LIFELINE February 2013 - English

LIFE LINE

February 2013

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

December 2010 In this issue:     

updates on the IMRF Rescue Boat Guidelines and Education & Awareness projects the latest from the IMO news from Northwest Africa, China, Bangladesh, and the North Sea thoughts on the basics of SAR development and more!

December 2010 December 2010 December 2010 December 2010 December 2010 December 2010

Spread the word: recruit an IMRF Member!

December In the October 2012 LIFE LINE (available for free download from www.international-maritime-rescue.org) 2010 we focussed on the benefits of IMRF Membership, and the different types of membership available.

The IMRF’s functions are largely financed by our membership fees – meaning that specific donations can be December passed straight on to help improve maritime search and rescue worldwide. But not all maritime SAR 2010 organisations are IMRF Members. We want to change that. One of the IMRF’s primary aims is to improve global SAR by sharing experience – and the more experience we have, the more we can share.

December

There are three basic Membership types. The Full Member already provides maritime SAR 2010 services. The Affiliate may be planning to provide SAR services in future; may be promoting water safety; or may be a subsidiary of a Full Member. And the Associate Member has an interest in improving maritime December SAR or water safety. Any organisation fitting one of these categories may (and, we think, should!) join the IMRF2010 family.

Is your organisation not yet an IMRF Member? Or do you work with other organisations in the maritime SAR or December safety fields who are not Members? If so, please contact our Membership Secretary, Ann Laing, at 2010 a.laing@international-maritime-rescue.org or (tel) +44 (0)1569 765768 or (fax) +44 (0)1569 765979.

Ann will be very happy to help you – and you will be helping others, too!

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

February 2013

Editorial Welcome to the February edition of your newsletter: lots more to interest you, I hope!

But perhaps not just you. As we say on the front page of this edition, we are constantly seeking to expand the IMRF family – the more of us there are, sharing our ideas and experience, the better for all of us and for those in distress whose lives we hope to save. So: if you are an IMRF Member and you work with others in SAR who are not, why not suggest to them that they contact Ann Laing (a.laing@internationalmaritime-rescue.org) to discuss membership?

So far as this newsletter goes, I have a further request to make. Every two months we send a link to the new edition to a wide range of contacts – Members, and folk who have expressed an interest.

Each edition is always available for free download from our website, too: www.international-maritimerescue.org. But for that to be helpful, you do have to know that it’s there...

As you are reading this, you are either on our contact list, or you have downloaded this newsletter from our site, or someone has passed it on to you. In the latter two cases, please consider asking for your own copy!

It’s very easy to do and it’s absolutely free. Just click on ‘Subscribe’ in the drop-down ‘Newsletter’ menu on our website, and fill in a couple of boxes.

But if you’ve already done this and you’re on our list, may I ask you to take a moment to consider who else should be on it too? Other SAR organisations, yes, as mentioned above – but what about people in your own organisation? Wouldn’t your colleagues be interested in reading about what the IMRF is up to as well? You are welcome to share each edition, of course. But you might also pass on our website address to your colleagues, suggesting that they follow the simple subscription process I’ve described.

All right! That’s probably enough of that for now! Let’s get back to this edition. Lots in it, as I say: about IMRF projects and Members, and things going on around the SAR world.

Quite a lot about the IMO this time, too. You might think too much! The complex dealings of international committees may not be entirely to your taste. But they’re important, nonetheless. It is, after all, the IMO that decides the basic shape of the global maritime SAR system, and, in pure SAR terms, the IMRF is your representative at the IMO. And quite a lot’s been going on lately!

Anyway: I hope you enjoy the read...

Dave Jardine-Smith news@international-maritimerescue.org

www.international-maritime-rescue.org

Contents Recruit an IMRF Member ...................

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

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

Rescue Boat Guidelines ...................

Education: wear a lifejacket! ...................

SAR Development: NW Africa ...................

Trustees to meet in Bangladesh ...

The latest from the IMO ...................

The ICAO/IMO Joint Working Group ...

The last COMSAR .................................

Planning to recover .................................

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

Exchange your crew .................................

DanGerEx .................................

Maritime Rescue Institute ...................

Asia-Pacific Regional Centre ...................

A word from Capt Song ...................

Korean & Vietnamese Embassy visits ...

Bangladesh Coast Guard ...................

Tragedies in Turkey & Korea ...................

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

The AFRAS Awards .................................

Ready, Set, Wear it! ...................

Send us your news & pictures ...................

1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 8 8 9 10 10 10 11 11 11 12 12 12

Dates for the Diary 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 www.searchandrescueeurope.com.

Drowning Prevention Conference 24-27 April 2013 The Lifesaving Foundation’s 5th annual event, in Co. Meath, Ireland.

For details, see www.lifesavingfoundation.ie/conference.

USCGA National Conference

22-25 August 2013

United States Coast Guard Auxiliary event, in San Diego, California.

See www.cgauxinternational.org for further details.

