LIFE LINE
February 2012
December 2010 The Newsletter of the International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF) December 2010 News… Experience… Ideas… Information… Development… December 2010 In this issue:
the IMRF’s forthcoming mass rescue conference reports from the IMRF Trustees’ half-yearly meeting news from Sweden, East Asia, London, Madagascar, Brazil, and South Africa and more!
December 2010 December 2010 December 2010 December 2010 December 2010 December 2010 December 2010 December 2010 December 2010
Perhaps you expected to see this picture on the front cover of this edition of our newsletter. On Friday 13 December January the cruise ship Costa Concordia hit the Italian island of Giglio - and over the ensuing2010 hours and days her story hit the headlines around the world. Suddenly everyone seemed to be talking about the accident - and at least half of them appeared to have become experts overnight...
December
Unlike some of the news media and some of the lawyers, the IMRF will not be commenting in detail on the accident or its aftermath until all the facts are known and the real experts have conducted2010 thorough investigations. However, it is safe to say at once that this dramatic - and, for some, sadly tragic - accident will produce lessons that we all can learn from in the SAR world.
December
For an accident like this - the sort of accident that you really do not expect - might happen almost anywhere 2010 and at any time. It’s unlikely, but it clearly isn’t impossible. You might go through a lifetime in SAR without ever having to face something like this. Or it might happen in your patch tomorrow... More inside.
December 2010 December page 1 2010 December
LIFE LINE
February 2012
Editorial Welcome to the February edition of your newsletter.
Late on 14 April 1912, the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg in the starlit North Atlantic and, slowly but inevitably, sank to the bottom of the cold ocean. Over 1,500 people died. The shock waves ran around the world. This was not meant to happen: this was an ultramodern ship and, although no-one ever actually said that she was “unsinkable”, her loss was almost unthinkable, which is nearly the same. Amid the tragedy, the debate began, and from the debate came the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS) and, in time, the United Nations body with responsibility for maritime matters, the International Maritime Organization, to police it. Ships are safer as a result, we all thought. So indeed they are, in general: but, 13 days into the Titanic centenary year, Costa Concordia ripped open her side on the rocks of Giglio - and it all began again: the shocked headlines, the recriminations, the demands for action. Fewer people died this time - but that, it seems, was because her crew were able to manoeuvre the ship onto a rock shelf to prevent her capsizing, and to successfully evacuate the great majority of her people to the nearby harbour. There should be congratulations among the recriminations. But there are lessons to learn too, and we in SAR must learn our share of them. And not just from the Costa Concordia, either. Do you remember hearing about the Spice Islander, which sank off Zanzibar in September 2011? Or the Rabaul Queen, which sank in Papua New Guinean waters on 2 February this year? The global news media paid less attention to these two disasters, which claimed hundreds of lives, than they did to the Costa Concordia - which is, perhaps, a matter of concern in itself. The IMRF, however, is concerned not with news media ethics in this instance but with mass rescue operations. Our on-going project moves to its next stage in June, with the second in our ‘Gothenburg series’ of conferences: please see page 3.
Contents Costa Concordia ................................. Editorial ................................. Dates for the Diary ................................. Mass rescue conference .................... SAR Matters ................................. IMRF’s Patron ................................. News from Sweden ................................. IMRF Trustees’ Meeting .................... IMRF Regional Meeting .................... Capabilities & Needs .................... News from East Asia, and London ... News from the IMO, Madagascar, and Brazil .................... News from South Africa, and the web ....... Serious numbers ................................ The IMRF ‘brand’ ................................ How much do you weigh...? ...... Send us your news & pictures ......
1 2 2 3 4 5 5 5 6 6 7 8 9 9 10 10 10
Dates for the Diary Shephard SAR Europe 2012
15-16 March 2012
To be held near Dublin, Ireland, with the support of IMRF Members the Irish Coast Guard. For details, see: www.shephardmedia.com/events/sar-europe-2012-80
FIRST Project Press Day
20 March 2102
A live test & press event at sea off Västra Frölunda, Sweden. For details, visit www.first-rescue.org
Best Practices in Marine SAR
22-23 March 2012
A regional round-table discussion hosted by IMRF Members BULSAR, in Varna, Bulgaria. Contact: rtd-2012@bulsar.org
IMRF Mass Rescue Conference 3-5 June 2012 The second in IMRF‟s conference series on mass rescue at sea will continue work begun in Gothenburg in June 2010 and progressed at the World Maritime Rescue Congress in Shanghai. Further details in this issue of LIFE LINE.
iSAR 2012
3-5 July 2012
If you want to help improve the response to mass rescue incidents wherever they may occur, please join us in Sweden.
