 19 September 2012: ADES 16’s mooring broke and she was blown ashore on the Rambla, the major avenue that runs along the city’s foreshore.
In May 1956 ADES obtained legal status and a year later, using funds from corporate donations and a public collection, the association purchased its first rescue unit, the ADES 1.
2nd Latin-American Marine Rescue Meeting
The recumbent fishwife above is our Membership Secretary, Ann Laing, as Rory, one of the characters in Scotland’s Maritime Rescue Institute’s children’s water safety education programme
The meeting also discussed mass rescue operations (MRO) in some depth, with presentations from a number of different response organisations, and a discursive tabletop exercise led by the IMRF’s MRO project manager, David JardineSmith. The Latin-American meeting ended with a nautical exercise and a visit to the ADES rescue boat station at Punta del Este.
Although severe damage was done to her propellers, her strength preserved her and she was recovered by crane. This operation caused major traffic jams on the Rambla – and ADES used a TV ad to thank everyone involved! Repairs have been promised free of charge. page 4
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December 2012
Member Focus: Marine Rescue New South Wales Stacey Tannos, Commissioner, Marine Rescue NSW, writes:
Marine Rescue New South Wales is the newest emergency service operating in the oldest and most populous state in Australia, providing a vital safety net for our large boating community. As an island nation, Australia’s location, geography and predominantly coastal settlement make shipping trade an essential contributor to our economy and recreational boating a popular pastime. In NSW alone there are more than 221,000 registered recreational boats, with this number predicted to reach up to 350,000 over the next decade and a half. Marine Rescue NSW (see www.marinerescuensw.com.au) has more than 3100 volunteer members, based in 45 units along the State’s 2,137 kilometre coastline. New units are also planned for inland waterways.
Government concluded that membership cost, operations and training, as well as vessel and equipment replacement, was overtaking the organisations’ ability to recruit and adequately fund-raise. In order to meet the challenges of ballooning costs and of volunteer recruitment and retention, the report recommended the establishment of a single marine rescue service and additional funding to assist with its establishment. The Government agreed to provide seed funding of $3 million, an annual grant and an ongoing funding stream through the introduction of a levy on each recreational boat licence and registration, to be channelled directly to MRNSW. A new name, uniform and livery helped create the new face of marine rescue in this State. Alongside our operational duties, the organisation’s first three years have been marked by the start-up phase challenges of amalgamating the three predecessor services’ assets and members, introducing new and upgraded vessels, equipment and training, and developing a new suite of corporate governance instruments, policies and operating and administrative procedures. This work has gone hand-in-hand with efforts to foster a forward-looking, positive organisational culture.
Our volunteers provide an emergency SAR response, monitor marine radio communications and promote boating safety through a range of education courses and activities. Boaters are encouraged to contact their nearest Marine Rescue unit to ‘Log On’ by marine radio or phone when they are heading out on the water and to ‘Log Off’ when they return. This means that a search can be swiftly mounted if they are overdue and cannot be contacted. In 2011/2012, our volunteers were tasked by the State’s water police authorities to respond to 459 emergency incidents. They also assisted in another 1,766 other incidents, logged more than 220,000 radio calls, logged on more than 49,000 boaters and tracked almost 7,000 vessels travelling between ports along the coastline. While we rely heavily on State Government funding support, we are not a Government agency but an independent community-focused organisation established as a company limited by guarantee. The organisation is governed by a nine-member Board of Directors elected by the members: six by volunteers in each of our operational regions and three by the overall membership. The Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner are supported by a small HQ staff focused on operations, vessels, training, IT, communications, administration and volunteer support. The organisation was established in July 2009 and officially began operations on New Year’s Day 2010, backed by our volunteers’ decades of experience and skill. MRNSW brings together members from three former marine rescue organisations that had long served the NSW community with distinction: the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard Association, Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol, and Volunteer Rescue Association’s marine fleet. While these organisations had co-existed for many years, a w i d e - r a n g i n g r e v i e w c o m m i s s i o n e d b y t h e N SW www.international-maritime-rescue.org