World Conference on Drowning Prevention 20-22 October 2013 International Life Saving event to be held in Potsdam, Germany. See www.wcdp2013.org for further details.

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 are planning 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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Rescue Boat Guidelines: on track for 2013 IMRF Chief Executive Bruce Reid writes: One of the key IMRF projects for this year is the Rescue Boat Guidelines.

The project was initiated in 2010, with completion targeted for late 2013.

As we enter the project’s final year I am delighted to advise that we are on track to deliver – and to welcome Remmi Pedersen to the IMRF team, to project-manage the balance of the work.

A quick re-cap for readers new to this project: In 2010 IMRF Member organisations identified a need for International Guidelines for the design and operation of Maritime Search and Rescue Vessels that are less than 24 metres in length.

February 2013

Education Project: wear a lifejacket!

For generations lifejackets have been saving lives. The idea can be traced back to inflated bladders used for crossing streams and rivers. Norwegian seaman designed buoyant safety devices from simple blocks of wood or cork, and the first cork lifejacket was patented by Dr John Wilkinson in 1765. The first modern lifejacket is generally credited to Captain John Ross Ward, an inspector with the RNLI who created a cork buoyancy vest for lifeboat crews in the 1850s.

The purpose of the guidelines: “To document and implement an internationally-recognised, simple, justifiable and scalable framework for safe and effective maritime SAR operations” In developing the guidelines the IMRF Working Group wanted to provide a supporting tool, not a rule book, which would enable users to develop and improve their service.

So, where are we up to? Well, the Rescue Boat Guidelines are comprised of 4 parts.

Parts 1 and 2 provide guidance for developing and implementing a Safety Management System. These have been completed.

Part 3 is a web based application which provides tailored guidance with linked examples to allow you to find recommendations and guidelines appropriate to managing your operational risks. This Part has been scoped and is now under development.

Part 4, the “virtual library”, will grow once users of the web tool start to share their examples and products, based on the guidelines drawn from the application. This means that there will be an ever-expanding library of manuals, examples and best practices to draw on for all member organizations of the IMRF, all originated from the same basics.

Keep up to date with this exciting project through the IMRF website, at www.international-maritime-rescue.org.

Some words from Remmi: I have been a part of the working group as a sponsor since its beginning in 2010. For me “The Rescue Boat Guidelines” project holds great potential to help organizations bridge differences in methods and regulation, thus making it easier to establish interorganization and cross-border collaboration. This will in turn help IMRF Members in supporting the IMRF’s mission: “Preventing the loss of life in the world’s waters”. Since this project is based on the best practices found in our member organizations and there is still some work to be done, I urge those of you who wish to be involved in the final stage of the project to contact me, at r.pedersen@international-maritime-rescue.org. www.international-maritime-rescue.org

So much for the history. Why then are there still so many in the world who have access to lifejackets but choose not to wear them? This was a question posed by Maritime New Zealand to a focus group of males aged over 40. Why males over 40?

Because statistically they have the highest representation in fatalities through recreational boating who could have survived had they just worn a lifejacket.

For the target audience, going out on the water offers freedom, a release from the daily routine, excitement and being at one with the elements – and lifejackets and the rational structure and mature control they represent are unattractive. “To wear a lifejacket is almost an admission that one is at risk – and most men like to feel in command of the situation”.

“Don’t be a clown. Wear a lifejacket” was Maritime New Zealand’s response in a very successful TV campaign, based on the research done by Grant Storry of IPSOS. Grant’s findings are helping shape future campaigns to increase lifejacket use, and are relevant to many countries with large recreational boating fleets.

Question for those running public education campaigns: what are the triggers for the groups you are targeting and what are you doing to change their behaviour?

To join the IMRF’s education project, email a.laing@international-maritime-rescue.org.

(See too ‘Ready, Set, Wear It!’, page 12.) page 3

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February 2013

IMRF Trustees to meet in Bangladesh IMRF Chief Executive Bruce Reid writes:

Experiencing the challenges faced by search and rescue organisations first hand is a key to providing a balanced view of maritime SAR to the IMRF Board and thus assisting in the strategic development of our organisation.

Huge responsibilities – but sometimes little resource

SAR development: North West Africa

The Trustees meet twice a year and look to coordinate these meetings with key events and/or visits to regions where the IMRF does not currently have a presence or is developing membership. Their latest meeting, for example, coincided with the 2nd Latin American Marine Rescue Meeting (see LIFE LINE, December 2012).

The IMRF has been providing significant support to a project led by our regional coordinator in North West Africa, Mohammed Drissi, the Moroccan national SAR coordinator.

Udo Fox and Dirk Stommel, of IMRF Members the German Maritime SAR Service, delivered two courses in January, on the subjects of national SAR administration and SAR mission coordination. Delegates attended from Senegal, the Gambia, Cape Verde, Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau, as well as Morocco. The IMRF covered travel expenses, and Radar Concept, a Moroccan company, helped with accommodation and meeting room costs. The training also had the support of the International Maritime Organization, which has been focussing on developing SAR in Africa since the Florence Conference in 2000.

