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LIFELINE October 2012 - English
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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
Registered office: IMRF West Quay Road Poole BH15 1HZ United Kingdom Company Registration Number: 4852596 Charity Registration Number: 1100883
www.international-maritime-rescue.org
LLIIFFEE LLIINNEE
The Newsletter of the International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF)
News… Experience… Ideas… Information… Development…
In this issue:
IMRF Membership, and Members Assisting Members
The IMRF’s Asia Pacific Regional Centre
Focus on the Swedish Sea Rescue Society and Royal Canadian Marine Search And Rescue
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution and international development
News from South Africa, Cape Verde, The Gambia, and Bulgaria
and more!
OOccttoobbeerr
22001122
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
December 2010
IMRF Membership Special Edition
Synergy – from the Greek for ‘working together’ – has been described as ‘the creation of a whole that is
greater than the sum of its parts’. IMRF Membership is all about synergy, about sharing and supporting:
sharing experience, supporting SAR around the world.
IMRF Members are organisations large and small, old and new. Many have been providing maritime search
and rescue services for many years; some are new to the work. Many provide maritime SAR units; others,
SAR aircraft; others coordinate SAR: some do more than one of these things. Some Members are
Government organisations; others are non-governmental, providing SAR services in various voluntary ways.
Some Members do not yet provide SAR services, but aspire to do so. Others act in various supporting roles.
Together, they form a worldwide network. The IMRF links them, sometimes representing them on the
international stage; always ready to help them to help each other. Our Members are our ‘parts’, and our
Members working together, through the IMRF, produce a greater whole.
Synergy. It’s what the IMRF’s all about!
LLIIFFEE LLIINNEE OOccttoobbeerr 22001122
page 2
Editorial
Welcome to the October edition of your newsletter: a
‘special’ edition, focussing on IMRF membership. Every
edition of LIFE LINE is about our Members – but this
one is especially so! You will find articles here on what
IMRF membership means, for organisations who are
already Members; for those who might be; and for those
whose lives we are trying to help save...
In this edition we also begin a new series of articles,
focussing on particular IMRF Members. I hope you will
enjoy reading about them – and I hope that you will then
contribute to the series, so that we can read about you!
It’s always interesting to hear what others are doing in
SAR and how they are doing it. But what is most useful
in the IMRF context is the opportunity to learn from our
colleagues. If an idea works in Sweden or Canada or
Bangladesh, will it work in our part of the world too? It
may be unlikely that there will be a direct ‘read-across’,
but good ideas grow from seeds; and seeds blow on
winds from all sorts of directions!
I hope that all IMRF Members will send in articles for the
new Focus series. And please do not be concerned that
your story might not be all about success, as the two we
feature in this edition might seem to be! Yes: the
Swedish Sea Rescue Society and Royal Canadian
Marine SAR have had major successes in building up
their services in recent years. But I’m sure our
colleagues in those organisations would be the first to
agree that, sometimes, things have been very hard too.
We all know that running a SAR organisation is no
easier than doing SAR itself: in some respects it can
seem harder. We also know that we can learn from
each other: the parts can build a better whole.
So: please tell us about yourselves; your equipment;
your training. And tell us too about your needs, if you
have them – how you would like to do SAR better, if
only you had the resources to do so.
For the Focus series will be about
needs as well as successes. We look
forward to hearing from you.
Dave Jardine-Smith
Contents
A special edition ................................. 1
Editorial ................................. 2
Dates for the Diary ................................. 2
IMRF membership: what’s in it for me? ....... 3
IMRF membership: the details .................... 4
Major Donors ................................. 4
Members Assisting Members .................... 5
Asia Pacific Regional Centre .................... 5
SAR Matters ................................. 6
The Swedish Sea Rescue Society ....... 7
Royal Canadian Marine SAR ....... 8
The RNLI & international development ....... 9
News from South Africa .................... 10
News from Cape Verde and The Gambia ... 10
Loss of the Skagit ................................. 11
Mass rescue operations .................... 11
The JPO Vulpecula rescue .................... 11
News from Bulgaria ................................. 12
A word from the Chief Exec .................... 12
Send us your news & pictures ....... 12
Dates for the Diary
IMRF European Regional Meeting 18 October 2012
To be held in Reykjavik, Iceland. For details, please
contact [email protected]
RESCUE 2012 - Iceland 19-21 October 2012
Arranged by IMRF Members ICE-SAR, and to be held in
Reykjavik, Iceland. For details, see:
www.icesar.com/rescue
IMRF South American Regional Congress
30 October - 2 November 2012
To be held in Montevideo, Uruguay. For details, please
contact [email protected]
World Maritime Rescue Congress 1-4 June 2015
Advance notice of the IMRF’s next Congress and
Quadrennial General Meeting. Further details in due
course.
If you have a SAR event of international interest which
you would like to see listed here, please send the
details to [email protected]
LLIIFFEE LLIINNEE OOccttoobbeerr 22001122
page 3
would say that he fully
understands the ways
of the sea? – and a
large organisation can
learn from its smaller
colleagues just as the
smaller and newer
organisations can
learn from those who
have been in the SAR
game for longer.