A Government funding advance has assisted with the modernisation of our fleet of 73 rescue vessels, providing up-to-date, safe and reliable equipment. In the past year 14 new and refurbished rescue vessels have been delivered, at a total cost of $2.5 million. Older vessels are being phased out in favour of new, smaller, more manoeuvrable and versatile vessels designed to operate in local coastal conditions. The new vessels are fitted with state-of-the-art navigation, electronics, communication, night vision and first aid equipment, including lifesaving automatic defibrillators and oxygen therapy. The process of creating a new entity by drawing on the strengths of three separate services has highlighted the difficulties of generational and structural change but also the rewards that can be gained from a group of people committed to a common purpose. The tireless work, commitment to public service and marine skill and experience of our volunteers is the base on which this strong organisation has been built to provide a worldclass rescue service. And this is an achievement of which everyone who has played a role in this fledgling service can be justifiably proud. page 5
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SAR Matters This column provides a forum for LIFE LINE readers worldwide to contribute to debate on any relevant SAR issue. You can join in, or propose new items for discussion, by emailing news@international-maritime-rescue.org. Or you can join the discussion on our SAR Matters Blog, online at www.international-maritime-rescue.org. Have a look at previous discussions on the website too, in the LIFE LINE archive. In this edition we look at alerting methods, and ask in particular how accident alerting can be improved in the developing world. Do you remember all the items in the list of internationallyrecognised maritime distress signals? The spoken word ‘Mayday’ by radio, of course; signals transmitted by EPIRBs (emergency position-indicating radio beacons); and “slowly and repeatedly raising and lowering the arms outstretched to each side”. There’s ‘SOS’ by Morse, and there are SAR transponders – and then there are the rather more obscure ones: “a signal consisting of a square flag having above or below it a ball or anything resembling a ball”, for example; and “flames on the vessel (as from a burning tar barrel...)”. Also in the list are the pyrotechnics – parachute flares, handheld flares, orange smokes. Red flares, at least, are very well-known visual distress signals; which is more than can be said for some of the others! The trouble with flares, however, is that they are expensive to buy; they have a limited ‘shelf life’ – and they are potentially dangerous, which creates difficulties of transportation, storage and use. Also (and in common with all other visual signals) they need reasonably good visibility in order to be seen, and they also need an observer looking the right way... Two questions. Should we really still be relying on fireworks (and inherently dangerous fireworks at that) to raise the st alarm in the 21 century? And even if we should, are these distress signals – and others in the internationallyrecognised list – really the best we can do for the people at sea who need them most; artisanal fishermen, for example, in the developing world? It is among such groups, after all, that the appalling annual drowning figures which the IMRF is seeking to address are at their worst. The best way to save life at sea is to minimise the risk to it. A seaworthy vessel, good equipment, and training and experience are ‘life-savers’. The IMRF supports every effort to prevent accidents happening at sea and to better equip seafarers of all kinds so that, faced with an emergency, they can deal with it without needing outside help. But sometimes, of course, such help is needed. That is why IMRF Members do SAR. However, to get help, you have to be able to let people know that you need it. If you can afford radios, satellite communications, beacons or transponders as envisaged in the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS), that’s fine. Visual www.international-maritime-rescue.org
December 2012
distress signals still have their place, if only to assist SAR units in the final stages of location. But what if you can’t afford such things? As an example, l e t ’ s t a k e t h e S o u t h Pacific. “Low c o s t , a va i l a b i l i t y a n d usability are key out here,” says Bruce Tweed of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, “Especially with local ferries, most of which are small wooden vessels (15m and under) operated by island councils and churches to meet a specific demand. A few years back, for example, an organization designed a compact sail rig for subsistence fishing vessels to carry as alternate propulsion, but as it was superfluous equipment that took up space, it wasn’t carried for long.” That’s understandable. When you’re at subsistence level you can’t afford ‘luxuries’ like marine radios, or flares (or modern variants such as ‘laser flares’). “Alternatives such as radar reflectors (using cans & sticks), reflectors (old CDs), and even large brightly coloured cloth