LIFELINE February 2011 - English

LIFE LINE

February 2011

December 2010 The Newsletter of the International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF) December 2010 News… Experience… Ideas… Information… Development…

December 2010 In this issue: 

December the World Maritime Rescue Congress, the International SAR Exhibition, and the IMRF‟s 2010

  

Quadrennial General Meeting - Shanghai, August 2011 news from the Caribbean, Uruguay, Russia, Canada, Namibia, and Australasia more on IMRF‟s work on mass rescue and a Rescue Boat Code and more!

December 2010 December 2010 December 2010 December 2010

This year will see the IMRF’s quadrennial World Maritime Rescue Congress convene in Shanghai, kindly hosted by China Rescue and Salvage. We introduced the Congress in the December edition of LIFE December LINE. Now is the time for anyone involved in maritime SAR, or in the wider response to emergencies on 2010 the world’s waters, to be putting the Congress dates in their diaries.

In this and subsequent editions of LIFE LINE we will be giving you a foretaste of this prestigious December international event. First, some words of welcome…

2010

On behalf of China Rescue and Salvage, the specialised rescue agency of the Ministry of Transport of the People‟s Republic of China, I would like to extend to you a very warm invitation to the World Maritime Rescue Congress 2011 in Shanghai, which we are honoured and proud to host.

International historians reliably inform us that the world‟s first maritime rescue response service was established here in China, circa 1701, at Zhenjiang, on the banks of the Yangtze river. We look forward to welcoming our many international colleagues and friends here to the “birthplace” of our common humanitarian th lifesaving mission and to join us for the 60 anniversary celebrations of its more modern counterpart, China Rescue and Salvage.

Above all, we look forward to working together, through the IMRF, in a spirit of international cooperation to develop maritime rescue capability and capacity for all users of the world‟s waters.

2011 will be an exciting year for the IMRF as December we look forward to our World Maritime Rescue Congress and the International Search 2010 and Rescue Exhibition in Shanghai. Our colleagues from our host organisation, China Rescue and Salvage, are working very hard in December preparing to welcome our many international guests.

2010 Capt SONG Jaihui, Director General, China Rescue and Salvage Mr Gerry Keeling, Secretary, IMRF

Maritime SAR is an essential humanitarian mission: those in distress at sea rely on us to December provide an immediate and effective emergency response. This depends on 2010 cooperation between all responding agencies. The Congress has become an important global December forum, fostering cooperation between 2010 stakeholder organisations of the broader international maritime SAR community.

Delegates share ideas, developments and December lessons learned, as well as collaborating, through the IMRF, on international2010 projects of common interest.

December We look forward to seeing you all at „Congress 2011‟ in Shanghai!

2010 December page 1 2010 December

LIFE LINE

February 2011

Editorial Welcome to the February 2011 edition of LIFE LINE. We continue to receive positive comment on our revived newsletters (which we very much appreciate - thank you!) and our readership continues to grow, which is especially pleasing.

This leads me to emphasise two things. First, we do want to hear what you think of LIFE LINE - bad points as well as good. We want to know what you want to read about in your Federation’s newsletter.

OK: there is a risk involved in making suggestions for LIFE LINE articles! We are likely to say ‘Thanks for the great idea - could you write 300-words on it, please, with pictures…?’ But, as we have said before and will again, this is YOUR newsletter, and we want your news to fill it.

The second thing I would like to emphasise is that LIFE LINE is for everyone. We do SAR without prejudice; and we want to see it discussed and developed in the same way. While LIFE LINE is essentially an IMRF Members’ newsletter, its readership should be unlimited. Our editorial policy is that LIFE LINE is an open publication, issued free of charge and with no restrictions on distribution.

In other words, please pass it on!

Speaking of distribution, one complaint that we have received is about how we send LIFE LINE out. We apologise again if the - temporary - method of emailing pdf files inconveniences you. The good news is that, as reported later in this issue, the hard work on the IMRF website has been continuing and our site will be ready to be relaunched soon. Among the benefits will be that LIFE LINE will be published on-line, and you will be emailed a link for each new edition, enabling you to read and/or download it as most convenient to yourself.

