LIFELINE June 2014 - English

LIFE LINE

June 2014

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

December 2010 In this issue: 

December ‘G3’: the IMRF’s third international maritime mass rescue conference; and other aspects2010 of the

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IMRF mass rescue operations project the Sewol disaster news from North & West Africa, New Zealand, Australia, China and India and more...

December 2010 December 2010

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) says that a maritime mass December rescue operation is ‘characterised by the need for immediate response to large numbers of persons in distress such that the capabilities 2010 normally available to the SAR authorities are inadequate’.

December The IMRF’s Mass Rescue Operations (MRO) Project is designed to improve SAR 2010 authorities’ capabilities by  raising awareness of the issues December  sharing experience  auditing progress 2010

If you are reading this as a delegate to the IMRF’s third Gothenburg conference on maritime MROs, welcome! You can find all you need to know about the event in the pack accompanying this newsletter.

The IMRF’s third international December maritime mass rescue conference addresses all three of2010 these aims.

December 2010

If you couldn’t make it to Gothenburg this time, we’re sorry to have missed you. But don’t worry – you can still take part in the IMRF’s project. There’s more information inside, and on the IMRF website, www.international-maritime-rescue.org – where you will be able to read the ‘G3’ conference report too in due course!

December 2010 December 2010 December 2010

INTERNATIONAL MARITIME MASS RESCUE CONFERENCE EDITION 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 KCMG, IMO Secretary General Emeritus

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

June 2014

Editorial

Contents

Welcome to the latest edition of your newsletter – which is a ‘conference special’ this time, celebrating the IMRF’s third mass rescue conference in Sweden in the first days of June. And a special welcome, too, if you are a new reader of LIFE LINE.

The IMRF MRO Project, and G3

The Gothenburg conference series

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In this edition we have articles on pages 4 & 5 on the Gothenburg series of conferences and the ongoing IMRF mass rescue operations (MRO) project, including the developing online library of useful guidance and information. And don’t miss the second half of the article on MRO realities, by the US Coast Guard specialists Rick Janelle and Rob Lee, starting on page 7. If you missed the first half, you can download the April issue of LIFE LINE, in which it appeared, from the information-packed IMRF website at www.international-maritime-rescue.org.

What next for the MRO Project?

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The tragedy of the South Korean ferry, Sewol, is a terrible reminder of the necessity of our work on this subject. We discuss some aspects of the disaster on page 3. As representatives at the international level of the world's maritime SAR organisations, the IMRF has expressed sincere sympathy to all those affected by it, especially the families and friends of those who have died or who are still missing. Very sadly, this now includes a diver who lost his life during the rescue operation.

MROs are rare, but all too obviously they can happen to any of us – which is why the IMRF’s MRO project is so important. However, this project is only one of the many things the IMRF does, and you will find articles in this edition of LIFE LINE, and in previous editions, downloadable from the website, about some of those other activities.

One of these is to represent maritime SAR at the IMO as a consultative non-governmental organisation.

See the short article on page 12 about our support for an Iranian paper to be discussed at the upcoming meeting of NCSR1. And read about one of our global SAR development initiatives on page 9 – or about some of our other ongoing projects, on education, for example, or our rescue boat guidelines, on the website. ***

Dave Jardine-Smith

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Editorial

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Dates for the Diary

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Sewol

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The MRO online library

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Lest we forget

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QGM & WMRC

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SAR Matters

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SAR development in NW Africa Animation in SAR training

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9

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Registered in China .................................

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The IMRF Down Under

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Rashtriya Life Saving Society ...................

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The IMRF: a summary

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Welcome aboard, James Vaughan!

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The IMRF at NCSR1 .................................

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Many languages, one aim

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Send us your news & pictures

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Dates for the Diary ISAR – international SAR conference & exhibition 17-19 June 2014 Hosted by Global SAR Resources in Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. See www.globalsar.com.my

Drowning Prevention Week

21-29 June 2014

Organised by the Royal Life Saving Society UK. See www.drowningpreventionweek.org.uk

IMO’s Day of the Seafarer

25 June 2014

See www.imo.org/About/Events/dayoftheseafarer/Pages/Dayof-the-Seafarer-2014.aspx

IMO Sub-Committee on Navigation, Communications and Search and Rescue 30 June - 4 July 2014 Rescue 2014

I close with an apology. The article on unmanned craft in SAR which I promised would appear in this edition has had to be held over to our August issue due to lack of space. I hope that this is not too great a disappointment – and that you will be back in August to read all about it!

...

17-19 October 2014 Hosted by ICE-SAR in Reykjavik, Iceland. See www.icesar.com/rescue

IMRF European Regional Meeting

30-31 October 2014

Hosted by the Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution (KNRM) in IJmuiden. For details, contact info@imrf.org.uk

World Maritime Rescue Congress

1-4 June 2015

Advance notice of the IMRF’s next Congress and quadrennial general meeting. See page 6.

news@imrf.org.uk

www.international-maritime-rescue.org

page 2 If you are planning a SAR event of international interest which you would like to see listed here, please send the details to: news@imrf.org.uk

LIFE LINE

On 16 April the 6,825 tonne South Korean ferry Sewol capsized while on passage from Incheon to the island of Jeju. Sewol was about 1.5 miles off Gwanmaedo island, at the southwest tip of the Korean mainland, when, at just before nine in the morning local time, she made a distress call. She had a total of 476 people aboard.