are promoted,” says Bruce, “Along with trip reporting: reliable, consistent trip reporting and universal carriage, and registration, of EPIRBs would greatly improve the response to emergencies.” The expense of providing EPIRBs is an obvious challenge, as are the technical issues of approval and certification. Another way forward – and one which will require a good deal of careful thought and some technical development – is to stop thinking about emergency alerting as a standalone communications issue. Instead, we should think about adapting communications systems already being used for non-emergency purposes. Cellphones, or mobiles, have spread around the world like wildfire. They have become common in many places which never had landline systems. They are often to be found in the pockets of people who cannot afford to purchase marine radios, or beacons, or flares – because they are of day-to-day use to their owner. Can we not build on that utility? Current cellphones are not usually designed for marine use, and coverage out at sea may be poor or (especially further from land) nonexistent. But the first issue can be addressed, even if only with a plastic bag; and many phones are already using satellite signals; for position-fixing, for example. Distress alerting by satellite – using the phone as an EPIRB – is at least possible. And if a fisherman uses a cellphone ashore, he will use one at sea. Preventing accidents is obviously important. So is effective search and rescue. But we also need to ensure that, if help is needed, it can be called for effectively and efficiently – and by as many seafarers as possible, not just those who can afford the ‘luxuries’. page 6
LIFE LINE
European Regional Development Meeting In October representatives of maritime SAR organisations from the European region converged on Iceland to participate in the biennial ICESAR Rescue Conference, which coincided this year with the IMRF’s Regional Development Meeting. The Rescue Conference was a great success, with almost 600 people attending. The next, on 17-19 October 2014, should be in everyone’s diary.
The annual IMRF Regional Meeting was hosted by ICESAR on the training vessel Sæbjörg. The meeting, chaired by Remmi Pedersen, was a combination of workshops and presentations. The group used the workshop time to review the challenges they face in the current economic climate; what Members are doing in response; and what the IMRF can do to help. Most Members reported that support remains good, despite the signs of a tightening economy. Decision-making for commercial sponsorship is slower, and amounts are reduced in many cases. There has been some reduction in support from individual volunteers and donors too, and funding for capital projects is becoming more difficult to find. On the other hand, government reductions are causing some increase in demand for voluntary organisations. In response to the economic crisis, targeted and better-researched requests for support and sponsorship need to be made to potential commercial and private supporters. New and alternative www.international-maritime-rescue.org
December 2012
income streams, including support ‘in kind’, should be identified, and we should look at increasing productivity. Staff should be encouraged to be more cost-minded and business-focussed, without losing the SAR ‘culture’. Knowledge exchange with other IMRF Members should be increased, and business plans and strategies reviewed to ensure that activity is aligned. Specialist knowledge and skills may be available within the volunteer workforce. The meeting also made recommendations for the IMRF. The European Crew Exchange Project should be continued, and the Education and Prevention Project advanced with urgency. The IMRF should facilitate a seminar focussing solely on fundraising. The IMO’s possible downgrading of its consideration of SAR (see page 1) would provide opportunities for t h e I MR F , wh i c h s h o u l d strengthen its branding accordingly. The Rescue Boat Guidelines will help make our presence felt: the project progresses and the results will be of use to all. Finally, there are cost savings to be made through knowledge exchange and the sharing of information. Presentations given on the recent Crew Exchange Project and the successful VOMARE and VOBASE projects in the Eastern Baltic are well worth reviewing. The exchange has proved a great success, with planning underway to run again in 2013. And the Baltic projects are an excellent case study in collaboration between developed and developing countries. A full summary of the meeting and copies of the presentations can be viewed in the Members’ area of the IMRF website: www.international-maritimerescue.org
News from Morocco A very successful live SAR exercise, ‘RIF 2012’, was held in M’diq in Morocco in early October. The international event was organised by IMRF’s regional coordinator, Mohammed Drissi, and was observed by delegates from Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, The Gambia, Mauretania, and Cape Verde. The international delegates also attended a northwest African regional SAR committee meeting to discuss work to improve SAR provision in their respective countries.