But now let’s turn briefly to the contents of this edition.

As you have already seen, we are focussing on the World Maritime Rescue Congress in this issue, and we will be keeping you up to date in future issues as the planning of this extremely important event progresses.

We are pleased to report that, thanks to the great efforts of our colleagues in China Rescue and Salvage, the logistics are well advanced. In particular, you can now book your places!

But LIFE LINE isn’t just about the Congress, important though it is. There’s a good deal more to read about, as always. As editor, I hope you will find it both interesting and helpful.

Best wishes, Dave Jardine-Smith news@international-maritimerescue.org

Contents World Maritime Rescue Congress words of welcome ...............

Editorial .........................................

Dates for the Diary ............................

World Maritime Rescue Congress what’s on the agenda ...............

IMRF Quadrennial General Meeting ...

An IMRF Rescue Boat Code ...............

Mass rescue .........................................

The International SAR Exhibition ...

News from the Caribbean, Uruguay, Russia & Australia ...............

News from Canada, Namibia & New Zealand ............................

News from the IMRF Secretariat ...............

Vega’s mass rescue ............................

SAR Matters .........................................

Send LIFE LINE a picture ...............

1 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 5 6 7 7 8 8

Dates for the Diary Shephard SAR Conference

13-14 Apr 2011

The 2011 event in this popular conference series will be held at the Bournemouth International Centre, UK. See www.shephard.co.uk/events/65/search-and-rescue-2011.

World Maritime Rescue Congress 24-28 Aug 2011 The Congress will be hosted by China Rescue and Salvage in Shanghai. It will comprise presentations, workshops, an international SAR exhibition, and SAR exercises. It will also be the venue for the IMRF Members’ quadrennial general meeting. See the articles in this issue of LIFE LINE and www.wmrc2011.org for further details.

European Regional Meeting

27-28 Oct 2011

The next IMRF European Regional Development meeting will be hosted in Oslo by the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue. More details in due course.

SAR ASIA-2011

6-7 Dec 2011

The first Shephard Group SAR event in the Asia-Pacific region will be held in the Holiday Inn Atrium, Singapore. For programme enquires contact Capt Gabriel Kinney, USCG (retired) at gkinney@twcny.rr.com.

Mass Rescue Conference

June 2012

The second in IMRF‟s conference series on mass rescue at sea will continue work begun in Gothenburg in June 2010 (see report in the October issue of LIFE LINE) and to be progressed at the World Maritime Rescue Congress in Shanghai. Further details will be announced in LIFE LINE in due course. page 2

LIFE LINE

February 2011

What’s on the agenda...

What’s on the agenda...

This is the leading congress for all those involved in maritime rescue around the world. Delegates come from the largest and smallest, oldest and newest maritime rescue organisations. The full range of maritime rescue and prevention activity is covered. Rescuers, leaders, coordinators, national and international authorities work together side by side, openly sharing ideas, developments and lessons learned, and the informal Congress atmosphere promotes effective dialogue and cooperation.

‘International collaboration’ and ‘sharing information’ are the Congress’s principle aims. As well as the Code of Practice and the mass rescue work, delegates will be able to attend talks and workshops on subjects as diverse - and as important - as SAR funding, search planning, boats and engines, SAR crew recruitment, and so on.

Together, we can make SAR better.

On Tuesday 23 August delegates will arrive and register at the Intercontinental Congress Hotel in downtown Shanghai’s fashionable Pudong district, near the site of the recent World Exposition.

th

In the evening of the 24 delegates are invited by our hosts, China Rescue and Salvage, to join in the th celebration of their 60 anniversary. th

The next three days - Thursday 25 th to Saturday 27 - will be devoted to a series of presentations and workshops running in parallel.

Delegates will be able to listen to, and participate in, the latest developments in a wide range of maritime SAR themes.

Two of the work streams will be devoted to two of the IMRF’s major areas of work at present: the development of an IMRF Code of Practice for vessels of less than 24 metres engaged in maritime SAR operations; and our work to improve the response to mass rescue incidents worldwide.