To be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. For details, see: www.globalstar.com.my
Dave Jardine-Smith
Arranged by IMRF Members ICE-SAR, and to be held in Reykjavik, Iceland. For details, see: www.icesar.com/rescue
news@international-maritimerescue.org
RESCUE 2012 - Iceland
19-21 October 2012
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LIFE LINE
February 2012
Gothenburg II - the second in the IMRF mass rescue conference series The second in the ‘Gothenburg’ series of conferences organised by the IMRF in support of our mass rescue operations project will be held at the headquarters of IMRF Members the Swedish Sea Rescue Society, from the afternoon of Sunday 3 to Tuesday 5 June 2012. Bookings are now being taken - please visit www.international-maritime-rescue.org.
The IMRF held its first Gothenburg mass rescue conference in June 2010. It was a great success, with 121 delegates from 36 different countries attending. You can read more about it in the October 2010 edition of LIFE LINE, available on the IMRF website, while a full conference report may be found in the Members’ Library: please see www.international-maritimerescue.org. The 2010 conference highlighted the many problems associated with mass rescue operations. We are trying to find some solutions too, and the IMRF’s project has continued accordingly. One of the work streams at the World Maritime Rescue Congress in Shanghai last August, for example, was devoted to the subject: please see the reports in our October 2011 newsletter and on the website.
The Costa Concordia is not the only recent example of the sort of mass rescue operation we have in mind. Other disasters were less highprofile, but presented even greater challenges. On 10 September 2011, for example, the ferry Spice Islander capsized off Zanzibar. It is reported that she was dangerously overloaded. Hundreds
Manhattan Island on ‘9/11’ are other examples. Natural disasters too can necessitate evacuation by sea.
of people were rescued - but hundreds more died: we will never know precisely how many. Then, on 18 December, the drilling rig Kolskaya capsized off Sakhalin Island in a winter storm. 14 people were rescued but 53 died. Simultaneously a rescue operation was under way off Java after a boat carrying hundreds of migrants sank. Fewer than 50 people survived out of more than 250 thought to have been aboard the vessel. The toll continues. On 2 February the Rabaul Queen sank east of Lae in Papua New Guinea. Again the number originally on board is uncertain, but scores of people have been lost.
And it is not just the ongoing loss of passenger ships and migrant boats or accidents in the offshore oil & gas industry that give rise to maritime mass rescue operations. The ditching of the US Airways Airbus in the Hudson River on 15 January 2009 and the waterborne evacuation of hundreds from
The causes of all these major emergencies are not the direct concern of the IMRF project. The consequences are. While it is unlikely that any one individual in maritime SAR will find him or herself involved in a mass rescue operation, it is possible that any one of us might do so. Preparation is vitally important. Thinking about the problems and working out ways in which they may be dealt with, or at least mitigated, is a very good start. And this is what ‘Gothenburg II’ is all about. The conference will begin in the late afternoon of Sunday 3 June. Delegates will be bussed from the conference hotels (at which the IMRF has negotiated special rates) to register at the conference venue, the Swedish Sea Rescue Society’s headquarters by the shore at Långedrag. There they will be invited to join in some exercises designed to address some of the problems of mass rescue. The conference itself will take place th at Långedrag on Monday 4 and th Tuesday 5 June, and will be based on ‘tabletop’ exercises designed to generate and enable discussion, together with a number of keynote speeches and specific addresses from experts. Bookings are now being taken at www.international-maritimerescue.org. Places are limited: do not delay!