And it’s not just about sharing ideas.
Equipment passes from hand to hand.
Whether it’s a boat or a radio or
almost anything else we need in
maritime SAR, if it’s superseded in
one part of the world it can often go
on to continue to do lifesaving work in
another.
The IMRF helps establish all these
networks of sharing. We facilitate
contacts, whether bilateral or multi-
lateral, in many ways; not least
through our quadrennial World
Maritime Rescue Congress, a premier
event in global SAR; and through our
Members Assisting Members scheme:
see the article on page 5.
Mutual assistance may be truly global,
but it can also be regional. The IMRF
divides its areas of operations into
maritime regions, each with a regional
coordinator to assist Members within
it. One of the seven Trustees on the
IMRF’s Board acts as a mentor to
each regional coordinator, so that the
line of communication between the
‘front line’ and the Board is always
short. Ensuring good communications
between the IMRF’s directors and our
IMRF Membership: what’s in it for me?
Let’s face it: in these difficult times we
all have to ask ourselves that selfish-
sounding question; especially if we are
spending some of a SAR
organisation’s hard-earned funds. So:
what benefits will your organisation
gain from IMRF membership? What
justifies the membership fee?
Well, there are many answers to that
question. In no particular order, here
are some of them.
As an international non-governmental
organisation, the IMRF has been
awarded consultative status at the
International Maritime Organization,
the IMO: the UN body responsible for
international shipping, including
maritime search and rescue.
We represent the world’s maritime
SAR community in that important
forum and in others associated with it,
such as the Joint Working Group on
SAR that the IMO runs in partnership
with the International Civil Aviation
Organization, and which has editorial
responsibility for the International
Aeronautical and Maritime Search and
Rescue Manual: the IAMSAR Manual;
the ‘instruction manual’ for the global
SAR system. IMRF Membership gets
you a seat at the UN table!
Then there’s the synergy we talked
about on page one – working together
to make SAR response better overall.
We share information and
experience; we share lifesaving
ideas, tips and technologies,
operating procedures, training
programmes, and lessons
learned. However big and
experienced a Member
organisation is, it always has
more it can learn – for who
constituent Member organisations is
a primary focus for the IMRF.
Key to the essential business of
good internal communication – in
addition to conferences and direct
contacts (and, of course, this
newsletter!) – is the IMRF website:
www.international-maritime-rescue.org.
Members have access to the
password-protected parts of the site,
where a dynamic and expanding
library of information is available to
them.
This includes information on the
IMRF’s current projects, which are
aimed at enhancing SAR response
worldwide.
Members working together are
developing guidelines for the design
and equipping of rescue boats, and
the training of their crews. This is a
classic example of Members pooling
their experience and expertise for
the common good.
Similarly, Members are working
together on the IMRF’s mass rescue
operations project, seeking to
improve global response to incidents
in which large numbers of people
need to be rescued – the sort of
case which the IMO defines as
being beyond SAR services’ normal
capability (see page 11). A third
project, on water safety education, is
also getting under way.
‘What’s in it for me?’ A great deal!
IMRF Members gain directly from
their membership, but they
also contribute beyond their
local spheres to the IMRF’s
wider humanitarian aim:
preventing loss of life in
the world's waters.
Who wouldn’t want to be part
of that?!
LLIIFFEE LLIINNEE OOccttoobbeerr 22001122
page 4
IMRF Membership: the details
There are several different ways in
which you can be a Member of the
IMRF. Under our current constitution
there are five official ‘classes’:
Associate Member, Affiliate Member,
Full Member, Major Donor Full
Member, and Honorary Member. Here
are a few details.
Associate Membership is available to
any organisation, business or
individual with an interest in the
provision of maritime SAR or the
promotion of water safety.
Affiliate Members may be subsidiaries
of Full Members which provide
maritime SAR services; organisations
whose prime purpose is the promotion
of water safety; or any organisation
which is planning to provide a maritime
SAR service in the future. Affiliates and
Associates are both welcome to attend
IMRF general meetings, but have no
voting rights.
Full Members are the core of the
IMRF. These are organisations which
provide maritime SAR services by prior
agreement with the authority
responsible for SAR in their region (if
such an authority has been defined).
Full Members may attend general
meetings; may propose, second and
vote upon motions; and may nominate
and vote for IMRF Trustees.
Major Donor Full Membership is
available to the nine Full Members who
have contributed the greatest amount
of funds or services-in-kind in the four
year period before each IMRF
quadrennial general meeting. The
Major Donors nominate an additional
two Trustees.
The final category of current IMRF
membership is Honorary Membership,
which may be awarded to any
individual or organisation in recognition
of contributions made toward the
fulfilment of the IMRF’s objects.
All of the membership classes above
carry with them access rights to the
Members’ area of the IMRF website,
www.international-maritime-rescue.org,
and participation, where appropriate,
in IMRF events and projects.
We are planning to introduce another
membership category, that of
‘Supporter’. No privileges would
attach to this new class of
membership, and Supporters will not
have access to the Members’ area of
the website. But the new category will
be open to anyone who wishes to
support the IMRF’s work financially
for humanitarian reasons. The
minimum contribution suggested
would be €30 per annum.
