LIFELINE December 2012 - English

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:

IMO reforms

News from Morocco, the Netherlands, the UK, China, Iceland and the South Pacific

Member Focus: Marine Rescue New South Wales, and ADES, Uruguay

The IMO Awards for Exceptional Bravery at Sea

and more!

DDeecceemmbbeerr

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

The future of SAR at the IMO?

We live in difficult times, financially, and all of us are having to make

savings. The UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) is no

exception. When the IMO Council met in early November, it considered

a range of reforms proposed by the IMO Secretariat, driven by the need

to make economies on the budget.

One of the reforms proposed is a re-structuring of the various technical Sub-Committees that advise the Maritime Safety

Committee and the Marine Environment Protection Committee – and part of that is the proposal that the Safety of

Navigation and the Radiocommunications and SAR (COMSAR) Sub-Committees should be merged. To avoid an overload

of work, the IMO Secretariat suggested dealing with SAR separately, in a working group meeting only once every two

years. The Council has asked the Committees to comment.

While agreeing the need for reforms, the IMRF is opposed to this particular idea. The link between SAR and

communications is a vital one (literally), both as regards distress alerting and SAR response: the two subjects should

continue to be considered together at the IMO. Similarly, with nearly half the IMO Member States yet to ratify the Maritime

SAR Convention, and nearly two thirds yet to provide any details of their SAR resources – and with known gaps in the

SAR system leading to many, many deaths each year – the IMRF firmly believes that there is a great deal of work for the

IMO still to do. The focus on SAR should be clearly maintained.

IMO Member States overwhelmingly agree. When the Maritime Safety Committee discussed the reform proposals on 30

November, no-one supported the idea of dealing with SAR separately and biennially, and many States spoke against it.

The IMO Secretariat will now revise its plan; and the Committee will consider it again when it next meets in June.

The question of workload remains. The IMRF has suggested to the Committee that the SAR working group jointly run by

the IMO and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) must be preserved. The link it provides with ICAO is very

important, for ICAO and IMO are jointly responsible for the IAMSAR Manual upon which the global SAR system is based;

and the group has proved itself highly effective: it can provide real support to the new Sub-Committee.

The debate continues! And the IMRF will continue to play its part in it. It’s essential to lifesaving that we should.

LLIIFFEE LLIINNEE DDeecceemmbbeerr 22001122

www.international-maritime-rescue.org page 2

Editorial

Welcome to the December edition of your newsletter: a

pretty full edition, as the Contents list shows.

And yet there is much more to tell you about – look out

for our February edition, which, among much else, will

include articles on our Rescue Boat Guidelines and

Education projects; this year’s bravery awards

presented by the Association for Rescue at Sea; and a

number of developments at the International Maritime

Organization, including the IMO’s ongoing reviews of

the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System, and of

passenger ship safety after the Costa Concordia

disaster. I’m sorry we couldn’t fit all this into this edition

– but at least we can promise you things to look forward

to in the New Year!

Please do not just sit back and wait for February’s LIFE

LINE, though. If you have a story to tell your

international SAR colleagues, then let us have it. We

can publish it in LIFE LINE and on our websites too: see

the article on page 11. And remember: a picture is worth

a thousand words, so let’s have your photos as well...

Back to this edition. I hope we have something for

everyone. As usual there is SAR news from around the

world, including IMRF activities in South America,

Europe and North Africa. There are our usual columns,

too: ‘SAR Matters’, and the new one, ‘Member Focus’.

Please feel free to contribute to these. ‘SAR Matters’ is

a discussion column – in this edition it considers how

distress alerting might be improved, particularly in the

developing world. Is there something you would like to

discuss? Or would you like to contribute to one of our

past discussion threads? Well; you’re welcome!

‘Member Focus’ is part of the IMRF’s sharing of

information. Learning a little about your colleagues’

problems and how they seek to overcome them can be

a help when you look at your own. These are duplex

communications, though! If your organisation hasn’t

figured in ‘Member Focus’ yet, you know what to do!

On page 1 of this edition we highlight too the re-

structuring process under way at the IMO. The IMRF

has consultative status at the IMO: we represent the

world’s maritime SAR organisations (our Members)

there. As the initial reform proposals seemed to ‘down-

grade’ SAR a little, perhaps under the impression that

SAR is all sorted out – an impression which the IMRF

would argue is an erroneous one! – we will be playing a

full part in the debate, on your behalf.

So: lots to read about and contribute

to. I hope you enjoy doing so.

And let me close by wishing you all

the very best for the New Year.

Dave Jardine-Smith

[email protected]

Contents

The Future of SAR at the IMO ................... 1

Editorial ................................. 2

Dates for the Diary ................................. 2

News from the South Pacific ................... 3

Be a Blue Water Survivor ................... 3

ADES, Uruguay ................................. 4

Latin-American Marine Rescue Meeting .... 4

Marine Rescue New South Wales .... 5

SAR Matters ................................. 6

European Regional Development Meeting .... 7

News from Morocco ................................. 7

IMO Awards for Exceptional Bravery .... 8

News from China ................................. 8

From Fax to Facebook ................................. 9

An OSC SAR vessel ................................. 10

Miracle on the Yangtze ................................. 10

SAR Europe ................................. 11

IMRF Web News ................................. 11

SAR and the Weather ................................. 11

Mass Rescue ................................. 11

The Ultimate Float Test ................................. 12

Honours for our Patron ................................. 12

Send us your news & pictures ................... 12

Dates for the Diary

COMSAR 17 21-25 January 2013

The 17th session of the IMO’s Radiocommunications and Search and Rescue Sub-Committee. For details, please contact [email protected]

IQPC’s SAR Europe 19-21 March 2013

A major SAR conference in Portsmouth, England, preceded by a mass rescue operations focus day run in association with the IMRF. For details, see page 11 and www.searchandrescueeurope.com

Exercise Black Swan 1-5 April 2013

A major live mass rescue operations exercise coordinated by the United States Coast Guard. More details in due course.