See the articles later in this newsletter on how work on these two IMRF-led projects is progressing - and watch later editions of LIFE LINE for details of how the work will be taken forward.

It is important to note now, though, that the Congress will present a perfect opportunity for all IMRF Members to contribute to these vital areas of work.

Other Congress attractions will include a visit to local maritime facilities, a river cruise, the Congress dinner, and a tour to the museum of the world’s oldest rescue station at Zhenjiang.

What COULD BE on the agenda...

If you have subjects that you would like to see addressed in Shanghai, please email your ideas and abstracts to Gerry Keeling at g.keeling@international-maritimerescue.org.

This is YOUR Congress, after all!

Quadrennial General Meeting And it’s YOUR Federation...

Shanghai will also be the venue for the IMRF’s Quadrennial General Meeting - a very important event for all our Members.

The meeting is scheduled to be held in the mornings of Thursday 25 to Saturday 27 August, with sessions taking place before the main business of the Congress each day.

There will be a ‘Meet & Greet’ reception that evening.

The Congress opens on Wednesday 24 August, with presentations by keynote speakers.

th

On Sunday 28 there will be a workshop plenary session and open forum before the Congress closes.

The QGM agenda will be circulated to the IMRF Membership in good time. page 3

LIFE LINE

February 2011

A Rescue Boat Code

mass rescue

As reported in previous editions of LIFE LINE, an IMRF working group is currently working hard on the development of a Code of Practice for maritime SAR operations for vessels of less than 24 metres.

Work continues too on the IMRF’s mass rescue theme - how to improve the rescue of large numbers of people on, or by, sea.

The latest news from Project Manager Neil Chaplin is that work is progressing well and is on schedule to produce a first draft of the Code ready for the quadrennial conference in Shanghai in August.

The risk assessment model created to analyse the risks presented by typical SAR operations is working well and the team will have completed their work on the assessments by the time this article is published.

It has been gratifying to see that there has been a good level of agreement in the discussions on the risks faced by SAR operators and the need to address those risks.

Once complete, the team will then begin to use the risk mitigations identified to produce advice and guidance for SAR operators in terms of equipment, training and procedures.

While undertaking their risk assessment work, the team have noted that, whilst we all undertake the job of saving life at sea, we all do the job slightly differently and use a variety of different equipment to get it done.

This issue is likely to present the group with some very interesting challenges over the coming months in trying to produce advice and guidance which helps improve the levels of safety and effectiveness of the SAR operators, whilst facilitating the wide variety of equipment and approaches currently successfully employed around the world.

For example, even the basic safety aspects of boat design, such as subdivision, stability and fire fighting, can vary widely between a few organisations. We are probably not going to agree on one absolute requirement for rescue boats, so whatever we write is going to have to be flexible yet purposeful, helping the operator address the risks in undertaking his role. This isn’t going to be a single definitive construction standard for all lifeboats.

The group have also been working hard on the ‘keep it simple’ message we told you about in the last article. To this end the group are investigating how the code could be turned into a web based application with a simple user interface. As more and more people turn to the internet for their sources of information, it would be sensible to investigate making the code available as a web application which can be much more user focussed.

If you have any thoughts or comments on the project please send them to the Code project Manager, Neil Chaplin at: imrfcode@googlemail.com

This might be following a major maritime accident, to a passenger ship or an oil installation, for example, or after an aircraft ditching.

But it might also be required in other circumstances - perhaps the rescue of large numbers of migrants, or of people escaping a disaster ashore.

No two incidents of this type will be the same - but there are common themes. The coordination of the large numbers of rescue craft needed is one; commercial vessels in the area as well as dedicated SAR units. Others include the coordination of responding aircraft, between themselves and with the surface units; sorting out the web of communications; dealing with the issues arising from landing large numbers of survivors to authorities ashore; and so on.

We can learn a great deal from others’ experience. That’s why these subjects, and others like them, are on the agenda for discussion at the World Maritime Rescue Congress in Shanghai, and in the continuing IMRF mass rescue conference series.