With the exception of Honorary
Members, the main membership
classes pay fees according to the
their status and their organisation’s
annual turnover. The fee for
Associate Membership is currently
set at a minimum of €1000 per
annum. Affiliate Members are asked
to pay €110. Full Members’ rates are
in three bands, depending on
turnover: ‘small’ organisations pay
€400; ‘medium’ ones €1800; and
‘large’ organisations a minimum of
€4000. As the Major Donor concept
implies, additional contributions are
always welcome! (See ‘Major Donors’,
right.)
If you would like to know anything
more about IMRF membership, this is
the lady with all the answers: Ann
Laing, seen here at her desk in
Scotland. As well as running IMRF
Members the Maritime Rescue
Institute, based in Stonehaven, Ann
is the IMRF’s Membership Secretary.
She may be contacted at:
a.laing@international-maritime-
rescue.org
or on (tel) +44 (0)1569 765768 or
(fax) +44 (0)1569 765979
Major Donors
As described in the adjacent article,
the IMRF’s constitution allows for
‘Major Donor Full Members’ as one
of its membership categories. These
are Members who make significant
additional donations to the IMRF’s
work, either in cash or in kind.
All membership fees are valuable,
of course, and put to good use – but
the generosity of the Major Donors
has enabled us to undertake project
work and to support less well-off
Members in ways that otherwise we
could not have afforded.
While we hope to greatly expand
our income in future through
donations from non-Members and
the spread of Associate member-
ship in particular, the Major Donors
have been key to the success of the
IMRF’s early years as an
independent charity.
For constitutional reasons we
identify our Major Donors in four-
year periods leading up to our
quadrennial general meetings.
Currently they are:
the UK and Ireland’s Royal
National Lifeboat Institution;
China Rescue & Salvage;
the Swedish Sea Rescue Society;
the German Maritime SAR
Service;
the Maritime Rescue Institute,
Scotland; and
the Royal Netherlands Sea
Rescue Institution.
Our grateful thanks to them all!
LLIIFFEE LLIINNEE OOccttoobbeerr 22001122
page 5
Members Assisting Members
Members Assisting Members is the mutual aid scheme for
IMRF Member organisations – established at the Members’
request. It is a simple means of communicating capabilities
and needs among the IMRF membership. Sharing is what
the IMRF is all about, and the Members Assisting Members
scheme is a tool designed to facilitate the sharing of
resources and expertise among IMRF Members, whether
Full Member, Affiliate, or Associate organisations.
Full details of the scheme may be found in the Members’
Area of the IMRF website, www.international-maritime-
rescue.org. If you need help with logging in, or with the
scheme itself, please contact Wendy Webster, the IMRF’s
website manager, at w.webster@international-maritime-
rescue.org. (Readers are reminded that, to facilitate distribution of
this newsletter, there are no hyperlinks contained in it. Some email
systems dislike hyperlinks! Please copy and paste website or email
addresses into your browser or email contacts.)
On the Members
Assisting Members
webpage you will find a
tutorial video which
explains how the
scheme works: how
you can post offers and
request specific
assistance; and how
you can view and
manage your posts.
There’s also a Quick
Guide and a useful
flow chart.
If you are already using
the scheme, or if you
have suggestions for
improving it, please let
us know what you think
by filling in the short
questionnaire to be
found at the foot of the
webpage.
If you are not yet using the scheme then please do so. You,
the Members, asked us to provide it – but only you, the
Members, can really make it work!
Remember too that it works both ways. It is there to help
Members offer help as well as to ask for it. For example, one
Member might need second-hand equipment. Another may
be able to provide it. Economies of scale can be achieved by
combined ordering. Assistance with training or safety
campaigns or fundraising initiatives can be asked for and
given. There are many ways in which those in the maritime
SAR world can help each other – to the benefit of everyone
at risk in the world’s waters.
Members Assisting Members is one way. Why not visit the
website now and make a post...?
Asia Pacific Regional Centre
19 September 2012 marked the commencement of
operations at the IMRF’s new Asia Pacific Regional
Centre (APRC). The centre, located at China Rescue
and Salvage’s state-of-the-art Dong Hai Rescue Bureau
in Shanghai, will greatly enhance IMRF capability to
communicate with and assist maritime rescue
organisations throughout this busy region.
Capt Song Jiahui, Bruce Reid and Mr Wang Zheng Liang,
Director General of China Rescue and Salvage, join in the
APRC opening ceremony
World Health Organisation statistics show that some
380,000 people drown each year globally, with almost
half of these deaths occurring within the Asia-Pacific
region. With these types of numbers the need for a
direct presence in the region has become a priority for
the IMRF. Following last year’s successful World
Maritime Rescue Congress in Shanghai, the initiative
gained momentum: IMRF Members China Rescue and
Salvage have kindly provided office space within the
Dong Hai facility, plus management support and staff.
IMRF’s new CEO Bruce Reid remarked that “This is an
exciting international initiative for the IMRF, in
partnership with China Rescue and Salvage. We have
identified 38 countries within the region who do not have
IMRF member organisations. Many of these countries
and groups would benefit from the support and
collaboration we provide.”