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SAR Matters This is a discussion column intended to provide a forum for LIFE LINE readers worldwide to contribute to debate on any relevant SAR issue. Please see previous editions of LIFE LINE - available on the website, www. international-maritime-rescue.org for earlier discussions. Comment and/or new items for discussion should be emailed to news@international-maritime-rescue.org. In this edition, Dave Jardine-Smith of the IMRF debates the question of deploying helicopters aboard cruise ships bound for remote areas with Tim Williams of Eurocopter. Tim writes here in a private capacity. DJS: The Costa Concordia accident shows that accidents can still happen which threaten the survival of even the largest and most modern passenger ships. Concerns have been raised about the increasing cruise traffic into remote areas such as the Arctic and Antarctic - in 2007 the stranding of the Nordkapp and the sinking of the Explorer, accidents which involved evacuation in an area far from dedicated rescue resources, demonstrated the problem. And it’s not just in high latitudes that there’s concern: any passenger ship evacuation is likely to stretch whatever SAR resources are available. TW: Costa Concordia was a warning shot. Whatever the reasons for her demise, she has shown the world the reality of how difficult and traumatic mass rescue would be; and the importance of IMRF’s work on the subject. For me, this accident emphasized how, while the technology of ships’ lifeboats may have moved on, we are still fundamentally using the same techniques available to the Titanic and her rescuers. Close to shore we do, of course, have rescue helicopters and lifeboats to assist. However, out in the ocean or in the areas of the world where shore-based SAR facilities do not exist the only thing left to get people off a sinking ship, or which can be used by another vessel to rescue those from a sinking ship, are ships’ lifeboats. Liferafts are of limited value in rescuing others. We cannot restrict where in the world cruise ships will go. Tourists will always seek the more remote and spectacular regions, so we can assume that these types of ships will trade away from normal rescue resources and the major shipping lanes. While I do not have the answer to providing more effective ships’ lifeboats in extreme conditions of list, loll or capsize, we can advance mutual support in remote areas. Technology exists which could make other ships in the broad area of a remote accident able to assist without waiting to close and use slow lifeboats. Of course I mean helicopters. If small (3 to 4 tonne) helicopters were embarked in ships transiting remote or difficult areas, then they could offer
February 2012
mutual support at considerable range. Even with a carrying capacity of 6 or 8 passengers, the speed, around 130 knots, would mean a large number of repeat transits to approaching rescue vessels or an ad hoc shore muster area, and would cover a considerable number of people. With more than one ship using their helicopter the positive results would be magnified. If the IMO issued advice to all ship owners to provide helicopter facilities of this type, then it would become the norm for new builds. This would lead to a proportion of retrofitting where the ship's deck layout permitted the addition of a helicopter deck and facilities. DJS: While I do not disagree with you as regards many of your arguments, Tim, I am not hopeful about the prospects of implementing this idea any time soon. There are a number of problems, not least the understandable reluctance of the shipping industry to spend money without being required to by regulation and/or a clear demonstration of immediate benefit. We must remember that the cruise industry (despite the Costa Concordia incident) is a very safe one overall. In this context I fear 'advice' is of limited use. To make significant change, new or amended regulation would be required. Helicopter winching or low hover areas were designed in on ferries by IMO regulation after the Estonia disaster - but attempts to extend the idea to cruise ships (where, logically, it would have been of at least as much use) failed. The industry argued that they need the available deck space for their passengers to enjoy themselves not for the remote possibility that the ships may need to work helicopters! TW: What I’m suggesting does require the provision of a helicopter deck. Additional items - a portable hangar, fuel, and a maintenance cabin - could be hoisted aboard for the passage, even while underway. A service company could offer the rental of these helicopters, joining at the start of the higher risk passage and leaving at the end of it, perhaps to be re-embarked in a ship going the other way. The ship operator should be able to offset the cost in reduced insurance premiums. Other benefits available once the deck was a permanent feature would be casualty evacuation for medical emergencies, the ability to move stores & people between ship and shore while in transit without the need to enter port, and the transfer of pilots etc. In pirate areas the helicopter could survey the planned track ahead to advise the ship of possible pirate vessels. And flying passengers to view spectacular coasts etc would be a revenue earner. The addition of a helicopter rescue capability in this way would be a step change in maritime safety - and would directly address the concerns about passenger ships sailing in remote areas. DJS: Tim - thank you. It’s this sort of out-of-the-box thinking that we need if we are to make real progress on SAR in those areas of the world where shore-based SAR units are not a practical solution. page 4
LIFE LINE
IMRF’s Patron
February 2012
IMRF Trustees’ Meeting The IMRF’s Trustees meet twice a year to review the Federation’s business and progress against our objectives. Whenever possible, the Trustees align their meeting with a regional event involving IMRF Members. The first meeting of the Board elected at the Quadrennial General Meeting last October took place in Alexandria, Virginia, USA, on 16 January. (Please see page 6 for a report of the regional meeting held the previous day.)