Make sure that you and your organisation are a part of this work.

Your input can be vital; and the input of others may be of vital help to you if you ever have to deal with such a difficult incident. d.jardinesmith@internationalmaritime-rescue.org.

The International Search and Rescue Exhibition Shanghai, 24th - 26th August 2011 The International SAR Exhibition will be located in the heart of the World Maritime Rescue Congress venue. The common programme and associated informal social events provide ample opportunities for delegates and exhibitors to interact freely.

IMRF Members are urged to bring the opportunities provided by the Exhibition, as well as various Congress sponsorship options, to the attention of their suppliers - to the mutual benefit of all.

See www.wmrc2011.org for details, or telephone +86 21 3381 2011. page 4

LIFE LINE

Caribbean News

February 2011

News from Uruguay

News from Australia

Nigel Taylor, CEO of Life Saving Victoria, writes:

From Jonathan Cornelius, Director, Antigua & Barbuda Search and Rescue:

The following is an account of a rescue and medevac operation on 27 Jan 11, involving ABSAR, MRCC Fort de France (Martinique), and the Guadeloupe Gendarmerie Rescue Helicopter.

At 1306 (local) ABSAR received a call requesting medical assistance for an injured diver. The dive boat was about 15 nm south of Antigua and heading for Falmouth Harbour, but with insufficient oxygen aboard. MRCC Fort de France was asked to provide a helicopter to transfer the casualty to Guadeloupe for hyperbaric chamber treatment.

At 1356 ABSAR Rescue 1 took the diver aboard. He was placed on 100% oxygen using a demand valve mask. The rescue helicopter arrived at 1445 and had the diver aboard by 1454, still using ABSAR’s breathing equipment.

ABSAR Rescue 1 was back at base at 1504.

Jonathan writes: ‘I would like to extend my personal thanks to the operators at MRCC-FF and the crew of the rescue helicopter for their invaluable assistance in this case.’

The Gendarmerie helicopter approaches ABSAR Rescue 1

The Asociación Honoraria de Salvamentos Marítimos y Fluviales (the Honorary Association of Maritime & River Rescue) of Uruguay have recently taken delivery of a former RNLI Lifeboat, seen here touching Uruguayan waters for the first time. She is now the ADES 19.

Guillermo Pérez Lavagnini, President of AdeS Uruguay, reports that ‘after receiving the vessel and tying her up in Buceo's habour, we had our annual volunteer gathering, during which we highlighted the work of those who made possible the arrival of the new ship in our waters, to great applause.’

News from Russia Igor Kalinin, of the Russian Voluntary Maritime Rescue Society, Kronstadt, reports that an application by the Finnish-Russian SAR Project (SouthEast Finland - Russia ENPI CBC Programme 2007-13) has been supported and that the Society hopes to make significant progress on their organisation’s development as a result. Excellent news.

Kronstadt lighthouse - the way ahead!

This summer we have made some major changes to our patrolling support services. The key external look and feel pieces are the inclusion of a second helicopter and the exRNLI RIB which is now actively patrolling on all warmer weather evenings (often when no volunteer patrols are in place).

To date all is working well and the boost to our profile is an added bonus. Beach crowds have been up as no-one seems to want to watch the cricket for some reason!

LIFE LINE‟s (English) editor feels obliged to note that, although Australia generously allowed England to win the test cricket series and take the Ashes home, the Aussies got their revenge in the one-day series. Perhaps, as so often in SAR, it‟s all a matter of endurance...?

On a more serious note Nigel also noted that, during the recent flooding, Life Saving Victoria had to evacuate the state pool championships team from Brisbane. ‘I guess no one can argue that we don’t need our emergency services...’

Where are they now...?

LIFE LINE is unable to offer prizes, unfortunately, but can you identify two of the IMRF‟s current Trustees in this photo taken - well - just a few years ago?

page 5

LIFE LINE

News from Canada

February 2011

News from Namibia

New Zealand News As this edition of LIFE LINE was about to be distributed, news broke of the major earthquake in Christchurch. The IMRF extends its deepest sympathy to all involved.