Speaking at the launch ceremony, Capt Song Jiahui,
IMRF Trustee and Transportation Safety Secretary of
the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Transport,
pointed out that “one of the earliest recorded instances
of a humanitarian rescue service anywhere in the world
was close to the location of the new APRC, along the
banks of the Yangtze River. It is appropriate that this
new centre will continue this noble humanitarian
mission, providing lifesaving assistance to those in
trouble on the waters of the region.”
The APRC will be managed by the IMRF’s former CEO,
Gerry Keeling. Mr Zhang Ron Jung, Deputy Director of
the Dong Hai Rescue Bureau, will act as deputy
manager, and the new centre will be staffed by two
English-speaking CRS personnel on secondment to the
IMRF, Mr Gu Yiming and Ms Qiu Jing.
LLIIFFEE LLIINNEE OOccttoobbeerr 22001122
page 6
SAR Matters This is a discussion column intended to provide a forum for
LIFE LINE readers worldwide to contribute to debate on any
relevant SAR issue.
Please see previous editions of LIFE LINE – available on
the website, www.international-maritime-rescue.org – for
earlier discussions. Comment and/or new items for
discussion should be emailed to news@international-
maritime-rescue.org.
In our last edition the IMRF’s former Chief Executive, Gerry
Keeling, considered the results of our mass rescue
conference in Gothenburg in June. He intended to return to
the mass rescue subject in this issue, to look at some of the
major challenges and some proposals for remedial action.
But other work (see page 5!) has delayed Gerry’s second
article: we will feature it in a future LIFE LINE.
In this edition – with IMRF Membership very much in mind –
we contrast two apparently very different stories from
around the world.
On 31 August a traditional pirogue (a flat-bottomed boat
used by fishermen and for transport) capsized a few
minutes after setting off for Kassa Island from Conakry, the
capital of Guinea.
The pirogue was meant to carry about 20 people, but there
were reported to have been 58 aboard, many of them
women and children. The boat was also carrying bags of
cement and flour. It appears that her crew was
inexperienced, and strong winds swept her onto rocks.
27 people survived, rescued by fishermen and the local
security forces. A search continued all night, but hopes of
finding any more people alive had faded by morning. "We
are continuing the search without hope of finding survivors,
that means about 30 are already dead," rescue official
Lanfia Camara told AFP. "It is unthinkable that we could
find a survivor in the water after more than 15 hours without
rescue. None of the passengers were wearing a life vest
when they boarded."
A hospital doctor confirmed that those recovered dead had
drowned, “and the survivors are suffering more or less from
trauma and fear.” Scores of weeping family members
crowded the morgue and hospital for news of their loved
ones, the AFP journalist said.
It’s a tragic story – and one which should be more familiar
than it is. But disasters such as this are sometimes
overlooked by the world’s press.
Why be an IMRF Member? Well; for one thing, we are
determined not to overlook such tragic wastes of life on
the world’s waters. SAR, of course, is only part of the
story: there is much to be done to improve safety first; to
prevent such accidents ever happening. There are
common themes: overloading, lack of crew training, lack
of safety equipment. The IMRF strongly supports the work
being done on accident prevention and mitigation. But
SAR is the final part of the picture; and we are here to
help support SAR development around the world.
The second story comes from the Caribbean – but, rather
like the terrible tale from Guinea, its essentials could have
come from many places. The following was written by a
new recruit to Virgin Islands Search And Rescue (VISAR):
“You want to give something back to the community and
you've heard of this organisation of volunteers that give
their time willingly to search for and rescue human beings
at risk. So you pop up at the base one Monday evening,
where they talk about what happened the previous week
and they plan the week ahead. Somebody points out that
there's a new face in the room, and they all give you a
warm welcome. Then you're given a log with skills you
need to develop and a “Good Luck!”.
“You keep going every Monday to the meetings and you
start your training. You meet the most diverse people, but
with something in common that unites them and makes
them strong: they are here to save lives. You learn their
names, they learn yours. You hear tons of anecdotes;
happy ones but also others not so much. And then you
realise that they are also there to support each other,
knowing that they can count on the person at their side.
“Becoming a crew member scares you a bit but you keep
pushing yourself through that log, thanks to the support of
the other trainees who are going through the same mixed
emotions, but also from the more experienced helms,
crew members and coordinators. By now you enjoy going
out on Spirit, you feel a bit more comfortable wearing the
gear and getting wet in it. You put yourself through
controlled simulated situations, and you also build shared
moments with those people next to you.
“You know that that day will come where you get that last
sign-off in the log and you receive the blue T-shirt at the
Monday meeting, together with a big round of applause
from your peers. But you know you can already feel proud
of yourself for being part of this great organisation of
simple human beings, trying as hard as they can to
pursue the highest objective in life: to save lives.”
Maximiliano Ferrero writes of the shared aims and
support within VISAR; but he could equally well have
been describing the IMRF. Worldwide, Maximiliano’s
words are the key ones: ‘training ... experience ... support
... diverse people, but with something that unites them:
they are here to save lives.’