Many of them were students from a high school in Ansan City. 172 people were rescued: most of the rest died aboard the ferry.

It is the IMRF’s policy not to comment on the specifics of any incident before it has been fully investigated. There can be too much ‘instant wisdom’ in such cases, and that can obscure proper understanding of the event, which helps nobody.

What is quite clear, however, is that the ship lost stability, quickly taking on a severe list to port. The first emergency call was made by one of the schoolchildren. He contacted the Korean national emergency number by cellphone a couple of minutes after the ferry is reported to have made a sharp turn to starboard. That he did so indicates that it was immediately obvious that something was badly wrong.

The first distress call from Sewol herself was made to Jeju Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) three minutes later, at 0855. Communications were later transferred to Jindo VTS, which was closer, but were lost at 0938.

Very early in these conversations, transcripts released by the authorities show, the ship was reporting that it was difficult for people to move on board. Sewol slowly capsized. By 1400 only her bow remained above water. The boy who made that first emergency call was lost, like so many of his school-mates. www.international-maritime-rescue.org

June 2014

VTS: “I can't move even one step, left or right, so I'm holding the wall, barely standing...”

It is too early to comment in detail on the rescue effort.

It was rapid, and complex, with nearby ships and fishing boats quickly on the scene, soon to be joined by rescue boats and SAR helicopters from ashore. We can readily appreciate how use of copyright image courtesy Reuters difficult the work must have been. Yet we also What caused the sudden list, the note that criticisms of the rescue flooding and the subsequent capsize effort have been acknowledged by is not yet certain and, as noted, the the Korean government.

IMRF does not speculate on such matters. It is not clear either when In the days following the disaster, the the order to evacuate was given.

IMRF was contacted by news media However, it is reported that early from around the world. We refrained onboard broadcasts told passengers from comment on the specifics of the to remain where they were. case, but were able to express the sympathy of the world’s SAR Those who were rescued either community for the bereaved, and our jumped into the sea or were able to support for our colleagues involved in climb out of the ship’s upturned this very difficult operation. We were starboard side to be picked up by also able to explain some of the helicopters and rescue boats. intense challenges of maritime mass Pictures of the sinking ferry show rescue operations. neat lines of liferaft canisters still in their racks. It is reported that only As it became clear that hundreds of two were deployed. Jindo VTS asked people had been trapped aboard ships responding to the distress Sewol as she capsized, we found traffic to launch their own lifeboats ourselves being asked difficult and to throw lifejackets into the sea. questions about air pockets, survival times, and diving operations. We will The transcripts suggest that those on bear these questions in mind as we Sewol’s bridge were concerned await the reports of the formal about the risk of evacuating people investigations into this terrible into a relatively cold sea: the water accident. In other circumstances, ontemperature was about 12°C. They board support and salvage asked the authorities about rescue operations such as towing are very capability if an evacuation was much a part of mass rescue ordered. Jindo VTS replied that SAR operations as we have come to units would soon be on scene, and define them. But what about onurged that passengers be told to don board rescue, of the type heroically lifejackets and warm clothing. attempted by the divers in Korea?

But the main problem for everyone We must wait until the lessons have by this time was simply that of been properly drawn – but then we moving about on the ferry. At 0918 must learn them. someone on Sewol’s bridge told the

Sewol

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LIFE LINE

June 2014

The Gothenburg conference series

What next for the IMRF MRO Project?

‘G3’ is the third in the Gothenburg series of conferences organised by the IMRF to consider the problem of maritime mass rescue operations (MROs). Delegates do not need to have attended the first two, in 2010 and 2012, to get the most out of this one, but there has been deliberate progression during the series.

The IMRF’s mass rescue operations project has not been just about the Gothenburg conferences, important though they have been in feeding into the other project work. The results of ‘G3’ will in turn be carefully studied by the project team: especially the ‘open space’ outcomes, which will tell us what we have missed so far.

In 2010 we ‘scoped’ the problem, raising the issues and hearing from a speakers’ panel of international experts. In 2012 we looked at the issues identified to see what might be done to improve our responses.

Discussion groups examined the detail and made recommendations.

Now, in 2014, in addition to hearing from an excellent range of speakers and considering the work already done, ‘G3’ enables discussion of any MRO subject the delegates wish to raise, by using the ‘open space’ technique. These conference sessions will begin with no set agenda. Delegates raise the issues and then ‘vote with their feet’, joining the discussion groups relevant to them, thus setting an agenda to suit themselves.

The Gothenburg conferences have always been about discussion most of all, for we know that the best way to prepare for an MRO is to talk it through with your fellow responders beforehand and to learn from others’ experience of these rare but extremely challenging events. One of the highlights of the 2010 event, for example, was to hear from a survivor and the On Scene Coordinator of the 1994 Estonia disaster, Kent Härstedt and Esa Mäkelä (pictured).

However, the IMRF conferences have not been all about listening and talking: there’s been some doing, too.