Moroccan emergency responders and the crew of a Spanish rescue vessel land a casualty (above); and the international observers watch the exercise (below)
IMRF Trustee Hamish McDonald and Secretary David Jardine-Smith were among the speakers at a seminar which preceded the exercise. Hamish spoke on the need for the provision of regionally relevant and sustainable operational support and training programmes, and David gave a briefing on the IMRF’s mass rescue operations project. The regional SAR Committee elected Mohammed Drissi as its chairman for the next two years, and agreed to develop a work plan identifying the different issues to be considered in order to complete the Regional SAR Plan. With the collaboration and support of the IMRF and the IMO, two training sessions on SAR management and coordination will take place in Agadir early in 2013, with relevant personnel attending from each of the countries in the northwest African region. page 7
LIFE LINE
December 2012
IMO Awards for Exceptional Bravery
News from China
On 26 November, at a ceremony in the IMO Headquarters in London, the 2012 Awards for Exceptional Bravery at Sea were presented to rescue crews from Canada and Chile.
The IMRF had the pleasure of nominating two officers of China Rescue and Salvage for the IMO Bravery Awards. Both are pilots in the Rescue Flying Service of the Chinese Ministry of Transport, and both received Letters of Commendation from the IMO.
The Canadian rescue was reported in the December 2011 edition of LIFE LINE. SAR Technicians Sergeant Janick Gilbert, Master Corporal Max Lahaye-Lemay and Master Corporal Marco Journeyman of the Royal Canadian Air Force were nominated for saving the lives of two Inuit hunters in October 2011, during an operation lasting five hours. The hunters were stranded in an open boat in icy waters near Igloolik, Nunavut, in freezing temperatures, strong winds and heavy swells. Sgt Gilbert died during the rescue. Together with his colleagues, his widow and his mother accepted his award, to a standing ovation in the IMO’s packed plenary hall. César Flores Flores, of the Chilean Navy aerial detachment at Puerto Montt, received his award for his role as rescue swimmer in the rescue of the crew of the launch Rosita V, aground and washed by breaking seas at Locos Islet, in extremely dangerous conditions. Able Seaman Flores rescued seven survivors, injured and suffering from hypothermia. As he began raising the last one to the helicopter, a wave caused the vessel to lurch and the winch cable became entangled with the HF antenna and the signal mast, endangering both the swimmer and the aircraft. But Flores was able to disentangle the cable and bring the last survivor up safely. In his acceptance speech he modestly stressed that he was only part of a much wider SAR team. Among other nominees to be honoured were Attie Gunter, Leon Pretorius and Quentin Diener of South Africa’s National Sea Rescue Institute (seen below at the IMO with, right, IMRF Chairman Michael Vlasto and NSRI’s Rob Wilson). The crew of the 5.5m RIB Queenie Paine received Certificates of Commendation for their rescue of the four crew of the yacht Gulliver in gale force conditions and darkness in June 2011. The rescue was reported in our August 2011 edition. The IMO are now seeking nominations for the 2013 Awards. Rescues taking place between 1 March 2012 and 28 February 2013 will be considered. Nominations must reach the IMO by 15 April 2013. If you would like more details, please contact David Jardine-Smith of the IMRF Secretariat: d.jardinesmith@international-maritime-rescue.org. www.international-maritime-rescue.org
Captain Yang Junxing is a helicopter pilot of considerable experience: he is also an instructor. At 0500 on 4 December 2011, he was informed that a container ship, the Jinshanling, from Zhejiang Province, had sunk in the Pingtan sea area of Fujian Province. There were 22 crew aboard. Capt Yang decided to take helicopter B-7106 from Fuzhou base and ordered helicopter B7310, based in Xiamen, to be ready to assist. When flying conditions allowed, B-7106 left Fuzhou for the distress scene. While B-7106 was on the way, B-7310 also took off. On scene, the crews found Force 7 winds and 3 metre waves, with containers floating on the sea. After a careful search, the crew of B-7106 crew found a drowning seaman. Capt Yang skilfully positioned the helicopter, while winchman Zhu Qiangsong got ready to deploy rescue swimmer Ren Jie. Lowered to the sea surface, Ren Jie grasped the man and he was winched aboard. After B7310 had also arrived, the two helicopters, working together, successfully rescued another two distressed crewmen.