We are delighted that Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, who retired on 31 December after two very successful terms of office as Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization, has kindly agreed to become the Patron of the International Maritime Rescue Federation. Admiral Mitropoulos has had a highly distinguished career in the Greek merchant navy, Coast Guard and Maritime Administration, as well as at the IMO. He has always been a great friend of SAR, leading IMO’s efforts to establish a global SAR Plan, and, most recently, attending the IMRF’s World Maritime Rescue Congress in Shanghai in August 2011. Welcome aboard, Admiral: glad to have you with us!
The new Board had a very full agenda to attend to. The Secretariat gave an update on changes to its structure (see LIFE LINE, December 2011); on applications for IMRF Membership; and on the ongoing work to improve the IMRF website - where, as with LIFE LINE, there is always room for more input from the Membership! The Board also heard the latest on the mass rescue and rescue boat guidelines projects; and potential future IMRF project work was discussed, including water safety education. The Trustees agreed a few necessary changes to the IMRF Rules and Regulations, to be advised to the Membership before they come into effect. One change is an additional regulation on use of the IMRF ‘brand’ (see the article on page 10). Arrangements for the efficient running of the IMRF’s new Asia-Pacific Regional Centre were also agreed. The Trustees approved the carrying out of an audit of Members’ capabilities & needs and subsequently the establishment of a database to facilitate bilateral contacts. (Article on page 6.)
Finally, the Trustees were pleased to accept the generous offer of IMRF Members Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Rettung Schiffbrüchiger (DGzRS: the German Maritime SAR Service) to host the 2015 IMRF World Maritime Rescue Congress and Quadrennial General Meeting in Bremen, as th part of DGzRS’s celebrations of the 150 anniversary of their foundation. More details will appear in LIFE LINE a little nearer the time!
News from Sweden We have featured the FIRST Project before in our pages. The project continues to evolve and, says the team’s Fredrik Falkman, is now as much about communications as about research. A live test / press day at sea is planned for 20 March, and one of the world’s largest liferaft manufacturers, Viking LifeSaving Equipment of Denmark, has promised to provide a 35-person davit-launch raft for the event.
Before leaving the USA, the Trustees had the pleasure of meeting the Commandant of the United States Coast Guard (also IMRF Members) at his headquarters in Washington DC, and hearing presentations from his officers on subjects of great relevance to the IMRF’s ongoing work. Proof - if proof was needed - that working together to prevent loss of life in the world’s waters happens in all sorts of ways!
“We are convinced of the need for adequate global mass rescue capabilities,” says Fredrik, “And we think that what we have developed and tested so far may be one answer to this need. Now it’s time to convince the world, and what better way than to embrace new media?” So FIRST is now on Twitter:
and, of course, you can continue to follow this exciting project’s progress at www.first-rescue.org.
The IMRF Trustees with the Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, Admiral Robert J Papp, Jr
See, too, our report on page 7 on recent developments at the IMO on the recovery issue.
(L to R:) Jiahui Song, Udo Fox, Hamish McDonald, Jorge Diena, Adml Papp, Michael Vlasto, Rolf Westerström, Brooke Archbold
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February 2012
IMRF Regional Meeting, North America The day before the Trustees’ most recent biannual meeting (see report on page 5), IMRF Members from North America and the Caribbean gathered for a regional meeting in Alexandria, Virginia; across the Potomac from Washington DC.
Capabilities & Needs As noted in the report on the IMRF Trustees’ meeting (on page 5), the Secretariat will shortly be initiating an audit of Member’s capabilities and needs. If you are your organisation’s representative as an IMRF Member, please look out for and complete the simple questionnaire that we will be sending to you. The audit will be the first step in establishing the IMRF’s Members Assisting Members scheme.
IMRF Members represented included the United States Coast Guard, the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, Virgin Islands Search and Rescue, AFRAS (the Association for Rescue at Sea); and the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary, Pacific, who were welcomed as Full IMRF Members at the meeting. Below we see Michael Vlasto, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, presenting Randy Strandt of CCGA-P with a plaque and membership certificate.
There is nothing really new in this, of course. Helping each other, to the betterment of world maritime SAR, is what the IMRF is all about. Examples of wellestablished Member organisations assisting newcomers abound; and a large part of the IMRF’s raison d’être is to facilitate this process. Hence our survey. We will be asking IMRF Members to identify what needs and capabilities their organisation has: what help they would like and what help they can offer. Examples might include mentoring and/or training; offers of or requests for surplus equipment, or help with equipment design, or achieving economies of scale by combined ordering; financial or fundraising assistance; expertise on safety or public relations campaigns; and so on.