We turn, appropriately, to a story of human resilience from the Cook Strait.

As already noted from Australia, „maritime‟ SAR units can become involved in „inland‟ incidents. The following report is reproduced from the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary Pacific‟s fine newsletter, Compass, by kind permission. Incidentally, this report also shows what „quiet‟ SAR units can do when called upon.

The ocean was like chocolate milk, brown and opaque. Dozens of mudslides cut northern Vancouver Island’s road network and filled the sea with debris. An early winter storm hit the village of Port Alice hard. CCGA-P Station 43 Port Alice got permission from JRCC to aid in humanitarian efforts as long as required.

Over the following days four members racked up many hours on the water. A mudslide had severed road links to the cellulose pulp mill and left around 75 workers stranded. The station used their 27’ Zodiac to transport food, paramedics and fire crew to and from the mill.

The half-dozen active member station is on call 24/7/365, but the crew is only called to two or three missions per year. This multi-day mission challenged the crew with heavy rain and winds. It also challenged the vessel with hundreds of logs in the inlet that had broken loose from booms.

After several days of transporting emergency crews and people who had hiked in from their remote cabins, the Police brought in resources and the mill began running regular water taxis. The crew was able to dry the cuffs of their drysuits and get a full night’s sleep.

SAR in Canada has its challenges

G.F. Hull, Station Commander of the Sea Rescue Institute of Namibia‟s Station 2, writes:

The general perception of the 2010 festive season is a positive one, with no serious cases or incidents to mention. This can be attributed to a generally wellbehaved public, as well as our early and pro-active intervention policy, in which situations were diffused well in advance, so as to curb any possibility of escalation.

Substance abuse on the beaches remains a constant issue of concern and danger.

The success of our 2010 festive season can only be attributed to the good co-operation received from the Namibian Police, ISOS International, West Coast Safety Initiative and the Swakopmund Municipality.

Our sincere thanks to all the parties involved, bearing in mind that a community service, such as the Sea Rescue Institute of Namibia, can only function on a level equal to the support it receives from the very community it services.

Three 30-year-old men were on a fishing and diving expedition out of Wellington in late December when their dinghy’s engine failed; and the craft swamped and sank in the early evening. One of them, Max Ma, swam for more than nine hours before emerging, exhausted, on the shore at Owhiro Bay. He dragged himself to a nearby house for help about 3.45am.

When Simon Baker opened his front door to find Mr Ma half-collapsed on his deck, wet and shivering, his first thought was that he was a drunk. But as his eyes adjusted, he saw Mr Ma was wearing a full dive suit – and, through panicked gasps, was spluttering that his friend was dead.

The alarm had been raised about 9pm when police were alerted to a lone car and trailer at the Owhiro Bay boat ramp.

A search was mounted but, in the dark and with winds gusting towards storm force, nothing was found. The search was suspended at 3.30.

It recommenced as soon as Mr Ma’s survival became known, and his two companions were found - alive - at about 10 am.

A rescue boat pulls alongside one of the men who spent a night in the Cook Strait

Taupo SAREX The October edition of Coastguard Matters, newsletter of Coastguard New Zealand’s Northern Region, includes a very interesting article on a multi-unit exercise organised by Taupo Police and attended by the visiting Hibiscus Rescue 2 - whose crew noted the differences in techniques, procedures and boat design among the participating units: a great example of SAR people learning from each other.

The rescue boats worked through a number of scenarios, which involved a good mix of practical and decision-making tasks. The crews found the scenarios well set up, tightly focused and kept to a good time frame.

‘Retired’ SAR unit members acted as assessors, and brought a wealth of experience and knowledge to both the planning and debriefing. page 6

LIFE LINE

February 2011

News from the Secretariat

Vega’s mass rescue

The IMRF’s Secretariat is a small but dedicated band of people, some permanent staff, some seconded, some volunteers.

We would barely fill a taxi, perhaps - but we do care passionately about where it goes!

LIFE LINE readers may recall that, in our December edition, we reported briefly on the rescue of 98 crew members from the fish factory vessel Athena after she had suffered a major fire about 240 miles offshore, in the southwest approaches to the English Channel.