Captain Yu Dongshi is another very experienced rescue helicopter pilot, with 63 lives saved to his credit. On 11 March 2011 his helicopter was called to the assistance of three crewmen from the vessel Yin Zhi, who had suffered serious carbon monoxide poisoning. An hour’s flight from Gaodong, rescue helicopter B-7328 found the weather conditions on scene very bad, with high winds and heavy seas making hovering very difficult. However, Capt Yu was able to maintain position while his crew conducted five lifts – the three injured men and two escorts. B-7328 landed its passengers at Gaodong, where they were rushed to hospital. We are happy to report that all three poisoned men survived. page 8
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December 2012
From Fax to Facebook The Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s Tony Roddam writes about how the RNLI is embracing multimedia.
The social media revolution is challenging organisations worldwide. For SAR organisations it is arguably a force for good, transforming how we work and opening a vivid window into our world. But it is not without complexities. SAR organisations have to cope with the human, legal, and ethical challenges of operations becoming more visible, as social media and video are used to record, discuss and sometimes judge our actions. But at the same time social media are finding a key role in humanitarian activity: I was fascinated to hear at the Rescue 2012 conference in Reykjavik how the Red Cross and ICE-SAR are using Facebook and text messaging to gauge the severity of incidents or warn people of danger. This revolution has also thrown up innovative ways to showcase what SAR organisations do. For a charity such as the RNLI, relying on the generosity of the public, this is vital. But turning the public relations potential of social media into a useful reality has been far from simple. The RNLI is 95% a volunteer organisation. Like many organisations pondering this revolution, the initial response was ‘How do we control this?’ But no-one can ‘control’ social media. Nor can the clock be wound back: the revolution’s here to stay. Better to embrace it and make it work for you. This realisation necessitated a sea-change in thinking at all levels of the RNLI. Five years ago it started to become clear that many of our volunteers were privately embracing the freedom of new media, and talking openly about the RNLI – mostly in ways we wanted but occasionally not. And the world could suddenly see and hear them talking. After much internal debate we concluded that we had to start thinking in terms of guiding our volunteers on how best to represent the RNLI. We saw the new social media as a force for good. This ‘light-touch’ approach became a key element of our projects to equip all 236 lifeboat stations with video cameras, as well as training volunteer press officers to use our online News Centre (www.rnli.org/press). This collects news stories, photos and videos from our crews and makes them freely available to the news media and the public. Our volunteers now produce around 4,000 news releases a year, and hundreds of photos and videos, and they run thriving, informative and entertaining Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and websites. This liberal approach raised a few eyebrows from visiting SAR organisations keen to explore how we manage the process. Some are astonished that we simply let volunteers post stories, branded with the RNLI’s logo, direct to the web. But, given that we trust our volunteers to launch expensive lifeboats into violent seas and take responsibility for people’s lives, encouraging them to operate online doesn’t seem too daring. www.international-maritime-rescue.org
That is not to say we take this freedom lightly. The RNLI must preserve its hard-won reputation and that message is reinforced in training across the charity. We were aware from the start that video could be of huge benefit but also that it could be very risky if it showed us in a bad light. In my view video and photos are the ‘killer apps’ for SAR organisations, particularly when combined with dedicated social media channels. Our business has everything a journalist or the public could wish for – action, human interest, technology, heroism, and, regrettably, tragedy. We can bring SAR to life this way. By the end of 2013 all RNLI lifeboat stations will be equipped with video cameras; but this has not been straightforward. There were few suitable ‘off-the-shelf’ cameras when we started and our engineering team worked hard to overcome the unholy mix of seawater and delicate