In 2010 delegates watched an MRO at sea; and in 2012 they took part in one, being rescued from liferafts in Gothenburg harbour.

‘G3’ will also be hands-on, with an MRO simulation and ‘ark’-type liferaft trials. Read about how it all went in the August edition of LIFE LINE!

www.international-maritime-rescue.org

‘G3’ the third IMRF International Mass Rescue Conference Gothenburg 1-3 June 2014

However, a lot of other things have been happening in the project, too.

Thorough MRO analysis by the international project team has enabled us to draw a number of conclusions which guide our work.

First, it is necessary to prepare for your possible involvement in an MRO. Your normal response capabilities will be inadequate in an MRO, by definition. If MROs were common, you would hope to be ready for them at any time; but as things are you must think about how to fill that ‘capability gap’.

The second conclusion is that good communication is essential to good MRO preparation and response. This means communication before, during and after the MRO itself. You need to decide who you will be working with in such an event, and plan with them.

That planning must include arranging robust systems for communication during the MRO, and procedures for sharing lessons learned afterward.

A third conclusion is that, although rare in any individual organisation’s experience, MROs keep happening, and a good many excellent lessons are there to be learned already.

These conclusions underpin the ongoing IMRF project work. As well as conferences like ‘G3’, we run workshops designed to bring key players together, nationally or regionally, to consider the MRO challenges and ways of overcoming them.

We report our progress to the IMO and other interested parties. And we are compiling a comprehensive online library of information and guidance: see page 5.

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June 2014

MRO online library

and ‘Training, exercises & drills, and learning from experience’.

Lest we forget

The Members’ Library on the IMRF website contains a great deal of useful information about all our main areas of work. If you are not sure how to access the Library, see page 12 of the April LIFE LINE – which you can download for free from the Newsletter Archive at www.internationalmaritime-rescue.org.

These main subjects are subdivided into secondary areas, each introduced by general guidance compiled by the IMRF’s team of experts.

It is worth reminding ourselves what all this mass rescue operations work – the IMRF’s online library, the MRO workshops and the international conferences – is for. It is to better enable everyone who may become involved (government planners, coordinators, SAR unit crews, the masters and crews of passing ships, the responding agencies ashore) to deal effectively with SAR operations “when the capabilities normally available to the SAR authorities are inadequate.” Such incidents test us to the limit – and if we break, hundreds of people may die.

There is already some information and guidance on mass rescue operations (MROs) in the ‘Projects’ section of the Library. But, as part of the IMRF’s ongoing MRO Project (see page 4), an international team of experts is compiling a much wider and more complete set of guidance material. Delegates at the mass rescue conference in Gothenburg will be able to see part of this extended library in action. The aim is to have the full version online by the time the World Maritime Rescue Congress convenes in June 2015 (see page 6).

The schematic diagram below gives an idea of how the library will work, within the overall project context.

Above all the library is intended to be user-friendly. It will enable users to find specific subjects that they are particularly interested in quickly. It will also provide a simple-to-navigate overview of the MRO subject.

As shown in the diagram, the library content will be divided into five main subject areas: ‘Philosophy & Focus’; ‘Planning’; ‘Resources’; ‘Command, Control, Coordination, Communication';

The diagram below shows the secondary subjects grouped under the main subject areas. All will be interlinked, as indicated by the arrows, to enable the user to pursue subjects easily across the library’s structure. They include complex incident planning, with a discussion of the ‘capability gap’ and means of filling it; plans and planning, with discussion of the major phases of rescue in the MRO context; ‘C4’ – command, control and coordination structures, with discussion of the allimportant communications priorities and procedures; and guidance on training and the learning process.

Shared information is the third, and most detailed layer of the library.

Some of it will be hosted directly on the IMRF website: most will be accessed by links to its owners’ sites.

The main reference document underpinning the IMRF project material is the IMO’s International Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue (IAMSAR) Manual.

IAMSAR is copyright to the IMO so we cannot link directly to its text, but IAMSAR (and other publications) may be purchased from the IMRF online bookshop, with a 20% discount for IMRF Members: see the IMRF website.

We are not only talking about passenger ship accidents like the Costa Concordia or the Sewol, which grab the world headlines for a while. Less attention is paid to the losses in passenger vessels in the developing world each year. In January, for example, 22 people were lost when the tourist boat Aqua Marine capsized in the Andaman Sea. The IMRF’s project is for them, too.

The project also covers other causes of MROs, such as accidents in the offshore and airline industries. The loss of Malaysian Airlines MH370 in March sadly did not give rise to a rescue operation, but many of the fundamentals of MRO planning applied to the unprecedented international response.

Migrant traffic and land-based emergencies also result in MROs on the water. More than 200 people fleeing fighting in South Sudan are believed to have been lost when a ferry went down on the Nile in January; and reports of migrant drownings in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean continue relentlessly.

Anything we can do to improve mass rescue response, we must do. This is what the IMRF’s MRO project is for.

www.international-maritime-rescue.org

page 5

LIFE LINE

Quadrennial General Meeting...