The SAR administration course, for those the IMO call ‘SAR Coordinators’ – the officials responsible for establishing, organising, staffing, equipping and controlling their country’s SAR system – provided knowledge about these managers’ functions and duties, and an understanding of the SAR system concept and its legal basis. Guidance was given on how to establish or develop SAR systems in a methodical and well-planned manner; on essential first steps; and on a suggested work plan for the early years.

The mission coordination course explained the planning and coordination of search and rescue operations, focussing on the roles of the SAR Mission Coordinator at a Rescue Coordination Centre, and of the On Scene Coordinator – roles vital to the success of SAR operations.

The IMRF will provide further support as this development project proceeds. www.international-maritime-rescue.org

This year’s first Trustee meeting, in April, will be hosted by Bangladesh Coast Guard in Dhaka, with meetings and presentations planned with the Coast Guard and other SAR agencies within the country.

The Trustees will hear firsthand of the challenges these organisations face and the ways in which the IMRF can provide support for the great work they are doing.

We hope that three intensive days of discussion in April will lead in turn to IMRFcoordinated workshops in key areas that will assist the Bangladesh Coast Guard and other SAR organisations to build capability and reduce the number of drownings in the region.

Many thanks to Captain M Abidur Rahman of Bangladesh Coast Guard for the work he has undertaken to make this Trustee Meeting a success.

See page 11 for an introduction to the Bangladesh Coast Guard.

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The latest from the IMO IMRF Members and regular readers of LIFE LINE will know that the IMRF has consultative status at the International Maritime Organization – the IMO; the United Nations agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships.

We have recently represented you at the ICAO / IMO Joint Working Group on SAR (see article at right); IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee; and, towards the end of January, we attended the important Sub-Committee on Radiocommunications and SAR (COMSAR).

As reported in our December edition (see www.internationalmaritime-rescue.org), the IMO are proposing to restructure their Sub-Committees; partly because financial constraints compel the Organization to make savings, but also to improve the efficiency with which it conducts its business.

One of the proposals was that COMSAR should be merged with the Sub-Committee on Safety of Navigation. This makes good sense, granted the synergies of the IMO’s ‘enavigation’ project, which will see all aspects of a ship’s passage from berth to berth, including her communications, handled holistically.

February 2013

This, of course, begs the question of how to fit two weeks’ work into one each year. Several States addressed this, making suggestions ranging from better handling of the workload within meetings to extending the new SubCommittee’s meeting time into a second week.

The IMRF contributed to this important debate, suggesting that, as regards the workload problem, the ICAO / IMO Joint Working Group should be given permanent status, for it deals efficiently with the detailed work such as amendments to the IAMSAR Manual.

Decisions on the reform proposals will be made by the IMO Council in July, not by COMSAR or the Maritime Safety Committee. However, in summing up the debate at COMSAR, the IMO Secretary-General, Mr Koji Sekimizu, acknowledged the feelings expressed, saying that the IMO Secretariat would take them into account when redrafting their proposals for the Maritime Safety Committee’s further consideration in June.

It’s a long process, and SAR people, used to quick action, may well feel frustrated by it. But, ultimately, it is the IMO that sets the framework we work in, and the Organization’s own framework has to be fit for purpose.

We hope that the debate is going the right way – and we will continue to contribute to it, so as to help ensure the best outcome for both SAR and the IMO.

However, two weeks’ work will not fit readily into one, so the IMO Secretariat proposed shifting SAR matters out of the new Sub-Committee’s agenda, giving them instead to a working group meeting only once every two years.

While supporting the reforms overall, the IMRF has argued against this particular proposal. The links between SAR and communications are absolutely vital in practice, and should be maintained at the policy level too. The Global SAR Plan, established under the IMO’s regulations and guidance, is very far from complete: many thousands of lives are still being lost around the world each year because distress alerting and SAR response systems are either inadequate or non-existent. As well as reinforcing the case for continuing to deal with SAR together with communications matters, this state of affairs demonstrates a compelling need for consideration of SAR annually and at the Sub-Committee level, not in a biennial working group.

Most of the IMO’s Member States agree. As LIFE LINE reported in December, many spoke against the IMO’s initial proposals for SAR when the Maritime Safety Committee was asked for its opinions in November – and support for the position taken by the IMRF was even stronger at COMSAR in January. No-one, in fact, supported this aspect of the reform proposals. The great majority agreed with merging the two Sub-Committees, but only if SAR is kept on the new Sub-Committee’s agenda. www.international-maritime-rescue.org

The Joint Working Group ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization, is the IMO’s sister organisation and joint owner of the International Aeronautical and Maritime SAR Manual (IAMSAR), upon which our SAR systems and procedures are founded. To deal with the detail of regulation and guidance – including keeping IAMSAR up to date – ICAO and the IMO have a Joint Working Group, meeting, officially on an ad hoc basis, every year. It is this Group that the IMRF is suggesting should be made permanent, to handle the detail of the two Organizations’ SAR work.