digital technology. The human side proved equally challenging. One lifeboatman was adamant the camera fitted to his lifeboat was transmitting secretly to HQ! But most crews are now using cameras with enthusiasm. And there have been valuable operational benefits too. The cameras have been used to great effect in low-light searches, and crews are increasingly contributing video of their own mistakes, during exercises, for example, so that our training department can educate newcomers and help protect the lifeboat crews and lifeguards of the future. We learned quickly that video alone was not enough – the public and media need the wider story. So we reshaped the training programme for our volunteer press officers. We recognised the need for consistency across the RNLI, and developed three key documents: Loud and Clear, a factsheet issued every year; the Media Skills Handbook; and our Guide to Social Media, which offers friendly guidance on the benefits and risks of social media. We train our volunteers to think about showing the world what the RNLI does well – not showing people in distress, or suffering, or in humiliating situations. We emphasise courtesy, respect and dialogue: the keys to safe navigation through the choppy waters of social media. The results have been promising: the news media are hungry for our pictures and our social media channels are busy. The reward is a high level of awareness amongst the British and Irish public. It has not been plain sailing and it might be reassuring to hear that we are feeling our way: sharing that learning will help us all. As revolutions go, however, this one can be good for SAR. page 9
LIFE LINE
An ‘OSC SAR vessel’ KNRM’s new lifeboat
The Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution – KNRM – enjoys a reputation for excellence in maritime search and rescue. It operates in one of the world’s busiest locations, the North Sea; and to be able to cover all the emergency situations that arise within its area of operations the KNRM has a dense coastal coverage of 44 lifeboat stations, all equipped with fast, all-weather, self-righting lifeboats. The Institution’s response time and service performance (average time to rescue location) is one of the highest in the world, and is achieved at a relatively low cost. More improvements are on the way. The KNRM has announced the next generation of fast all-weather lifeboats: the NH 1816 Class. Working with some of the best Dutch marine experts, the Institution has created the concept of an advanced “on-scene coordination search and rescue vessel”. Innovations in hull design, ergonomics, communications and navigation systems, will give the NH 1816 Class superior capabilities to any conventional lifeboat, say the KNRM. Speed, range, efficiency, seaworthiness and safety are all aspects that have been fundamentally improved in this design, not to mention significant upgrades in crew comfort and ease of maintenance. The NH 1816 (named after its sponsor, De Noordhollandsche 1816) is a self-righting, fast and seaworthy monohull, with alloy hull and composite www.international-maritime-rescue.org
December 2012
wheelhouse. The modified Sea Axe Bow – a successful design by Lex Keuning from Delft University of Technology – cuts through waves, reducing vertical g-forces by 45% and enabling top speeds of over 30 knots, while radically transforming seaworthiness. In addition, retractable rear fins can be lowered for more course stability, or raised to give extra manoeuvrability. In the wheelhouse, state-of-the-art and fully-integrated electronics permit real-time data exchange for ship-to-shore communications (an earlier version of this Ship Information and Management System is already proven by the RNLI in the UK). Crew working conditions have been considerably enhanced by not only limiting the “slamming” motion of the vessel, but also by a host of ergonomic features, such as s p e c i a l i s e d c h a i r s , c l i m a t e control, improved visibility and reduced vibration and noise levels. The vessel’s dimensions are generous, giving extra space not o n l y o n d e c k , wh e r e 125 people c a n b e accommodated, but also in the engine room. This gives staff b e t t e r a c c e s s t o m a c hi n e r y, improving maintenance conditions and effectiveness. The launch of the first NH 1816 Class vessel is scheduled for the third quarter of 2013. Following sea trials, the KNRM will be offering NH 1816 Class lifeboats to other SAR and coastguard services. They will be constructed by Damen Shipyards and its affiliates. Find more information, film and contacts on www.knrm.com.