SAR is indeed a high objective: and IMRF Members do
whatever they can to attain it, and to help others to do so
too.
LLIIFFEE LLIINNEE OOccttoobbeerr 22001122
page 7
The craft in the SSRS fleet include the following classes.
All are capable of 34
knots.
The hi-tech, 30-
tonne Rausing class
can cope with
extreme conditions,
and is equipped with
ultraviolet equipment
for night searches.
(Length: 20m; beam:
5.1m; draught: 0.9m.)
The 12-metre, 13-
tonne Victoria class
was developed by
the SSRS’s own
engineers and has
achieved worldwide
recognition. (Beam:
4.2m; draught: 0.7m.)
The Gunnel Larsson
class is an 8-metre
open rescue vessel,
used mainly for
inshore rescue work.
(Draught: 1.6m; weight:
2.7 tonnes.)
And the Rescue-
runner is a specially
made scooter. While
driving, the rider can
pick up a person in the water within a few seconds. The
Rescuerunner is also a key component in the SSRS’s
ongoing research in mass rescue at sea. (Length: 3.6m;
beam: 1.5m; draught: 0.1-0.3m; weight: 350 kg.)
Led by IMRF Trustee Rolf Westerström, the SSRS is
very much accustomed to thinking globally. For example,
in July Thore Hagman and Mattias Wengelin of the
SSRS conducted the first SAR Systems course within the
new Maritime Safety and Environmental Administration
programme at the World Maritime University.
The students – from 19 different countries – gave an in-
depth presentation of their respective SAR systems as
part of their exams, including
reflections on their fulfilment of
international legislation and a
comparison with the IAMSAR
manual.
An overview and analysis of this
material will be presented to the
IMRF in due course.
Member Focus: the Swedish Sea
Rescue Society
Long-time IMRF Member the Swedish Sea Rescue Society
(see www.sjoraddning.se) is a non-governmental institution
run on a voluntary basis. It operates on the major Swedish
lakes as well as at sea, and carries out about 70% of all
rescues in Swedish waters. About 95% of the distress calls
the SSRS respond to are from pleasure craft.
The Society was founded in 1907, following severe storms
in 1903 which revealed short-comings in Sweden’s marine
rescue capability. The Society’s function has always been
that of saving lives at sea. This task is firmly supported on
three pillars: SAR operations, accident prevention, and a
firm commitment to research and development.
The SSRS is
financed by
membership fees
and donations, and
by voluntary work. In
recent years it has
doubled the number
of its sea rescue
stations; has tripled
the number of
rescue personnel
available; and has
built 70 new rescue
craft. It now has
67 rescue stations
and 160 high-speed
rescue vessels. The
SSRS also operates fourteen hovercraft: over the winter
much of the water it works on is frozen...
The recent expansion has enabled the SSRS to meet its
goal of getting under way in 15 minutes or less from the
time an alarm is received. The volunteer crews – about
1,800 of them – live close to their stations and conduct
training several times a month. They are available to
respond at any time of day or night, whatever the weather.
Altogether they launch about 7,000 times each year.
The large degree of voluntary work enables the Society to
manage with a small administration, and much of the cost
of its normal activities is covered by its membership fees.
(The Society receives no government funding.)
The SSRS has attracted many of its 80,000 members by
offering them a preventative maritime assistance service as
well as the opportunity to support the lifeboat service. The
idea is that a member can make a call for assistance before
a full-scale emergency develops. This way a member can
receive help in the event of engine failure or a damaged
rudder, say, even if no-one is in immediate danger, thus
preventing a mishap becoming a crisis. Through reciprocal
arrangements, members can receive similar help in
Norway, Denmark, Finland and the Åland islands.
LLIIFFEE LLIINNEE OOccttoobbeerr 22001122
page 8
Member Focus: Royal Canadian
Marine Search & Rescue
The Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary comprises five
autonomous regional rescue organisations. That covering
the Pacific coast has recently changed its name to Royal
Canadian Marine Search & Rescue: RCM-SAR.
RCM-SAR has 46 stations which, working with the
Canadian Coast Guard and other agencies, cover almost
29,000km of coastline (longer than that of the entire United
States); much of it a maze of islands and fjords. The
stations are almost all community-based with dedicated
rescue boats, operated by over 1,000 volunteers on call
around the clock and conducting over 800 rescues a year.
RCM-SAR have developed a high level of training,
including a world-first small rescue vessel simulator, and
are proud of their crews’ professionalism: “Volunteer
Marine Rescue Crews, Unpaid Professionals”.
Over the last 15 years the fleet too has developed quickly
from an operational model using pleasure or commercial
vessels to a dedicated fleet of purpose-built fast rescue
craft. Owner/operator vessels are now only used where
conditions do not allow for anything else, or as a backup
resource. For much of this period the vessel plan was
based on the Coast Guard model of small, fast, rigid-hull
inflatables; but these have now evolved into aluminium
construction and T-Top designs. Thanks to effective
fundraising and provincial support, RCM-SAR have been
able to build up a capable and reliable fleet in a short
period of time.