Every four years the IMRF hosts the prestigious World Maritime Rescue Congress. In 2011 we gathered in Shanghai, China. In June 2015 we will meet again, in Bremerhaven, Germany. Planning is well advanced, and we will bring you more news in LIFE LINE and on the IMRF website – www.internationalmaritime-rescue.org – as time goes on.

In the meantime make sure you mark the dates in your diaries: 1-4 June 2015!

The main management meeting of the IMRF, our Quadrennial General Meeting (QGM), is held at the same time and venue as the Congress. As IMRF’s CEO Bruce Reid writes, it is now just 12 months until our next QGM: The QGM is of fundamental importance to the work of the IMRF. It is when our Members meet to review what has been achieved over the last four years, and to agree the IMRF’s strategic direction for the next four. Make sure you get the dates – 1-4 June 2015 – in your diary now!

The QGM is also when the new IMRF Board of Trustees will be elected. Our Trustees’ main function is to oversee the implementation of the strategy the Members decide. It is therefore timely to consider the important matter of Trustee nominations and the election process.

The IMRF Board of Trustees The IMRF’s current Rules and Regulations call for a Board of seven Trustees in all. We will confirm later this year which of the current Trustees will be standing for reelection for the 2015-2019 quadrennium, but it is possible that as many as five of our current Board will be retiring next year. This will mean a significant change in the IMRF Board, and it requires the membership to be proactive in considering who they would like to have driving the organisation forward in the future.

The Trustees elected in 2015 will be key to continuing the development of the IMRF. The current Board of Trustees have guided the evolution of the IMRF into the professional body we have today. It is now time to take the IMRF to the next level. To do this successfully, having the right mix of skills on the new Board will continue to be essential.

June 2014

...and the World Maritime Rescue Congress 2015

international development, finance, fundraising, marketing, public relations, information technology, human resources, logistics, communications and/or training. They need to be fluent in English (or commit to providing interpretation at no cost to the IMRF) and willing to accept and apply the Nolan Principles of public life – selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.

The nomination and election processes Five of the seven Trustees are elected by IMRF Full Member organisations at the QGM. Each Full Member may nominate one individual. The other two Trustees are nominated and elected by the Major Donor Full Members – the nine Full Member organisations which have contributed the greatest amount of funds or applicable services in kind over the preceding four years.

To be an IMRF Trustee is to help lead an exciting and growing international SAR organisation. It requires dedication, experience and expertise.

If you represent an IMRF Full Member organisation, do not delay: start thinking about your nomination now. We again need the best people to lead us forward into the next quadrennium – and June 2015 is not so very far away!

Further information on the role of the IMRF and IMRF Trustees and the required nomination forms and processes are available on the website (www.international-maritime-rescue.org), on the ‘QGM 2015’ page, or may be had by contacting us at info@imrf.org.uk.

Key points The Trustees have ultimate responsibility for directing the IMRF’s affairs and ensuring that it is solvent, well-run, and delivering the outcomes for which it was set up. They also act as representatives of, and ambassadors for, the IMRF as required. They serve for periods of four years, attending the QGM, and two Trustee meetings each year.

IMRF Trustees should have senior management experience and technical expertise in relevant specialist areas, in particular search and rescue, maritime operations, www.international-maritime-rescue.org

The IMRF’s current Board of Trustees, elected at the QGM held in Shanghai in 2011 page 6

LIFE LINE

SAR Matters This column provides a forum for LIFE LINE readers worldwide to contribute to debate on any relevant SAR issue. Have a look at the previous discussions in our Newsletter Archive, online at www.international-maritimerescue.org. Every Life Line since 2010 is available there for free download. You can join in the debate by emailing news@imrf.org.uk. It’s good to talk!

In this edition we conclude the article by Rob Lee & Rick Janelle, United States Coast Guard Passenger Vessel Safety Specialists, which we began in our April issue. You can download the first part of the article from the IMRF website. Rob and Rick have identified:

Ten Mass Rescue Operational Realities In April they covered the first four realities on their list: the challenging and complex nature of mass rescue operations (MROs) and the need for multi-agency planning; the need for a rigorous process for accounting for everyone involved, and to accept that this will take time; and the vital need for early implementation of an effective communications plan.

Rob and Rick noted that there will be major demands for information, both from within the overall response organisation and from outside it. They conclude that: Once again, pre-planning is critical if the response organization is to be able to provide the first information and remain its best source. Your response plans must outline a process for establishment of a call center for relatives and friends, as well as a media strategy that includes a joint media center and unified command press releases and media briefs. Each response partner may already have a media specialist. Joint planning and training opportunities for these specialists is highly recommended.

June 2014

Encourage the development of a basic rescue assistance plan or policies, and investigate opportunities to include local Good Samaritans in training events. Guidance for Good Samaritan Vessels Assisting in Maritime Search and Rescue provides basic information and is available at www.uscg.mil/pvs/Handouts.asp.

Expect Good Samaritan vessels to have difficulties recovering survivors onto the deck. They are not designed for victim recovery. For many commercial ships this is especially troublesome. Throw in survivor age, fatigue or injury factors and the problem increases. This is a case by case situation. Begin to investigate solutions as soon as the characteristics and recovery limitations of the rescue vessels are known. During the Prinsendam response [referred to in the first part of this article, in our April edition], helicopters were used to lift survivors from lifeboats to the deck of a Good Samaritan tank ship.