Miracle on the Yangtze
You would be forgiven for thinking ‘Not again!’ – but the ditched passenger aircraft above is not quite what she seems to be... China's first large-scale search and rescue exercise involving a civil aircraft was held on 26 September in the mouth of the Yangtze River off Shanghai. The drill was a reconstruction of United States Airways Flight 1549’s ditching in the Hudson River in 2009, with 155 people on board. Flight 1549 lost power in both engines as a result of striking a flock of birds shortly after taking off from La Guardia Airport, New York. A major – and successful – rescue operation followed.
A full-size model was placed in the Yangtze River estuary to simulate a similar accident. 140 passengers and 10 crew members were on board. More than 20 vessels took part in the exercise, along with four helicopters and a maritime patrol aircraft. The exercise was organized by the Ministry of Transport and the Shanghai Municipal Government, and included emergency response, evacuation of the aircraft, selfrescue, maritime search and rescue, medical services, fire-fighting, traffic control, on-scene cordoning and aftermath treatment. The rescue itself was a race against time, as the aircraft would ‘sink’ after 45 to 60 minutes. Like its New York original, the Shanghai drill was a great success: the rescue was completed inside 45 minutes! page 10
LIFE LINE
SAR Europe The IMRF is supporting an international SAR conference to be held in Portsmouth, in the UK, on 19-21 March 2013: see www.sareurope.com/IMRF.
The conference will help answer the international SAR community’s key question of how to ensure that the best lifesaving standards are practiced while increasingly trying to balance cost against required capability. This event will showcase the latest o p e r a t i o n a l e xp e r i e n c e s a n d p r a c t i c a l e xa m p l e s o f S A R techniques utilised across Europe. It is also a unique opportunity to view the latest technology and solutions available to the SAR community. Key presentations will include Jonathan Heald, officer commanding the UK’s Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre, on European SAR cooperation and integration; developing techniques for maritime emergencies in and around offshore wind farms and renewable energy installations, by Roly Mckie of the UK Coastguard; a n d t wo o f t h e O n S c e n e Commanders from Oslo Police on the 2011 Norwegian terrorist attacks, sharing first-hand insight into SAR activities on the day. There will also be a ‘focus day’ led by the IMRF on 19 March on planning and improving mass rescue operations. Registrations are now open! For more information about sessions and the speaker line-up, visit the website, download the brochure at www.sar-europe.com / brochure, email enquire@iqpc.co.uk or phone +44 (0) 207 036 1300. To register interest in attending the event, please visit www.sareurope.com/reg.
www.international-maritime-rescue.org
December 2012
IMRF Web News Work continues on the IMRF website: www.international-maritimerescue.org.
Bruce Reid and Wendy Webster of the Secretariat have been working hard to improve the look and user-friendliness of the site, with a dynamic and exciting selection of news and reports. Watch out for new developments, including project-specific pages! Our sister site, run by the IMRF’s Asia Pacific Regional Centre, is also a lively place to visit. Have a look at imrf.asia.com.
Mass Rescue The urgent need for further action to prevent or respond to incidents at sea involving large numbers of people continues to be tragically demonstrated.
The dreadful collision between the Sea Smooth and the Lamma IV off Hong Kong in October left 39 people dead and 87 injured. Lamma IV’s stern was torn open in the impact, throwing scores of passengers into the sea. The vessel's aft end flooded within minutes, trapping passengers in the submerged cabin. The SAR response was rapid and efficient – but what can be done for people trapped in such horrific circumstances? Prevention remains key. But so does preparation, should the worst happen.