Here we see
examples of the 7
to 8 metre T-Top
and cabin RHIBs
(the open delta
console lay-out is
also used). These
have been the
workhorses of the
fleet for the last
decade.
However, RCM-
SAR has always
been proactive in looking around the world and identifying
best practices for training, tasking, equipment and vessel
design. In doing so they have noted as best practice the
development of specially designed and standardised fleets.
In designing their own vessels, RCM-SAR looked to
partners around the world to assist and are now in the early
stages of a fleet renewal programme which will eventually
see all their vessels replaced by a standard class
consistent with the best practices of marine SAR
organizations globally.
The first result of the new design approach is the Type 2
Falkins Class – a 33-foot, aluminium, diesel jet -powered,
rollover-capable, 40-knot fast rescue craft. The first in the
class was launched in 2010 (see LIFE LINE, December
2010). Four more have followed and another five are
planned. The class is reported to have received “rave
reviews”! A 12-metre Type 3 is also in service and being
evaluated to determine the requirements for further
vessels in this category.
In the meantime a standardized outboard-powered RHIB
has also been designed and the first vessel is under
construction. While it incorporates the proven and
reliable performance of the existing RHIBs, it also
incorporates leading-edge rescue craft design in a shock
mitigating platform for the entire crew station, a
significant safety improvement – and another first in
rescue vessel technology for Canada.
RCM-SAR have also been innovative in terms of
governance, on-line record-keeping – and training. Their
SAR Crew Manual standardised and greatly improved
training, for example; and in 2009 the first students
began taking classes in SARNAV: an advanced
simulator that immerses crews in realistic situations
where they can regularly and safely practice decision-
making, rescue planning, helm control, communications,
and navigation in worst-case scenarios. A training centre
(with fund-raising possibilities) and online and distance
learning packages are planned.
In summary, RCM-SAR President Randy Strandt notes
that “we spent 30 years watching, observing, and
learning from the best and, while this process will never
end, we can finally say that we are now also in a place
where others around the country and the world look to us
for guidance and ideas.” More at rcmsar.com.
LLIIFFEE LLIINNEE OOccttoobbeerr 22001122
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The RNLI and international development
IMRF Member the Royal National Lifeboat Institution
(RNLI) shares its lifesaving expertise with developing
countries in need of help; and reports on this work here.
Overall, drowning claims around 1.2 million lives globally
each year – that’s more than the number of people who
die from malaria.* In some countries, particularly in areas
of Asia, Africa and South America, drowning is the leading
cause of child death. Every loss is someone’s son or
someone’s daughter. But, despite the scale of the
problem, it is barely recognised: a hidden pandemic.
Most drownings happen in the world’s poorest countries,
which have either very limited lifesaving services or none
at all. Drowning is as preventable as most diseases, and
yet there is very little being done to tackle it. What is being
achieved is localised and ad hoc. Effective, scalable
programmes are urgently needed to help on a local level.
The RNLI is increasing its international work to try and
reduce this staggering loss of life by delivering training,
equipment and advice – whatever is needed – to save
lives. Many drownings happen at the coast, in large
bodies of water, or in floods – all environments in which
the RNLI has expertise in drowning prevention and can
offer help. The aim is to give people the means to help
themselves; trying to ensure that developing countries can
secure and sustain their own lifesaving services, so that
these services can grow organically and go on to save
thousands of lives using their own people and skills.
The RNLI are delivering programmes by working with key
local, national and international groups. They also work
with more developed SAR organisations, providing
training, equipment and consultancy. This overseas work
is funded by income donated specifically for international
programmes, and by profits from sales of consultancy,
equipment and training to SAR organisations in developed
countries. Programmes ranging from delivering lifeguard
training and swim survival training to selling former RNLI
lifeboats and providing SAR consultancy have already
been conducted in Bangladesh, Cameroon, Senegal,
India, Brazil, China, Canada and St Lucia.
*Figures for drowning are, at best, estimates: the statistical base
is very poor. The percentage lost in waters which may be seen as
within the IMRF’s remit is also very uncertain. But, whatever the
figure is, it is disgracefully large. (Ed.)
(pictures courtesy of the RNLI / Mike Lavis)
Bangladesh has one of the highest drowning rates in the
world: around 18,000 Bangladeshi children drown each
year. But hundreds of lives could be saved there every
year now that the country’s first lifesaving club has been
set up with the help of the RNLI.
As reported in LIFE LINE in April, RNLI lifeguard trainers
have delivered a comprehensive lifeguard training
programme to 15 Bangladeshi volunteers, and a ‘train the
trainer’ course, so that the volunteers can go on to teach
the skills they have learned to others. They are already
using their newly-acquired skills to run the lifesaving club.
And within days of completing their RNLI training they had
saved their first life.
In August 2012, lifesaving representatives from Senegal,
Cameroon, Uganda, Bangladesh, India, Thailand,
Mauritius and the Philippines arrived in the UK for an
intensive two-week course, learning vital skills with the
RNLI to help develop their lifesaving organisations and
save more lives from drowning.