Reality #6: SAR Mission Coordinators and On Scene Coordinators receive minimal training in the extreme demands of managing MRO activities.

For most responses professional SMCs and OSCs are comfortable taking control of the situation and directing people and assets. But are they prepared for the confusion, dozens of rescue boats, extreme communication demands, and thousands of survivors, many injured, that may result from an MRO? Are they prepared to initiate passenger accountability and track all on-scene rescue assets? In responding to the “unimaginable”, it is easy to become ‘lost’, especially if no prior experience or training has provided a foundation for action.

Reality #5: Dedicated SAR resources will be limited and “Good Samaritan” vessels will be critical for success in the majority of incidents.

Take the opportunity to provide MRO-specific guidance, training and exercises to SMCs and OSCs. Provide guidance for accountability, asset tracking, critical information reporting, and communications best practices.

Ensure they understand how the SAR organization will fit into the unified command that will be employed. Discuss coordination with shore side agencies and the importance of sharing information quickly. Review MRO safety concerns. One particular concern is awareness of the maximum number of recovered survivors that can be loaded onto rescue boats while maintaining their stability.

In most regions, Government SAR assets are spread too thin to ensure they are always the first to arrive on scene, and the assistance of private “Good Samaritan” vessels will be necessary. To be of maximum value, the crews should understand the SAR organization, critical communication requirements, the duties and responsibilities of the first vessel on scene, and be trained to evaluate and mitigate associated risks in order to conduct a safe rescue operation. Unfortunately, most “Good Sams” will have no formal training in SAR operations and will need a higher level of support and direction from the On Scene Coordinator (OSC) or SAR Mission Coordinator (SMC).

Both the SMC and OSC will need extra help. The demands of the response will quickly overwhelm their normal capacities. A trained and practiced management team using ICS principles will be required to maintain a common operational picture with all response partners, to track response resources, coordinate accountability, manage external affairs, ensure proper documentation, and execute actions beyond the normal scope of SMC and OSC duties. For this support to work and not add to the frustration and confusion of the event, the staff must regularly train and practice as a team. This training investment cannot be ignored.

SAR organizations are encouraged to provide basic SAR training to educate potential Good Samaritan vessels in their region. Training should review the functions of an OSC, communications requirements, safety and other concerns.

Reality #7: The physical or emotional condition of survivors may prevent them from helping themselves.

Invest time and effort in your communications planning. It will pay huge dividends.

www.international-maritime-rescue.org

Cold water, poor health, injuries, or emotional stress may prevent many victims from swimming to and climbing into a page 7

LIFE LINE (continued from page 7)

liferaft, or climbing out of a liferaft to a rescue vessel. Even the smallest actions may be too large an effort for survivors to overcome without assistance. An extended time on scene in a survival craft with minimal food, water and rest will exacerbate the need for assistance.

Support needs for survivors will not end once they are on board a rescue vessel or reach shore. At landing sites, many of the survivors will be too tired to walk up a ramp or even climb aboard a bus. Some may be covered in vomit or have soiled pants. Survivors may be cold, wet and contaminated with spilled fuel necessitating decontamination and emergency clothing. The response organization must anticipate the demands and plan for survivor support along the entire continuum of care.

Realities 8 and 9 are closely tied together and will be jointly discussed.

Reality #8: Local communities are vital partners in providing shore side MRO response actions, but most have minimal guidance or training on the functions expected of them.

Reality #9: Continuum of care for rescued victims will be required. Once delivered to shore, the functions of accountability, emergency medical care, human health, shelter, food, and other survivor support needs must be continued and coordinated.

Some of the most complicated MRO work starts once the survivors hit the beach, especially if the ‘beach’ is remote or has limited infrastructure. Establishing shore landing site and sheltering facilities, arranging transportation, providing medical care, food, clothing and other support all involve the local community. In fact, this portion of the response may last much longer than the on-scene rescue.

Unfortunately, many maritime response plans stop at the beach: apparently, once survivors are handed off, it’s no longer our problem. That may work for a few dozen survivors, but with several hundreds or thousands of survivors, it’s unacceptable. Imagine the confusion and chaos that will result if we fail to coordinate our actions and support the port communities. It is critical to know your partners and their responsibilities and capabilities, and to understand their expectations. Imagine going to a BBQ with neighbors and no one bringing the hot dogs because everyone expected someone else to provide them. No big deal for a picnic, but potentially fatal in an MRO response.

With real-life MRO experience limited, response planning and coordination is required for success. The efficient operation of landing sites, emergency medical services, transportation and evacuee care will depend on our joint pre-incident planning. Several agencies may find themselves working together for the first time and confusion and competing priorities can result. Community MRO plans, training and job aids are required, and the SAR authorities should encourage and assist port partners in this undertaking. These plans should incorporate, not re-invent, existing local emergency response procedures and facilities, and address MRO-specific differences. www.international-maritime-rescue.org

June 2014

This port-level planning is especially important for large ports where MRO coordination involves multiple community jurisdictions, several potential landing sites, mass media outlets, and the potential for survivors to easily find their own way home before final accounting has taken place. A sample small community MRO plan, and job aids for landing site and reception center operations, are at www.uscg.mil/pvs/Handouts.asp.