The Members were welcomed to the United States by Rear Admiral Cari Thomas, Director of Response Policy for the Coast Guard. Adml Thomas remarked on the purposes and challenges common to all who are engaged in maritime SAR, and thanked the IMRF Trustees for their international leadership in this important work. The Members and the Trustees introduced themselves and each described their organisations in turn, discussing the resources they had available to them - which, of course, varied widely - and the challenges they face, some of which were specific to their particular areas and tasks, and some more general, as Adml Thomas had noted.
As responses to our audit come in, we will begin to post both requests for and offers of assistance on the IMRF website. We will do this anonymously, unless the Member concerned requests otherwise. The IMRF Secretariat will match offers of assistance to requests made, and will contact the two parties direct. The Trustees are very keen that this scheme should work well, and that a permanent mutual aid scheme or ‘swap shop’ should be established, so that Members’ needs are met more quickly and Members’ skills and resources are shared more efficiently. They have therefore instructed the Secretariat to repeat the audit annually, to keep the idea fresh and to pick up new needs and offers of help as they arise. But the Members Assisting Members scheme will only work, of course, if IMRF Members make it work! So please do join in; because mutual support in life-saving saves lives in itself.
The Chairman and Ann Laing and David Jardine-Smith of the Secretariat spoke of the IMRF’s activities since the World Maritime Rescue Congress, giving the Members present an update on changes within the organisation and our ongoing work, in particular the Rescue Boat Guidelines and the Mass Rescue Operations projects.
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February 2012
News from East Asia
News from London
The IMO reports that a detailed action plan addressing domestic ferry safety in East Asia was agreed by participants in a forum on the subject organized by the IMO and held in Bali, Indonesia, in December.
Regular readers of LIFE LINE will know of the IMRF’s ongoing support of efforts to improve big ships’ ability to recover people in distress at sea. Our concern has always been that, when rescue is required in areas where there are no dedicated SAR units of the sort our Members provide - or when such units cannot arrive within the casualty’s likely survival time - passing ships will be the only hope. Yet, while ships’ masters are required by international regulation to assist if they can, the regulations do not require most of their ships to be prepared for the job. Great things can be done - as the picture below from the FIRST Project shows (see page 5) - but most ships are not nearly as ready as this.
Attended by delegates from several governments as well industry organization Interferry, the Regional Forum on Domestic Ferry Safety adopted an eight-point plan which, among other things, calls on Governments to assist ship‐owners and operators to provide fit-forpurpose vessels that are compliant with national rules and regulations and to support and monitor ships’ masters and operators to ensure that safety obligations are being properly fulfilled. The Forum, organised as part of IMO’s Integrated Technical Cooperation Programme, and in collaboration with Interferry and the Directorate General of Sea Transportation of Indonesia, discussed issues such as hazardous weather, vessel design and construction, overcrowding and the poor enforcement of rules, all of which may be considered significant contributory factors leading to accidents and fatalities. Delegates included administrators and policy makers with responsibility for the implementation and enforcement of domestic ferry safety requirements in their countries, as well as ferry operators and other industry representatives from the private sector. Altogether 74 participants from Australia, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, United States, Viet Nam and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community attended. The private sector was represented by Interferry and Interferry’s membership, including participants from classification societies. Naturally the IMRF supports this very important initiative. We hope to hear more about it from an Interferry speaker at our own conference on mass rescue, in Gothenburg in June. For the terrible (and often underreported) toll of lives lost in domestic ferry accidents must be reduced by better SAR provision as well as by improvements in operating safety.
Now, however, and after long and difficult debate, the Ship Design and Equipment Sub-Committee, meeting at the IMO in London in mid-February, has agreed a draft regulation to be added to the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention, provided the parent Maritime Safety Committee agrees it later this year. The proposed new regulation will require ships on international voyages to have “ship-specific plans and procedures for recovery of persons from the water [...]. The plans and procedures shall identify the equipment intended to be used for recovery purposes, and measures to be taken to minimise the risk to shipboard personnel involved in recovery operations.” Flag State administrations will be urged to extend the scope of this regulation to ships on domestic voyages too - for, of course, anyone at sea may find themselves having to attempt recovery of people in trouble; and the better prepared, the more the likelihood of success. The IMRF has been fully involved in this IMO work, and will continue to support it as the IMO concludes its careful review. There is still a little more work to be done before the regulation, and the guidelines which will underpin it, can be completed - and IMRF Members can help with this. Please see the article on page 10 on the extra weight of people in waterlogged clothing.