The Joint Working Group met in Hong Kong, China, last September (its members are seen above with their hosts at the Government Flying Service base). IMRF Trustee Udo Fox attended the meeting as a contributing observer, and the Group’s extensive and successful work was reported to, and approved by, COMSAR in January. (See the article on the next page.) page 5

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The last COMSAR On a Friday afternoon in January the Chairman of the IMO’s Sub-Committee on Radiocommunications and SAR, Carlos Salgado, and the Sub-Committee’s Secretary, Hans van der Graaf, jointly rang the bell to signal the end of the meeting – and of COMSAR itself. As explained on page 5, the IMO Sub-Committees are to be restructured and, while we hope to maintain due focus on SAR, it will be in a renamed forum.

The wheels at the IMO grind slow (if exceeding small!) but COMSAR has achieved much good work over its 17 years – and the IMRF (or the ILF, as we were when COMSAR began) has played a full part in it.

This was true to the end! Bruce Reid and David Jardine-Smith of the Secretariat, with Alex Marshall of the RNLI, represented the IMRF at COMSAR 17 – Alex in the technical working group, David in the SAR group, while Bruce sat in on the plenary sessions. Their report on the meeting is available on the IMRF website, in the Members’ area. IMRF Trustee Udo Fox was also present, part of the German delegation.

Apart from the restructuring debate (see page 5), the salient points of this final session (from an IMRF perspective) included our proposal that the IMO’s guidance on recovery techniques should be reviewed (see article at right); and our brief report on the second in the Gothenburg series of conferences, part of our mass rescue operations project (see LIFE LINE, August 2012).

Both initiatives were welcomed by the Sub-Committee. www.international-maritime-rescue.org

February 2013

The United States submitted an important paper giving details of the mass rescue guidance which the Coast Guard makes freely available online: see www.uscg. mil/nsarc. The US paper also noted that “a recognized international provision for collecting information about MRO operations and exercises conducted worldwide” would be welcome. The IMRF agrees, and will work with our colleagues to see how best this may be achieved.

Not much could be done on the ongoing review of the GMDSS (Global Maritime Distress and Safety System) at this session, other work taking priority; but a correspondence group, on which the IMRF will be represented, will take the work forward. The IMRF’s position is that a modernised GMDSS should be allinclusive. Accommodating people in non-regulated vessels, and the communications systems used by them, is essential to rendering SAR assistance to this group.

On technical matters, a problem with replacement batteries for emergency beacons and handheld radios was identified: ‘generic’ batteries may not be as good, especially in terms of battery life, as the units originally tested. This is a point IMRF Members may wish to note and promulgate.

Similarly, there are concerns about the spread of AIS technology.

Devices marketed as ‘manoverboard’ markers, for example, are being used by surfacing divers to attract the attention of their diveboats – and these devices ‘paint’ the same symbol on observers’ screens as do AIS SAR transmitters (which are not, strictly speaking, distress alerts) and the location element of EPIRB-AIS units (which are...)

This confusing state of affairs is a function of the market developing faster than international regulation can hope to. But it’s also a small proof of the necessity of keeping practical SAR people in the IMO mix!

Planning to recover A few years ago the IMRF (then the International Lifeboat Federation) worked over several COMSAR sessions with the UK and other IMO Member States on the SAR aspects of passenger ship safety, as part of a review instigated by the IMO Secretary-General at the time, William O’Neill. Among the results of that work was new guidance on how to recover people from survival craft or from the water, intended for the masters and crews of big ships, and a recommendation that such ships should be equipped for this task.

Global Davit GmbH’s Rescue Star

At the end of November 2012, after years of difficult debate at the IMO, the Maritime Safety Committee finally adopted a new SOLAS regulation, III/17-1, which will come into force on 1 July 2014 and which requires ships on international voyages to have “ship-specific plans and procedures for recovery of persons from the water.” The Committee also adopted a Resolution urging Flag States to extend the scope of the new regulation to other classes of ship.

This is a step forward the IMRF gladly welcomes. Merchant ships will be better prepared to help rescue people in distress at sea – and such ships may be the only rescue units that can arrive in time, or at all.

The IMRF will now lead work to review the guidance on recovery techniques that we originally helped develop, to make sure that it aligns with the new regulation. The end result will be a complete package of assistance to the seafarer faced with this difficult but life-saving task. page 6

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February 2013

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, with global SAR development in mind, we consider the basics of SAR service provision.

What do you need to provide a SAR service?

Some might answer ‘State-of-the-art rescue vessels...

Winch-fitted SAR helicopters... Sophisticated surveillance aircraft... High-tech Rescue Coordination Centres... All the alert and response communication equipment required by the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System...’

OK – but what do you really need?

In many parts of the world, where resources are scarce and demands for them come from many quarters, the list above is daunting at best. For some it is impossible to achieve, at least in the short term. They have to cross things out on the list of ‘nice-to-haves’, leaving only the essentials. What do you really need, to help people in distress in your waters?