Once the plan is finalized, basic familiarity training and local exercising of the plan will be required. Any plan is only as good as the training that accompanies it. If no-one knows the plan exists, then it will not be used. If players are not given the chance to practice the MRO procedures developed, they will not use them but will default to what they think is best.

Reality #10: Past success does not guarantee future results. Continuous training and plan improvement is required.

Transfers, promotions and retirements within SAR agencies often replace an experienced individual with someone of less knowledge of the area or the contents of response plans. For continued success, a continual training and exercising program is paramount.

This training and practicing cannot be conducted in a vacuum. Any plans, procedures, or policies created in a vacuum will fail. To be a successful multi-agency response organization, partners need to develop, train and practice jointly and regularly.

What’s next?

Hopefully, the main “take away” from this discussion is the need to refocus your energy and efforts to improve your mass rescue plans. Go back and critically evaluate your plans – are they useful, do they include all your response partners, is a command organization identified, does everyone have clear expectations and directions, can you efficiently exchange information, do you know what information to exchange, is the command post identified, do you have an accountability process understood by everyone, how will survivors be managed ashore and who is responsible?

Look at the entire process, from the ship to the care of survivors shore side. Make sure to engage your response partners. Do not plan in a vacuum. If you do, plan to be surprised. You can find additional help in the MRO planning guidance at www.uscg.mil/pvs/Handouts.asp.

Once the plan is complete, conduct joint training to educate everyone on the plan and then exercise regularly.

After each exercise or actual event, improve the plan.

Carry through on the necessary improvements. Each successive exercise should test new solutions and not simply identify the same old problems.

There is no guarantee of success for any MRO event.

However, all SAR professionals have an obligation to invest in planning for success. Any plan should consider the ten realities discussed here, and address any others identified for your region. page 8

LIFE LINE

June 2014

Maritime SAR development in North & West Africa continues Regular followers of LIFE LINE will be aware of the work the IMRF is doing in North and West Africa, in partnership with the International Maritime Organization (IMO), to build SAR administration and management capability in the region. This is just one of the ways in which developing SAR organisations can be helped – and it’s going well.

The current group comprises six countries – Morocco, Senegal, Cape Verde, Mauritania, The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau – who have been working together under the chairmanship of Mohammed Drissi, Morocco’s SAR Coordinator and the IMRF’s Regional Coordinator.

Through this cooperation, training has been developed and delivered in the main by IMRF Trustee Udo Fox and his colleague from the German Maritime SAR Service (DGzRS) Dirk Stommel, supported by the IMO and IMRF. The most recent training in February took delegates through an advanced training course on SAR mission coordination. Most of the delegates attending had participated in initial training held in 2013. The networking between organisations at this level is also of great practical value.

Building on the success of the North and West Africa group, consideration is being given to extending the group to include the states of Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. A combined meeting between these groups is being held as this newsletter goes to print.

In advance of the meeting representatives from the Liberian group are attending some initial training on SAR Management. This is to be followed by the joint regional meeting, a SAR seminar and a simulated SAR exercise.

The training and the exercise are supported through the IMO’s Technical Development Committee, again with support from both the IMRF and the DGzRS. Expanding the involvement to include other countries in the region will, we believe, bring better mutual understanding of each country’s SAR capability and help build the cross-border cooperation which is so beneficial, especially in major SAR incidents.

Communication, coordination and cooperation are key words in SAR development.

Animation in SAR training Duncan Ferner, Head of Secretariat for New Zealand Search and Rescue (NZSAR) provided an overview of SAR in New Zealand at the recent IMRF Trustees’ meeting. In this presentation he touched on the challenging area of training for SAR – in particular the cost of bringing people together to train.

To help the New Zealand SAR organisations manage aspects of training which do not require physical colocation, NZSAR have partnered with New Zealand technology company MAROPS, who specialise in 2D and 3D graphics, training and technical projects.

On-line computer-based interactive training has been designed for Sea Search and Rescue Planning and Search and Rescue Beacon Direction Finding. The courses allow the trainees to use simulations to enhance the learning experience with elements able to be manipulated in real time. The image above is the interactive training screen for 406MHz DF Training. The dials can all be moved and in doing so the screen also changes. The trainee is able to manage the module training to suit their own pace – “self-paced learning” – and to do the training at a time that suits them.

MAROPS also advise that the use of interactive content has been proven to considerably increase comprehension and retention rate. It’s fun, very lifelike, responsive – and it doesn’t require massive internet bandwidth.

With 84% of those involved in the SAR sector in New Zealand unpaid volunteers (over 13,360 people) and the time challenges such people face, this type of training is a very helpful tool to have in the toolbox – not for all aspects of SAR, of course, but for some.

For more information on New Zealand Search and Rescue head to www.nzsar.org.nz.

IMRF CEO Bruce Reid addresses a North and West Africa SAR development meeting www.international-maritime-rescue.org

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LIFE LINE

June 2014

Registered in China

The IMRF Down Under

The IMRF has successfully registered its Asia Pacific regional centre (APRC) in China, giving it formal legal status and providing a timely boost to maritime SAR development in the region.