SAR and the weather Antti Kokko is a master’s student working in the Finnish Meteorological Institute, doing research for the Finnish Border Guard on SAR operations caused by the weather. Antti is investigating which weather parameters cause most incidents; how the quality of forecasts corresponds to the amount of weather-related accidents; the geographical and temporal distributions, etc. The final aim of this research is better understanding of the effect of hazardous weather on SAR in Finland’s sea areas – but the research will have general value too. If you can help with statistics, please contact Antti at Antti.Kokko@fmi.fi.
The Singapore Maritime and Port Authority conducted a live exercise, FEREX Heron, in September. The scenario involved a ferry colliding with a tug: more than 350 personnel from nine agencies participated. Chief Executive Lam Yi Young said, “FEREX Heron had three purposes – to familiarise all parties in their roles and responsibilities in the Ferry Mishap Contingency Plan, in the event of an accident during the annual Kusu pilgrimage season; to test agencies’ readiness in handling mass casualty incidents; and to test the involvement of our newly upgraded Port Operations Control Centre.” page 11
LIFE LINE
December 2012
The Ultimate Float Test
Honours for our Patron
Testing the seaworthiness of your rescue boat is important, of course – but you can overdo it... In early October 2009, a general SAR exercise was hosted by ICE-SAR rescue teams in Grundafjörður, Iceland. The Suðurnes team headed for the exercise in their Arun class boat, deciding to tow their Atlantic-class rigid-hull inflatable instead of transporting it by road. About halfway, off Faxaflói bay, the Arun took a breaking sea and the coxswain hurt his head. After his crew had fixed him up they discovered that the tow had parted. A search was mounted – but the RIB had vanished. 996 days later she was found, off Norway. The picture above shows her being lifted from the sea (a testament to the strength of her towing eye, incidentally). She looks as you might expect her to look after all that time.
Efthimios Mitropoulos, who retired as Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization at the end of 2011, and graciously agreed to become the IMRF’s Patron at that time, has received two important honours. The IMO is based in London, and Her Majesty the Queen has recognised our patron’s long and outstanding service to international maritime safety, security and protection of the marine environment by appointing him an Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George. And Admiral Mitropoulos has also been honoured by his own. During a ceremony at the IMO’s headquarters by the Thames on 27 November, he became the latest recipient of the IMO’s prestigious International Maritime Prize.
But the second picture shows what she looked like after she’d been hosed down. The sponson and the self-righting bag had gone (and the engines wouldn’t start!) but she was in extraordinarily good condition otherwise – a real credit to her builders.
He joins a select body of recipients of the Prize – a group which includes the IMRF. Then the International Lifeboat Federation, we were very pleased to be awarded the honour in 1998 (the only Non-Governmental Organisation to be awarded it to date); so we are all the more pleased to welcome our Patron to the club!
We don’t recommend that you go quite this far when testing your own boat, though!
And finally... We hope that you have found this issue of LIFE LINE informative and interesting. We know that there is much more going on among IMRF’s membership that could be reported here, to the benefit of all – but we rely on you, the reader, to tell us about it! LIFE LINE and the IMRF website need you to provide their contents – your news, your projects, your events, your ideas, your lessons learned. We also need your pictures, please: good quality pictures (more than 250 kB, if possible) of your SAR units – boats, ships, aircraft, RCCs etc. These will be used in LIFE LINE and on the website – but are also needed for presentations and to accompany press articles about the IMRF and its worldwide work. Please send articles and pictures (or links to them, with formal permission for them to be used for IMRF purposes) to news@international-maritime-rescue.org. Let’s spread the word, for the benefit of all at risk on the world’s waters.
LIFE LINE www.international-maritime-rescue.org
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