States who ratify the IMO’s Maritime SAR Convention commit to participating in “the development of SAR services to ensure that assistance is rendered to any person in distress at sea. [...States] shall, either individually or, if appropriate, in cooperation with other States, establish the following basic elements of a SAR service: legal framework; assignment of a responsible authority; organisation of available resources; communication facilities, coordination and operational functions; and processes to improve the service, including planning, domestic and international cooperative relationships and training.”

There is no requirement to provide dedicated SAR units, either surface or airborne. All a State signing up to the Convention has to do is be ready to coordinate a SAR response, using whatever resources happen to be available at the time, such as passing ships – and it follows that, to be able to coordinate, you have to be able to communicate.

Even these functions can be carried out in collaboration with other States in the region: the load can be shared.

financial climate even those lucky States previously able to afford such things are having to review what they have and how they use it – and make some difficult decisions.

Of course we all want the best resources for lifesaving, wherever and whenever lives are at risk: that is the IMRF’s desire as much as anyone’s. But we all know full well that wanting something doesn’t mean that we’ll get it.

There are hard decisions to be made all over the world.

Which is why prioritisation is so important. If we cannot afford helicopters, surface craft will simply have to do. If we cannot afford dedicated SAR craft, can we designate other official craft to do SAR as well as other tasks? The Convention does not say that you must have costly purpose-built rescue vessels tied up in harbour for most of the time. If other craft are available, capable of SAR, make it a priority task for them, equip them and train their crews accordingly, and work out how they can be released from routine tasks when needed.

Whether this can be achieved or not, the planning must also focus on ‘vessels of opportunity’ – ships and other vessels nearby – and how to alert and task them. And now we are beginning to home in on the core capabilities of a SAR service.

Does there have to be planning, at the national level?

Yes. Should this include all the relevant authorities, so that everyone knows how distress at sea will be handled?

Yes. Does there have to be a purpose-built Rescue Coordination Centre? No: not necessarily – but this function does have to be clearly established somewhere, and sufficiently resourced.

Does the Centre have to be staffed with enough people to respond to any emergency? No. There have to be sufficient to deal with the sort of emergencies usually to be expected. But there should also be arrangements in place to reinforce the Centre in more complex cases.

Why point this out? Because, for States trying to establish a SAR service, it is important to establish the priorities. Time, effort and (perhaps most important of all) scarce financial resource can be saved by focussing on what must be provided. The ‘nice-to-haves’ can come later.

Do the relevant staff have to be suitably trained? Yes, of course. Do they have to be able to communicate with casualty vessels and vessels responding to the distress?

Yes – directly, preferably, but indirectly if robust and reliable alternative arrangements are in place.

There are harsh realities to be faced here, perhaps. Other States have well-equipped rescue craft and winch-fitted helicopters – why shouldn’t we...? But the hard fact is that these things are expensive; and in the current global

These are the essentials. They should be established first, and carefully maintained. Lives will be saved as a result. The rest is still to be desired, of course: dedicated rescue craft; SAR aircraft... But they will come later.

www.international-maritime-rescue.org

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Exchange your crew the European Lifeboat Crew Exchange Programme 2013 “It was a fabulous week with many impressions and lots of new friends....” “What a Super week we had in Norway...!”

“What an amazing and fulfilling experience! An unforgettable week...!” “Returned from a fantastic week in Sweden...”

February 2013

DanGerEx Following the simulator training reported in our August 2012 edition, eight rescue units from Denmark and Germany participated in the Danish-German SARExercise ‘DanGerEx’ that took place close to the island of Heligoland in the North Sea in October, organized by the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (DGzRS).

That’s just some of the feedback from the 2012 ELCE pilot, writes IMRF Chief Executive Bruce Reid.

Having reviewed the programme late last year at a meeting at KNRM headquarters in Amsterdam, it was agreed to progress with the same format, but incorporating the recommendations provided through the feedback from the attendees and their organisations.

KNRM have agreed to take the lead again with CEO Roemer Boogaard keen to see the programme build on the success of the pilot in 2012. Linde Jelsma will again project manage the programme, and has already been in communication with the coordinators.

Pre-work is underway, with the preparation of the funding application to be submitted this month and the investigation into other possible funding options. The goal is to achieve funds for the next two years, which will allow us to fully establish the programme.

Simulator training in June; and a ‘casualty’ in October (Pictures courtesy DGzRS, M. Benjes, M. Kummer, M. Rose)

DGzRS units from around the German Bight took part; five staffed by full-time crew, one by volunteers. The three Danish units were all crewed by volunteers.

The crews exercised three complex scenarios with differing initial situations where several persons had to be searched for and rescued. On Scene Coordinator tasks had to be carried out by one of the participating crews in each scenario. Debriefing after each scenario gave the crews the chance for analysis.