In April’s LIFE LINE we covered the IMRF Trustee meeting in New Zealand. On their way down under for that meeting Chairman Michael Vlasto and CEO Bruce Reid had three busy days of meetings in Sydney. Bruce writes:

Registration means that the IMRF, which has operated an office in Shanghai since 2011, can advance its activities without the limitations Chinese law places on nonregistered organisations. As a legal entity in China the IMRF can now engage in formal contracts and agreements and receive funding support from within China and from external funders.

With over 25,000km of coastline and a climate that encourages water activity, maritime rescue services in Australia have a busy time.

Our meeting with Surf Life Saving Australia brought home the scale of that activity, with lifesavers on duty for more than 1.4 million hours each year. Since the movement began in 1907 volunteer lifesavers have saved more than 615,000 lives.

And SLSA’s activity is not restricted to Australia. They provide support and expertise to similar organisations in 25 other countries, mainly in the Asia Pacific area.

Capt Song Jiahui and Michael Vlasto – Trustees of both the IMRF and the APRC – celebrate the APRC’s registration

The Chinese Government sets a high bar for the registration of non-profit organisations. The IMRF is one of the first to register under a new regional registration system. This recognition will be particularly helpful in enabling the charity to fulfil its objectives in the Asia Pacific region.

“The IMRF wants to help improve maritime SAR response, coordination and cooperation in the Asia Pacific region. Having a regional office registered in China will allow us to work more freely, make it easier for funders to support our initiatives and allow us to put in place the right staffing structure to manage the regional requirements,” says Michael Vlasto, Chairman of the IMRF. With the maritime SAR spotlight on the Asia Pacific region as a result of the tragic sinking of the South Korean ferry Sewol and the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, rescue organisations are looking closely at their systems and processes.

This is an area the IMRF can assist with.

“Events such as the Sewol disaster put the spotlight onto the maritime rescue services and force organisations to question their preparedness,” adds Michael. “One of the key projects for the region that we now want to advance with urgency is a series of workshops, seminars and training on maritime Mass Rescue Operations. The APRC will be the driver of these initiatives and can do so much more effectively and quickly as a registered organisation.”

The IMRF is grateful for the support and sponsorship of registration by China Rescue and Salvage, Donghai Rescue Bureau and the Shanghai Urban Construction and Communications Commission. www.international-maritime-rescue.org

Police Superintendent Mark Hutchings gave us an overview of maritime rescue in New South Wales. The major recent change in the state has been the reorganisation of the volunteer response organisations, which Mark sees as a major step forward, improving response times through having just one organisation to task, and improving response capability through investment in new fit-for-purpose vessels and bringing consistency to the level of training for the volunteers.

We also visited the new headquarters of Marine Rescue New South Wales (see LIFE LINE December 2012). Stacey Tannos was delighted to advise that the fleet upgrade is almost complete and the training system overhauled. The process of melding together the three former marine rescue organisations is now complete. The new organisation operates from 46 locations with 72 rescue boats. They also operate continuous radio coverage along the coast and provide boating safety education for pleasure boaters.

We were also able to spend time with Darryl Wright, chair of the National Volunteer Marine SAR Council, and Ray Campbell and Peter Smith of the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard. The AVCG has made significant advances in a number of areas, including the launch of a smartphone app, ‘Coast Guard SafeTrx’, which takes the traditional trip reporting into the digital age and helps take the search out of search and rescue. See www.coastguard.com.au.

From the IMRF’s side, we were able to promise help with international coordination to prevent duplication of effort and to ensure that any gaps in our combined efforts to improve SAR are identified. The possibility of a mass rescue operations workshop in the region is also being considered.

As we flew on to New Zealand, Michael and I reflected on how much of what is good in SAR comes from the key people running the organisations being prepared to work across boundaries to get it right. Well done, Oz! page 10

LIFE LINE

June 2014

Member Focus: Rashtriya Life Saving Society Articles in this series, submitted by IMRF Members, give a flavour of the wide range of SAR activity going on around the world.

In this edition Admiral P D Sharma, Founder President of the Rashtriya Life Saving Society, writes:

It is well known that young children are extremely vulnerable to drowning accidents. Statistics collated by the International Life Saving Federation [with whom the IMRF work in partnership – see LIFE LINE December 2013] and

put out by the World Organization are alarming:

Health

 55% of children who drown are in the age group of 5 to 14 years  4 out of 5 of all drowning deaths are of children under the age of 18 years  Drowning rates dramatically increase as teenagers become young adults.

The Rashtriya Life Saving Society (India) was founded in 1998. We first learnt about Life Saving and then for the next two years set about showing people elements of ‘First Aid’ and ‘Life Saving’ and how simple skills could equip people with the ability to save lives. Observing our work, the Pune Municipal Corporation appointed us an “Honorary Consultant” for safer swimming in Pune in December 2000. This was when Pune lost 7 to 9 lives in drowning accidents every summer.

RLSS(I) set about developing “Pool Rules”, training Lifeguards and introducing water management systems. As a result the death rate came down to zero in Pune by 2010.