The ‘Future Leaders in Lifesaving’ course was designed
to equip them with skills to run effective lifesaving services
in their home countries. They learnt how to manage and
develop their own organisations, covering subjects such
as causes of drowning, the role of a lifeguard, equipment
needed to run a lifesaving service, practical lifesaving
skills, risk assessments, writing training programmes, and
how to run safety education initiatives – all of this tailored
to help them apply it to their specific environments. They
were based at the RNLI College, where the charity’s
volunteer lifeboat crews and lifeguards train.
New and developing lifesaving organisations can struggle
to implement effective coastal drowning prevention
strategies due to limited training and resources. The RNLI
and the International Drowning Research Centre,
Bangladesh, have developed the International Beach
Lifeguard Instructor Manual, specifically designed for use
in areas where specialist equipment and facilities are
unavailable. The Manual provides a simple toolkit for
lifeguard trainers to refer to, and accompanies a basic
student manual and optional teaching aids. It was trialled
during the Future Leaders in Lifesaving course, and will be
generally available later this year.
To find out more about the RNLI’s international
development work, visit www.rnli.org/international.
LLIIFFEE LLIINNEE OOccttoobbeerr 22001122
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The NSRI is also a member of the
specialist Whale Disentanglement
Network; volunteers trained to free
whales that periodically get trapped
by ropes and buoys during the time
that they spend off the South African
coast from late winter through
summer.
On 18 July the Network received their
first call of the season, when the
fishing boat Biskop reported a whale
caught up off Cape Point.
The NSRI station in Simonstown
dispatched their rigid inflatable Eddie
Beaumont II to investigate, and the
crew was able to confirm that a 9
metre humpback, a young adult, was
indeed entangled in rope and three
flotation buoys.
Network experts with specialist
equipment were then taken offshore
by Simonstown’s Spirit of Safmarine
III. The whale’s movement was
severely restricted by the rope and,
although clearly uncomfortable, it was
“reasonably cooperative” as the team
cut it free. It then swam off strongly.
Saving lives on the world’s waters –
and not just human ones!
News from South Africa
South Africa’s National Sea Rescue
Institute (NSRI) has a proactive
educational arm called the
WaterWise Academy. They have six
instructors around the country who
tailor their lessons to help children
between the ages of 9 and 14 to
avoid trouble when they are in or near
water.
Since its inception in 2006 the
WaterWise Academy has taught over
200,000 under-privileged children, in
the safety of their classrooms, how to
avoid dangerous situations on the
beach, rivers and dams; what to do in
an emergency; who to call and how to
do bystander CPR.
The WaterWise Academy’s most
recent achievement is a video
explaining how to avoid rip currents,
which are the major cause of
drowning on South Africa’s east
coast.
The video and a graphic (see below)
teach children, and their parents,
what to look for and how to react
should they be caught in a rip.
You can watch the video by pasting
this url into your search engine:
https://vimeo.com/47435717.
News from Cape Verde and Gambia
IMRF Trustee Udo Fox and regional
coordinator Mohammed Drissi have
been assisting the IMO by
undertaking needs assessment
missions to St Vincent, Cape Verde,
in June, and Banjul, The Gambia, in
August.
The visits were made to strengthen
the relationships between the
Regional MRCC in Rabat, Morocco
(where Mohammed Drissi is Chef de
Bureau, SAR National) and the
Associated MRCCs in the North-
West African SAR Region; to identify
areas of assistance on SAR facility
management; and in preparation for
the second meeting of the Regional
SAR Committee, to be held 25-27
September.
Vessel Traffic Service Centre & MRCC
Mindelo, Cape Verde (above); and a
briefing at Bacau lifeboat station, The
Gambia (below)
As the assessors noted: “Improving
SAR capabilities and other maritime
services is foremost a matter of
capacity building at the management
and operational level, allowing
effective and efficient use to be made
of limited resources.”
As always, SAR people can help
each other: Morocco has generously
offered to host and run seminars on
SAR administration & management
and on search planning and mission
coordination for North & West African
regional colleagues in Agadir in
January.
LLIIFFEE LLIINNEE OOccttoobbeerr 22001122
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Loss of the Skagit
On 18 July the ferry Skagit capsized
in bad weather and subsequently
sank while on passage from Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania, to Zanzibar. She
had about 290 people aboard. Half of
them died. Her loss follows that of the
Spice Islander in the same waters in
September last year. More than 200
lives were lost in that disaster.
Once again it appears from the news
reports that unsafe operations were
responsible for the accident – an
unsuitable vessel, at sea in
conditions beyond her capability,
overcrowded and with a poorly
trained crew. Survivors are reported
to have said that they received no
emergency instructions, and that
there was only one exit from the
cabin, so that many passengers were
trapped below.
It can be said that the best way to
deal with the problem of mass rescue
operations is to avoid having to
conduct them at all. That is facile, of
course: accidents happen, no matter
how well prepared we are. But it is
also true to say that mass rescue
should not be considered in isolation.
Disasters like the loss of the Skagit
keep on happening, and they should
not. They are preventable.
While passenger shipping safety is
not a part of the IMRF’s remit, we
certainly support all the efforts being
made to improve it, whether at the
IMO as regards international shipping
or in the various fora in which
domestic shipping safety is being
addressed.