The recovering vessel - which subsequently brought the survivors in to Falmouth - was the container ship Vega.

LIFE LINE is a newsletter for the IMRF’s Membership, not its back-room people, so we do not write much about the Secretariat.

However, Members might like to hear that their Secretariat has - among other things! been making considerable progress on making the IMRF’s website a little more user-friendly.

The existing site is good, but can be a little difficult to navigate and, for the nonspecialist, to amend. Ann Laing’s small team of volunteers at Stonehaven have been working very hard to produce a simpler site which we hope will be used much more in consequence - especially by Members. In particular we are keen to provide an easy-to-use ‘library’ of freelydownloadable material, in line with the IMRF’s aim of sharing information to the benefit of all in the maritime SAR community.

We hope to be able to announce in the next issue of LIFE LINE that the new site has gone live. It will not be ‘complete’ by then, of course: on-going input from IMRF Members will be essential to that aim.

Liferafts drifting from the Athena (left) are brought alongside Vega (right)

The IMRF have now received a report on the operation from Capt Oleksandr Butyrin, master of the Vega. He and the vessel’s managers, Alpha Ship Management of Bremen, have kindly agreed that it may be made available to IMRF Members working on the problem of how merchant ships may assist in at-sea recovery operations.

Extracts from Capt Butyrin’s report are given here.

Vega was 30 miles from Athena when, at 0620 local time, she picked up the latter’s ‘Mayday’ on channel 16. She altered course immediately to assist. ‘Practice of good seamanship,’ wrote Capt Butyrin when we asked him why he did so - and many RCC personnel will wish that this was the attitude of every ship’s master.

Vega arrived at 0903, to find liferafts secured alongside Athena.

Athena confirmed that her fish hold was still burning: toxic smoke was a major concern. ‘There appeared to be good coordination among the officers and crew of the Athena,’ said Capt Butyrin, although ‘There was some dispute as to the numbers of the crew in the liferafts.’ (Counting people in these circumstances seems always to be a problem - one which might be given more attention, perhaps.)

Capt Butyrin realised that Vega would have to recover the people from the liferafts direct: ‘There was no other way to recover them.

The sea conditions would not allow the use of the ship’s rescue boat and the vessel only has a free fall lifeboat which is not practical for any rescue operation.’ The sea state was estimated to be 4-5 on the Beaufort Scale (1 to 3 metres) with a 1.5 to 2 metre swell running.

Secondees from Member organisations play a very important role in the IMRF Secretariat. All their efforts are greatly appreciated - but we hope that other secondees will forgive us for singling out Xiao Liang Zhao of China Rescue and Salvage (CRS) for special mention.

Xiao Liang - widely known as Veronica has now moved on to other work within CRS; but her many friends in SAR worldwide hope that she’ll stay in touch!

She has been and, we are sure, will remain a great SAR ambassador.

She is seen above with IMRF Secretary Gerry Keeling at a presentation arranged in her honour at the recent IMRF Trustees’ meeting in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland. It is typical of Xiao Liang that Gerry is shown holding a gift which she has given to him...!

While heading for the scene, Capt Butyrin had briefed his crew and had them prepare the ship’s hospital, galley and accommodation for survivors. The pilot ladder, heaving lines and line throwing appliances were prepared, together with safety harnesses with extra lines to assist in lifting people aboard.

‘After initial assessment it was decided to let the liferafts drift down and alongside my vessel. I positioned the vessel downwind of the Athena and approximately 1 cable away. Minimal use of the engine and bow thruster was used as the wash from these was pushing the liferafts. The people boarded our vessel by using pilot ladder and partly lowered gangway. Many of the rescued crew required assistance to board our vessel which was provided by safety harnesses and lines. It should be noted that it is very hard to climb a pilot ladder while wearing an immersion suit.’

It took nearly 3 hours to get all 98 personnel aboard. First aid and food were provided. ‘The problem was to make a tally, with so many persons being rescued. It would have helped to use some sort of marker to identify which persons had been checked and identified.’