In its fifteen years of existence RLSS(I) has expanded to become a pan-India organisation. It provides leadership in lifesaving activities www.international-maritime-rescue.org

The IMRF

through training and operations. Our trainers have international accreditation, and the latest training equipment and techniques.

RLSS (I) awareness programmes are fun and educational activities that provide students with a practical approach to familiarising themselves with the concept of safety both on land and in water. The programmes teach and empower students to live safer lives and assist in a rescue.

They are specially designed to develop alertness among children and parents to recognize and understand dangers.

The Society also conducts public training courses which empower candidates with the knowledge and skills to assist in case of an emergency; and we conduct certified courses in lifesaving for coaches and sports officials.

RLSS(I) trains and provides professional life guards at aquatic venues such as swimming pools and beaches. Lifeguards are equipped with modern communication systems, rescue equipment, water craft and advanced life support systems.

We have considerable experience in rescue operations, initiating training of the National Disaster Response Force, and being appointed as consultant to various local councils in matters relating to aquatic safety.

Through regular advocacy, consultancy, safety audits and risk assessments, RLSS(I) aims to educate the vulnerable and develop new methods to improve safety.

This ‘conference special edition’ of LIFE LINE, with its extended readership, is a good place to try to summarise all that the IMRF is doing – although we can only give very brief details in the space available!

First and foremost, too many people lose their lives in the world’s waters every year. Estimates range from 140,000 to 1.1 million. Every year.

Many of these deaths could be prevented through improved safety interventions and improved maritime SAR coordination and response. The IMRF is the international charity focussed on the second of these two major issues. We now have 92 SAR response and support organisations in 48 countries as members.

IMRF has launched key projects that will improve SAR across the globe.

Our Mass Rescue Operations project you can read all about in this issue of our newsletter. You can read about our other projects – Education, Crew Exchange or the Rescue Boat Guidelines projects, for example – in other editions or online, at www. international-maritime-rescue.org.

We use our consultative status at the IMO to help develop sensible and practical regulation and guidance that will improve safety and SAR worldwide. We are also working closely with the IMO to complete the global SAR plan, aiming to provide the necessary consistency of communication and response all over the world. For example, we have recently conducted SAR coordination training and mass rescue operations workshops in North & West Africa (see page 9), China, Bangladesh, Malta, Hong Kong and Uruguay.

And let’s not forget our ‘Members Assisting Members’ scheme, or our online bookshop offering 20% discounts on IMO publications, or our first regional office, in Shanghai: see www.imrf.asia.

Want to be a part of all this? Become a Member or a supporter or sponsor – see the website for the details.

You’ll be very welcome!

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LIFE LINE

June 2014

Welcome aboard, James!

James Vaughan is the Fundraising and Communications Director of the UK and Ireland’s Royal National Lifeboat Institution (IMRF founder-Members the RNLI).

And he has kindly agreed to be co-opted onto the IMRF’s Board of Trustees for the remainder of the current quadrennium (see page 6). He is a most valuable addition to the team, and we bid him a hearty welcome!

James joined the RNLI in 1998 after 12 years in the advertising industry and worked across a variety of roles in the Fundraising and Communications department until 2008 when he was appointed Corporate Services Director.

His portfolio included Estate management, Governance, Legal, Continuous improvement, Business planning and the RNLI’s evolving International strategy.

In 2011 James moved back to the Fundraising and Communications team as the Director and has led a substantial restructure to ensure the ‘funding engine’ of the RNLI was fit for purpose and capable of delivering the income required by the RNLI’s 20 year strategic plan.

Then, in January 2014, as part of evolving the RNLI’s strategic plan, James stepped away temporarily from the day-to-day F&C Director role to properly understand the scale of global drowning and identify how, along with others, the RNLI could help address the problem in a meaningful and sustainable way.

James is also a Trustee of Shelterbox, an organisation focused on providing emergency shelter and vital supplies to support communities around the world overwhelmed by disaster and humanitarian crisis.

The IMRF at NCSR1 The first meeting of the reorganised IMO Sub-Committee on Navigation, Communications and Search and Rescue (NCSR) convenes in London on 30 June. The IMRF will be there, of course, fulfilling our function as the nongovernmental organisation in consultative status on SAR. At this meeting, among many other things, we will be cosponsoring a paper submitted by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The paper points out the continuing, and costly, problem of false distress alerts emanating from emergency beacons – which may begin transmitting without their owners’ knowledge – and proposes that a relatively simple technical solution (carriage of an onboard detector) should be further investigated.

Look out for the NCSR meeting report in the August edition of LIFE LINE, and on the IMRF website!

Many languages, one aim The IMRF is an international organisation and, although English is the accepted ‘language of the sea’, we are very conscious that our Members, between them, speak many different languages.

We have therefore been working to bring you news in our online editions of LIFE LINE (at www.internationalmaritime-rescue.org) in all six IMO languages: French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Russian, as well as English.

We are delighted to announce that, with the very kind assistance of various Members, we have achieved this aim, with articles in all six languages now available on the website.

Communication: it’s what it’s all about!

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@imrf.org.uk 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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