Key dates for those organisations participating: Now:

Signed confirmations of participation due

11 Feb: Application form sent to Directors to sign and forward to their National Authority 21 Feb: All Application Forms must have been forwarded 8 Aug:

Advised if funding has been successful

12 Aug: Coordinators’ meeting in Amsterdam 28 Sep – 4 Oct European Lifeboat Crew Exchange Programme runs!

For more information or if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us at secretariat@internationalmaritime-rescue.org.

In reviewing the feedback from last year’s exchange and talking to those who attended, the positive results of the programme are hard to translate into a dollar value. But so is the time our volunteers give to the organisations and communities they serve. I was reminded of a Maori saying: He aha te mea nui?

He tangata.

He tangata.

He tangata.

(What is the most important thing?

It is people, it is people, it is people.)

The results of this programme speak for themselves. www.international-maritime-rescue.org

Setting out for the search; and a Danish unit following a search pattern, with Heligoland in the background

Firefighters from the Heligoland Auxiliary Fire Brigade volunteered as victims and shipwrecked persons; members of the Firefighting Academy supported the exercise with realistic injury preparation; and the emergency rescue service took care of the ‘victims’ after they had been brought in to port. All in all about 70 people were involved.

Rough sea and weather created challenging search conditions – not only for the crews but also for those who had to hold out in liferafts until found.

Bjarne Madsen, SAR inspector of the Danish Home Guard, and DGzRS training supervisor Jörg Kemna agreed that the exercise had been a very successful cooperation, and hope that it can take place again in 2013.

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February 2013

Member Focus:

Ann Laing, MRI’s Chief Executive (and stalwart Membership Secretary of the IMRF) writes:

MRI’s centre at Stonehaven Harbour in Scotland was set up by Hamish McDonald (now one of the IMRF Trustees) in 1984, in response to a need for advanced and specialised boat training and all kinds of emergency response in a maritime environment.

The centre’s work includes supporting SAR response organisations; carrying out research and development programmes; and delivering specialised training. Over the years we have hosted groups from all corners of the globe who either needed a challenging and controlled environment to practice their skills, or fast boat training or, indeed, training in very controlled slow boat handling, in a pure rescue situation.

The MRI – with a rescue training base, boats, instructors and full SAR capability – also provides the local Stonehaven lifeboat: an independent unit declared to HM Coastguard (the UK SAR authority).

Yes – we need to think and fight cleverly to gain sponsorships, funding and donations in order to support these objectives. And no – we don’t have wonderful new boats and equipment. But we do have what all rescue organisations need: heart, soul and a wish to SAVE LIVES. And the worldwide recession was already putting this to the test when we had the storm from hell...

On 15 December we knew we were expecting a very high tide, a very big swell from way offshore, and an easterly wind. Not a good combination for our little harbour. We prepared well during the day – moved boats to what we thought was a safe haven, tying everything down, etc. But nothing had prepared us for that night.

In 2003, MRI changed from a commercial background, financially able to ‘donate’ the local lifeboat and training to voluntary groups, to become a charity itself. The commercial business was sold and just four people were left to start again with purely charitable aims in educating and training others in safety and rescue at sea.

I won’t go into all the detail. Suffice to say that by 0100 the tiles inside our men’s changing room started to fall off the wall and we knew it was time to evacuate the building. By 0130 the whole harbour was a scene of destruction. At dawn the extent of the damage was all too evident. Our boats were all damaged, our workshop was unrecognisable, our Boathouse Restaurant was completely gutted inside, and our fuel tank had been ripped out of its concrete housing and thrown through the air like a piece of paper...

Little did we know how difficult it was going to be! We had no national status; we could not be ‘commercial’; and we had to change the mindset of local people who just assumed that we did not need support and that there would always be a lifeboat there. But all charities have to work as a business and we had to radically change our way of thinking. This is why I can so readily appreciate the problems and obstacles facing small and developing SAR organisations.

Well, as many IMRF Members know, there is only one thing to do in such circumstances: wipe the tears away, rally the volunteers, accept all the community support offered (diggers, tow-vehicles, muscle!) and get on with the job. We are still far from being fully operational again but we have to turn what has been a horrible situation into the best we can, using the news media, local support and contacts, letting everyone see that we are not prepared to give up: when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Today, MRI concentrates on 4 main areas of work:

And only a week later, on 23 December, our little town was flooded, and our crew were involved in the evacuation of over 100 homes...

 The provision of the local lifeboat, covering a 25 mile stretch of rugged Scottish coastline. This is now supported by 20 local volunteers.  The provision of a centre attracting lifeboat men and women from across the world to train, share knowledge and experience, work as a team and discover their capabilities – and the fact that ‘the more we know, the more we realise we don’t know!

The catch-phrase for the IMRF in 2013 is just ask! OK: so, I need a new boat, a new building, masses of new equipment – and a wee Scotch whisky!

 The provision of education programmes to thousands of youngsters, focussing on environment awareness and safety in a coastal area.  The development of research & development partnerships, using these programmes to help stay at the forefront of waterborne emergency response.