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News from the IMO
February 2012
News from Brazil
The International Maritime Organization has a new Secretary-General, succeeding Efthimios Mitropoulos (who has become the IMRF’s Patron, following his retirement - see page 5).
Mr Koji Sekimizu is an engineer by training, working for the Japanese Government, mostly in the Ministry of Transport, before joining the IMO Secretariat in 1989. He was appointed Director of the Maritime Safety Division in 2004, and became the IMO’s eighth Secretary-General on 1 January.
News from Madagascar The IMO have announced the establishment of another key link in the plan to provide effective SAR coverage off the coast of Africa, with the commissioning by the SecretaryGeneral of a SAR coordination sub-centre at Antananarivo, Madagascar. The new subcentre will operate in conjunction with the regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Cape Town, South Africa.
Look very closely at the picture above. In front of the container stacks you will see the Brazilian dredger, Norham Camorim. And about midway along her side you may be able to make out a tug. Well: we say a tug... The ‘tug’ is actually one of the jet-skis belonging to Anjos do Mar (Sea Angels); IMRF Members based in Itajaí in the State of Santa Catarina. The area is prone to flooding, and there was a serious flood in September last year. During this, the unmanned Norham Camorim broke adrift. She was spotted by a fishing company lookout, and his radio report was intercepted by Anjos do Mar. “As we were around,” says Marcelo Ulyssea of Sea Angels, “We took the jet skis to try to help prevent damage until the authorities could get a hold of the dredger.” The drifting ship destroyed a jetty - and in her path were a dozen vessels of the Brazilian Fishing Cooperative. “Many fishermen’s families, who had been affected by the floods, were in the Cooperative’s boats,” says Marcelo, “They were in great danger.” Using the jet skis, tug-style, to guide the dredger, the Sea Angels were able to prevent Norham Camorim running into the fleet of fishing boats. Later, more usual tugs arrived to take the dredger to a secure mooring. One of the jet-skis was badly damaged during this incident: funds are being sought for its repair. The Sea Angels received a vote of thanks from the council of Itajaí “for services rendered to the population during the flooding”. Meanwhile, the construction of their new base continues. In our last edition we mentioned the ad hoc international support given to this venture - and the Sea Angels team have been hard at work ever since.
In October 2000 African Governments agreed a plan that would see the building, equipping and staffing of five regional MRCCs and 25 sub-centres to cover the whole coast of Africa and its surrounding seas. The five MRCCs are th up and running, and Antananrivo is the 15 sub-centre to be commissioned.
It’s surprising what can be achieved with jet skis, goodwill, determination, very little money and a couple of old shipping containers!
The IMO is now embarking on a similar project for seven countries in Central America, involving the creation of two regional MRCCs covering areas of the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean respectively, together with five associated sub-centres. page 8
LIFE LINE
February 2012
News from South Africa The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) took delivery of an ex-Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) rescue boat on 1 February. The boat, the seventh of the RNLI’s Brede class to be brought to South Africa by the NSRI, will replace one lost in a shipyard fire. The 10-metre lifeboat was brought by container ship from Tilbury docks in the UK to Cape Town harbour at no cost to NSRI because of the generous donations by the many individuals and organisations who helped with the project. After retiring from the RNLI fleet, the boat was owned privately for a while. She will now under-go what NSRI call a “no frills refit” in Cape Town, being re-sprayed and receiving a full fit of NSRI rescue equipment. Then she will resume her rescue boat career at her new home in Mossel Bay.
Here the ex-RNLI lifeboat rafts alongside the Table Bay rescue boat Spirit of Vodacom before being taken to her berth.
A comment from NSRI’s website: “These sturdy boats have proven to be good, reliable all-weather rescue craft. We love ours...!”
News from the World Wide Web Ian Wienburg, Chief Executive of the National Sea Rescue Institute of South Africa, brings NSRI’s new website address to our attention: www.nsri.org.za. ‘We are managing to keep it well up to date,’ says Ian, ‘With our latest rescues and events popping up on the home page daily. I would like to invite you all to regularly peruse the site and comment about the good and the bad. All criticism is welcome!’