The IMRF have written to Capt Butyrin and his crew to congratulate them on the rescue, which was clearly carried out very professionally and in the finest traditions of the sea. page 7

LIFE LINE

February 2011

SAR Matters This discussion column provides a forum for LIFE LINE readers worldwide to contribute to debate on any relevant SAR issue. Comment and/or new items for discussion should be emailed to news@internationalmaritime-rescue.org.

In this edition we turn our attention to emergency response communication’.

It’s good to talk...

Do you think you’ve solved the problem of communications in maritime emergency response? If so, a lot of SAR people around the world would like to hear from you, because they think that, although their comms usually work OK, they could still be better - sometimes a great deal better, especially in complex cases.

What do we mean, first of all, by ‘communication’? One definition (among many!) is ‘the two-way process of reaching mutual understanding, in which participants not only exchange (encode - decode) information but also create and share meaning’ (BusinessDictionary.com).

Well: we can argue that not all communication is ‘twoway’ (a distress flare isn’t, for example) and some readers may be wary of getting too academic about the matter. But if we agree that there is a problem for us here (and most accident and exercise reports suggest that there is) it’s surely worth looking at it holistically, to see how we might communicate better. In SAR, after all, lives may depend on it.

There are obvious things first, like having the right equipment. Do we have what we need to send and/or receive information? Less obvious is whether we’ve the right kit to cover all our potential communication needs.

Hopefully we can talk to the dedicated rescue boat or helicopter on scene, and the RCC - but can we talk to that fishing boat over there, or the unknown aircraft overhead, or the policeman on that beach? If we can’t talk to them direct, how might we do so indirectly?

Even if we have the equipment, do we know what frequencies to use to talk to the people we need to talk to? Where will we find them listening - and will they be pleased to hear from us just there and then? Should we be using another frequency or another means of communication, or should we be waiting for a gap in higher priority traffic?

In other words, what’s the plan? We always communicate according to some sort of plan, even if it’s a very simple one. But in the more complicated cases the plan will need to be more complicated too. There will be more information to exchange, and between more people - including people with whom we are not used to communicating during our ‘normal’ operations. Do they know our plan? Do we know theirs? Do we all know how to put the plans together efficiently?

Efficiency in communications means some really basic things. It means thinking before we press the transmit button. What do we want to say? Must we say it? (Would it be better faxed or emailed instead?) It means using language that others can understand - not just using a common language (English, French, Chinese) but language which means something definite to everyone involved, so that ‘mutual understanding’ can actually be achieved. This may be where the ‘encoding’ and ‘decoding’ come in: what does the word ‘casualty’ mean to you, for instance...? We do not want to ‘create’ meanings we do not intend!

Efficient communication also means prioritising traffic.

What is (literally) the most vital information? How can it be transmitted clearly and quickly, so that it’s immediately understood by the recipient? Come to that, who is the recipient? Who needs this information? Who needs it first? What other information might they need have we forgotten to tell them something simply because to us it’s obvious? And different people, of course, will have different priorities. So - what’s the priority order?

Does the plan make this clear? Does everyone know (and agree with) the plan?

Talk of planning implies that ‘communication’ does not only concern us during the actual response to an emergency. Communication begins at the planning and training stage, and should be a specific subject in exercises to test ourselves and our procedures beforehand and in feedback sessions afterwards.

OK: that’s probably enough communication on this subject for now! Yet it is a subject that could do with more attention than we sometimes give it.

Communication failings can be the source of serious problems in emergency response.

Agree? Disagree? Got some good ideas? Tried something that really works? Well - and you probably expected this! - communicate it. Join in the discussion: email news@international-maritime-rescue.org. After all: it’s good to talk...

And finally...

LIFE LINE and the IMRF website depend on YOU to provide their contents - your news, your projects, your events, your ideas, your lessons learned. They exist for the SAR world to use to communicate.

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 them, or links to them, with formal permission for them to be used for IMRF purposes, to news@international-maritime-rescue.org. Thank you: we look forward to hearing from you!

LIFE LINE page 8