For more on the MRI, please visit www.maritime-rescue-institute.org.

 www.international-maritime-rescue.org

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Asia-Pacific Regional Centre

February 2013

A word from Capt Song Jiahui

The small team at the IMRF’s AsiaPacific Regional Centre (APRC) have had a busy six months, with a number of key initiatives completed or well underway.

IMRF’s Chief Executive, Bruce Reid, visited the Korean and Vietnamese Embassies in January, during his two-week trip to China to promote the IMRF in its Asia-Pacific Region.

Mr Reid was welcomed by Korean Counsellor Mr. Won Jae Lee (top picture) and Vietnamese Counsellor Dr. Nguyen Minh Vu.

The first Chinese edition of LIFE LINE was completed and circulated at the end of January. This will widen the audience for our core publication and help build the IMRF profile.

Planning is well advanced for the Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting to be held in Hong Kong later this year.

Research and contact with potential member organisations remains a key priority for the team with the recent embassy meetings (see article on this page) the start of the recruitment drive in the region. *** Now let’s introduce two of the APRC team.

Qiu Jing, APRC Executive Officer, is a graduate of Shanghai Maritime University where she majored in English translation.

From 2008, she worked for Donghai No.1 Search & Rescue Flying Service. She acted as a volunteer at the Beijing Paralympics and was named as an Outstanding Youth Volunteer of the Year in 2009.

Her main focus at the APRC has been on building the contact list for the Asia-Pacific Region.

Gu Yiming also graduated from Shanghai Maritime University, joining the Donghai Rescue Bureau in 2005. He has witnessed the profound reform and development of IMRF Member China Rescue and Salvage (CRS) in the past decade and was involved in the development of CRS’s international cooperation, working as a seconded member of the IMRF secretariat in 2009/10. He obtained a Master’s Degree in International Maritime Law in 2011. www.international-maritime-rescue.org

CEO visits Korean and Vietnamese Embassies

In the past 10 years, as an IMRF Council Member and now an IMRF Trustee, I have been striving, together with my fellow Trustees, for our goal of preventing loss of life in the world's waters.

With regard to the Asia-Pacific Regional Centre, I am responsible for contributing to its better development. I am delighted to advise that the IMRF Trustees have committed all the funds raised through an event I coordinated in September last year to be invested in the development of initiatives in our Region.

I pass on our thanks to long-time IMRF supporters, Cosco (Hong Kong) Group Limited, China Shipping (Hong Kong) Holdings Company, China Merchants Group, Wah Tak Engineering Hong Kong, and Eurocopter, who contributed at the successful fundraiser in Hong Kong.

IMRF CEO Bruce Reid visited China in January to work with myself and our APRC staff to plan the activities of the APRC, including our first AsiaPacific Regional meeting.

The IMRF needs more members and connections in the Region if we are to reduce the number of lives lost.

Through the sharing of ideas, collaboration, and greater understanding of the challenges faced by SAR organisations, we can make an even bigger difference.

Friendly talks were held with the two countries’ diplomatic officials. Bruce introduced the IMRF as a charity with the humanitarian goal of preventing loss of life in the world’s waters, and noted that the Asia-Pacific Region has been identified as a key area where the collaboration, informationsharing and project work the IMRF undertakes could have a significant impact in saving lives.

Noting the huge number of fatalities in regional waters; recognising the need to promote cooperation among SAR organisations around the region; and considering the desirability of regional unity through bilateral or multilateral humanitarian cooperation, Mr Lee and Mr Vu both expressed appreciation to the IMRF for attaching such great importance to the development of maritime rescue in the Asia-Pacific region.

They added that they would appeal to their domestic SAR organisations to consider joining the IMRF and supporting the APRC’s activities in this part of the world. page 10

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February 2013

Bangladesh Coast Guard

Tragedies in Turkey and Korea

The IMRF Trustees will meet in Dhaka in April (see page 4), to explore ways of helping develop SAR in Bangladesh and the wider region. Here is a brief introduction to our hosts, kindly provided

by Capt Abidur Rahman:

A storm in the Black Sea in early December cost the lives of several of a cargo ship’s crew – and three of the crew of a rescue boat going to her aid. The Volgo Balt 199, carrying coal from Russia to Antalya, put out a distress call in gale force conditions, and subsequently sank off Sile. Only four of her 12 crew are reported to have been saved.

Founded in 1995, Bangladesh Coast Guard is, in the words of our motto, the "Guardian At Sea", enforcing both national and international laws in Bangladeshi waters.

The Coast Guard’s Director General exercises command over four zones: Dhaka, East (in Chittagong), West (in Khulna) and South (in Bhola). Three bases and 25 Coast Guard stations conduct regular operational activities within their areas of responsibility.

The Coast Guard’s tasks include preventing illegal fishing, arms & drug smuggling, environmental pollution and illegal entry; countering terrorist activities; and conducting SAR operations at sea, as well as assisting the Bangladesh Navy in wartime.