Mass Rescue Operations
Following our two successful Gothen-
burg conferences, in 2010 and earlier
this year, and the work done at the
World Maritime Rescue Congress in
2011, the IMRF’s mass rescue
operations project is moving on to its
next stages.
Our aims are to share experience and
initiatives so as to improve the
response to mass rescue incidents
wherever they may occur in the world.
Our objectives are to provide an
international focus on mass rescue at
or by sea, and a forum for discussion;
to identify specific problems which
would benefit from further research &
development; to identify potential
amendments to international
regulation and guidance; and to
compile and host a dynamic, web-
based library of practical data.
To these ends we will continue to
raise awareness – particularly of the
need to plan. We will draw on IMRF
Member expertise to build the library
of generic guidance, plans, and
standard operating procedures, and
to help audit progress. We will
conduct further conferences and
workshops. And we will report to the
IMO as appropriate.
There’s a lot to do!
Early work will be on how best to
handle mass rescue operations (and,
indeed, SAR generally) in ‘remote
areas’, where there are few, if any,
SAR facilities. We will be seeing if we
can improve the current guidance on
on-scene coordination. We will also
work with the IMO and others to
improve the ability of ships and other
units to recover people from survival
craft or from the water, beginning with
a review of the IMO’s Guide to
Recovery Techniques (which IMRF
Members drafted in the first instance.)
The JPO Vulpecula
Rescue
On 21 June the Liberian-flagged,
German-owned container ship JPO
Vulpecula rescued 27 migrants
whose boat had capsized in heavy
seas between Indonesia and
Australia. There had probably been
200 aboard when the accident
happened. 109 were saved in total:
four by another merchant ship, the
Cape Oceania; the rest by two
Australian border protection vessels.
After telephone distress calls were
received from the boat, an Australian
aircraft discovered her 110 miles
north of Christmas Island.
Responding to a mayday relay, JPO
Vulpecula was the first vessel to
arrive at the scene. “We did our best,”
said Capt Eric Bilango, “But the
weather was very, very rough.” Over
three gruelling hours the huge
container ship’s crew managed to pull
the 27 Afghan and Pakistani
survivors aboard.
“It is our duty,” said Capt Bilango.
LLIIFFEE LLIINNEE OOccttoobbeerr 22001122
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LLIIFFEE LLIINNEE
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 [email protected].
Let’s spread the word, for the benefit of all at risk on the world’s waters.
Bruce’s second day
in Scotland.
When he arrived at
the IMRF’s office in
Stonehaven the day
before, the sky had
been blue and the
winds light...
Welcome aboard!
organisations and guaranteed a level
of financial support for the three years
of the agreement.
Before this, support from Government
for the primary SAR service provided
by Coastguard was restricted to a
$50,000 contribution, plus a small level
of direct fuel cost recovery and some
funding through the National Lottery.
The agreement has provided just over
$2m per annum, and has just been
renegotiated for the next three years.
Having a level of guaranteed financial
support annually allows time to plan
and with planning comes efficiency; the
ability to get things done in a structured
way. The “user pays” argument put
forward to justify the release of tax paid
by boaties to support the rescue of
boaties proved effective. And the
national collaboration of all the SAR
organisations provided an incredibly
strong lobby group.
It’s great to be on board at the IMRF
and I look forward to working closely
with you all as we continue to find
ways of working together to reduce the
loss of life on the worlds waters.
News from Bulgaria
On 21 July the much-esteemed
CEO of BULSAR (the volunteer
Bulgarian search and rescue
organisation, and IMRF Member)
celebrated his 75th
birthday.
In a ceremony in the Varna Town
Hall, Mr Kiril Jordanov, the
Mayor, awarded Captain Nick
Guerchev an honorary plaque
celebrating this anniversary.
The plaque was inscribed ‘Dear
Capt Nick, please accept our best
wishes and "keep her steady as
she goes"; from the BULSAR
team’.
And all Capt Nick’s friends in the
IMRF join in that sentiment!
A word from the Chief Exec
IMRF’s new CEO, Bruce Reid, writes:
Sustainable funding for SAR is
an on-going challenge for all of
our member organisations as
purse strings tighten during these
tough economic times.
In my first submission to the newsletter, I
thought I’d pass on some knowledge
gained in my previous role heading
Coastguard in New Zealand, which may
provide some food for thought.
In simple terms, in 2007 Coastguard
New Zealand (CNZ) was struggling for
funding. Investment was required in
training for the volunteers and to
upgrade an ageing fleet. But most of the
money coming into the organisation was
contestable and not guaranteed.
A proposal was put to Government for
some of the fuel tax paid by pleasure
boaties to be made available to SAR
organisations. The tax paid amounted to
millions of dollars; but at the time it was
going into the roads fund. A change in
legislation was required.
Through lobbying by the SAR sector led
by New Zealand Search and Rescue,
strongly supported by CNZ , the change
in legislation was achieved and just over
$8m NZD per annum was released into
the sector. The funds were managed
through Service Level Agreements with
the Government and the individual SAR