Capt Steve Sawyer USCG (ret), President of the Association for Rescue at Sea (AFRAS) also writes to inform us that the new AFRAS web-site has been launched. Please visit www.AFRAS.org.
Serious Numbers Do we know how many people around the world each year lose their lives by drowning? One 2007 study arrived at a total of over 400,000. But do we know how accurate that appalling figure is? And do we know how many of those people were at sea, and could have been rescued if we had known of their plight? The simple answer is, no; we do not. The available statistics must be treated with great caution. They are based on the best data available - but, in many cases, there is no data available at all. People drown whose deaths might be prevented - but in some parts of the world not only are the death statistics missing, but some of these people, children in particular, have not been recorded as being alive in the first place. Data collection is a formidable challenge - and it might be argued that there are better things we can be doing with our time; that counting does not save lives. But it does identify the scale of the problem; it does help identify risk and good quality, life-saving programmes can be based on such data.
And, while we are surfing the web, let’s conclude with a visit to a part of the world where surfing comes naturally. Here’s the website for Marine Rescue, New South Wales: www.marinerescuensw.com.au. We can’t help noticing that it’s sunny in Sydney today!
A leading shipping magazine recently published an article which put the total number of lives lost at sea each year as a few hundred. The writer was thinking of big ships, trading internationally; but nowhere in the article was this made clear. By stark contrast, the International Labour Organization estimates that 24,000 fishermen die at sea every year, most from small craft - and some think even this figure is a conservative estimate. Do statistics help? Yes, if they help focus our lifesaving efforts where they will do most good. The IMRF will continue to support the necessary research in this area. page 9
LIFE LINE
February 2012
The IMRF ‘brand’ At their meeting in Alexandria in January (report, page 5) the IMRF Trustees agreed to introduce a new IMRF regulation regarding use of the IMRF ‘brand’.
How much do you weigh when you’re soaking wet...?
The ‘brand’ can be defined as “any name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies the IMRF” such as our logo, for example:
. The Trustees agreed that use of the ‘brand’ needs to be controlled so as to protect the IMRF’s reputation and to limit the Federation’s exposure to legal liability. If, for example, someone were to use our logo to imply that a publication or an event had the IMRF’s approval and support, the IMRF’s reputation would obviously suffer if the publication contained inaccurate or inappropriate material or the event was badly run, exposing people to serious risk, perhaps. We might even be open to legal action as a result. It is very hard to prevent misuse of the brand entirely but the Trustees agreed that it was important to have a regulation clearly stipulating what constitutes approved use. The new regulation will therefore read that “any such use must [...] have the prior approval, in writing (including by electronic means), of the IMRF Secretariat.” Use of the IMRF logo on Members’ stationery and public relations materials, simply to note IMRF membership, will be automatically approved. Other uses by Members, to promote a conference, for example, will also be quickly approved. Only in rare cases will the Secretariat feel the need to ask for further information before granting approval: if still in doubt they will refer the matter to the Trustees. We hope all our Members will understand and can cooperate with this straightforward precaution.
OK: it’s a slightly odd question. But it came up at the IMO’s Ship Design and Equipment Sub-Committee in mid-February. And the IMRF Secretariat would like to hear from you if you know the answer. The question arose during the discussion at IMO of the ‘recovery’ issue - how to improve ships’ ability to rescue people when dedicated SAR units are not available, or cannot reach the scene in time. A new regulation is to be added to the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention: this will formally require ships to plan a recovery procedure. (Please see the report on page 7.) Existing equipment can be used if suitable - but if dedicated recovery equipment is needed the SubCommittee has agreed that it should be marked with the maximum number of people it can accommodate; a figure which is based on people’s average weights. However, the average weights usually used by IMO when considering life-saving appliances are for people who are dry. People wearing ordinary clothing (as opposed to swimming costumes, drysuits, etc) will bring quite a lot of water with them when they are lifted from the water. The question is, how much? How much water - in weight - does a fisherman’s jersey trap and hold? Or a foul weather jacket? Or a pair of jeans? If you have done or are aware of relevant research, please email d.jardinesmith@international-maritimerescue.org. But please do not feel obliged to jump into the sea with weighing scales, just to find out...!
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.
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