The KEGM-7, a fast rescue boat of the Turkish General Directorate of Coastal Safety, was thrown onto rocks by the sea. Her captain, Cemil Özben, and crew members Turgay Sarıboğa and Mehmet Genç were lost, as was a fisherman trying to assist, Mümin Akgün. Another crew member was rescued.

The Coast Guard rescue boat had gone to the aid of the Malaysian cargo ship Shinline, sinking in bad weather off Chagwi Island, Jeju. It is reported that more of the Shinline’s crew scrambled aboard the rescue boat than she was designed to carry.

Three of the crew also died.

Despite limited resources, Bangladesh Coast Guard has had considerable success in curbing petty theft, smuggling and trafficking, as well as in the area of ensuring seafarers' safety.

In the meantime the accidents continue to happen and the global death toll continues to mount.

As so often, the number lost when the ferry Bahuga Jaya was in collision with the LPG tanker Norgas Cathinka in the Sunda Strait last September is unknown. 8 people were confirmed dead, and 207 were rescued – but about 40 people never listed as being aboard (street vendors, scavengers, and relatives of the crew) were reported missing.

December saw at least three more disasters. 24 bodies were recovered after an overloaded pirogue took on water and sank off the capital of Guinea-Bissau in December. There were 76 survivors, but another 9 people were reported missing. At least 55 died when an overcrowded vessel capsized soon after leaving Bossaso in Somalia, bound for Yemen. And there were reports that about 300 fishermen were missing, in many boats, after typhoon Pablo struck the Philippines.

In January, 25 people were rescued when a boat overturned off Zanzibar, but at least 7 were lost, including 3 children. And, although no-one died, about 70 people were hurt, some seriously, when a New York ferry hit a dock during a rush hour crossing.

SAR is a dangerous business. As always, the global SAR family comes together to honour its lost members, and to express our deep sympathy to their families and friends. www.international-maritime-rescue.org

We are still awaiting the official report on the loss of the Costa Concordia (delayed by criminal proceedings); but the Italian Coast Guard are kindly sharing some of the lessons they learned regarding the SAR operation.

We will publish some of these in the next edition of LIFE LINE.

About 120 people were lost when their boat sank in the Bay of Bengal in late October, while transferring passengers to a larger ship bound for Malaysia. Many of those aboard had fled ethnic violence in Burma. Local fishermen rescued 13.

The loss of the Turkish rescuers followed that of two Korean Coast Guard personnel when their boat capsized during a rescue in October.

The Coast Guard has four Coastal Patrol Vessels, five Riverine Patrol Vessels, two Fast Patrol Boats and one Inshore Patrol Vessel in their inventory, plus the ability to quickly respond to any maritime incident with various high speed boats.

Mass Rescue

Accident prevention is key to getting a grip on all this, of course – but improved SAR services are often also needed. The IMRF will continue to do all that we can to help. page 11

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February 2013

AFRAS Award Ceremony The Association for Rescue at Sea presented its annual awards in October.

The prestigious Gold Medal was presented to Randall J. Rice, the rescue swimmer aboard US Coast Guard helicopter CG6004, tasked to rescue the two crew of the yacht Eva, dismasted in a gale 150 miles southeast of Cape Cod. Rice swam through debris and 30 ft swells to reach the vessel and organise the basket hoists.

In the words of the award citation, “Chief Warrant Officer Rice’s courage, judgment, and devotion to duty are most heartily commended and are in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Coast Guard”.

The Silver Medal was awarded to the crew of U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Facility 25371, who were conducting man overboard training when they spotted a woman waving frantically from a small boat circling out of control: the skipper had suffered a cardiac arrest. The Auxiliarists skilfully closed the circling boat and took it in tow, while giving CPR to the casualty, keeping him alive until they could rendezvous with a medical team. He made a full recovery.

Photos courtesy of AFRAS and (left) USCG (NOAA photo by Chris Melrose)

Ready, Set, Wear it!

The Amver plaque went to the master and crew of the Bermuda Container Line ship Oleander, for their rescue of the four crew of the yacht Elle, adrift in a gale 160 miles offshore.

Capt Jurszo expertly manoeuvred alongside the wildly rolling Elle (pictured above) and his crew successfully recovered the four, including one man who fell into the sea.

18 May

Marcello Ulysséa, of IMRF Members Sea Angels of Brazil, draws our attention to the “Ready, Set, Wear It!” Lifejacket World Record Day, to be held on Saturday, May 18, 2013. This event is part of the year-long North American Safe Boating “Wear It!” Campaign, which brings together boating safety partners to promote safe and responsible boating, including voluntary wear of lifejackets. There’s also a ‘Wear Your Lifejacket To Work’ th day planned for Friday 17 ...

As part of the “Wear It!” campaign, the National Safe Boating Council provides resources and information, as well as custom “Wear It!” logos for you to use for your own boating safety outreach efforts. For more information, visit SafeBoatingCampaign.com or email outreach@ safeboatingcouncil.org.

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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