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]



Rhapsody of the Seas docks in Port

Moresby, Papua New Guinea

The Secretariat of the Pacific

Community (www.spc.int) publish a

newsletter, Pacific Maritime Watch,

which makes very interesting reading.

A recent edition addressed the

problem of increasing cruise traffic, in

ever larger ships. Avnita Goundar of

the SPC writes:

“While Pacific Island governments

clearly benefit from the cruise industry

as millions of dollars get injected into

national economies, a trend that is

worrying authorities is an increase in

the size of ships that are calling at

small Pacific Island ports. Bigger ships

come with bigger risks.

“The Pacific is one of the top ten

destinations for cruise ship

passengers. New Caledonia, Vanuatu,

Fiji and French Polynesia are popular

destinations. Samoa, American

Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga and

Papua New Guinea have also

experienced a surge in cruise ship

visits.

“Pacific Island countries have SAR

plans that guide them in the event of a

maritime disaster. But for a disaster

on the scale of Costa Concordia,

these plans may not work.

“Saving lives at sea can be a costly

mission for SAR authorities, especially

those in the Pacific Islands, where

remoteness is often a major factor.

“With the increase in the number of

big cruise ship visits to the region,

SAR authorities now have to be

prepared for potential mass rescue

operations that may exceed their

capacity. Yet, with the exception of

New Caledonia, none of the Pacific

Island countries has a mass rescue

operation plan in place.

“SPC is helping PICTs to take stock of

this growing industry and is supporting

the development of appropriate

disaster response plans.”

News from the South Pacific

An Action Plan to address concerns

about the safety of domestic ferries

in the Pacific Island Countries and

Territories (PICTs) has been

adopted by a forum on the subject,

organised by the IMO and held in

Suva, Fiji, 30 October to 2

November.

Recent losses of domestic ferries

worldwide, including the sinking of

the Rabaul Queen in Papua New

Guinea in February 2012, have

increased awareness of the need for

a more holistic approach to domestic

ferry safety. The Pacific Forum

provided an opportunity for PICTs,

development partners, organisations

such as Interferry (who, like the

IMRF, hold consultative status at the

IMO) and the maritime industry as a

whole, to collaborate. The intention

now is to develop regional support to

address specific national solutions.

The Pacific Forum focused on safety

programmes, ship-specific concerns,

leg is la t ive, regulatory and

compl iance mat ters , seafarer

training and certification, operational

issues, safety awareness, and SAR.

The goal was to identify outcomes

that can be put into practice by

national Maritime Administrations

and the maritime industry, resulting

in safer ferry operations throughout

the region.

Through the Action Plan, participants

in the Forum hope to sensitise the

authorities in the region to the need

for urgent measures to be taken to

address their core concerns.

The Pacific Forum followed a

successful Regional Forum on

Domestic Ferry Safety held in Bali in

December 2011. It was organized by

the Secretariat of the Pacific

Community and the IMO under its

Integrated Technical Cooperation

Programme, and was attended by 45

participants: administrators and

pol icy makers, sh ipowners,

operators and maritime training

institutions. Fifteen countries from

the Pacific Islands region were

represented.

Be a Blue Water Survivor

We are grateful to SPC for permission to

quote from another article in Pacific

Maritime Watch.

Richard Roberts and Mark Morin of

the United States Coast Guard were

speaking at a forum in Majuro, in the

Marshall Islands, as part of continued

efforts to improve SAR response and

communications in the region. Their

main point was that those heading out

into ‘blue water’ have to be prepared.

“You’ve got to think of all the

contingencies,” Roberts said: “What’s

the most important safety device on a

boat?”

“A radio,” came one answer. “A cell

phone,” came another. But the best

piece of equipment of all for islanders

is, according to Roberts, a PFD (a

personal flotation device such as a

lifejacket).

If it can be afforded, the next most

important piece of equipment is an

EPIRB. The Coast Guard’s work

would be a lot easier if every boat

heading out to sea had a properly

registered EPIRB aboard, improving

distress alerting, and taking the

‘search’ out of SAR.

The two men stressed the amount of

time it takes to get a USCG C-130 to

the Marshalls from Hawaii to conduct

a search. “We have four C-130s for

SAR,” Morin said. “This plane takes

about 8 hours to fly to Majuro, but by

the time the request comes in and the

case is briefed, it may take much

longer. The crew will also need to rest

for 10 hours after arrival before they

can fly again.”

Once a boat is known to be missing,

there needs to be a dedicated local

search and detective work done. It

helps the USCG if it is provided with

as much information about the missing

boat and its crew as possible.

“And whatever you do,” said Cdr

Morin, “Don’t leave the boat. If the

boat sinks, don’t leave the debris. Find

something to hang on to, like a cooler

or the gas tank.

“I’ll say it again: don’t leave the boat!”

http://www.imo.org/OurWork/TechnicalCooperation/TCActivities/Documents/Action%20Plan%20Pacific%20Forum%20on%20Domestic%20Ship%20Safety_FINAL.pdf



Responding to several tragedies in

Uruguayan waters which occurred

during the years 1954 and 1955, a

group of citizens decided to found a

voluntary rescue institution to provide

cover 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,

with equipment and trained crews

suited to the task. The main aim was to

respond to calls for help in the shortest

possible time.

The new organisation’s structure was

modelled on the world’s first maritime

lifesaving institution, the Royal National

Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in the British

Isles. The relationship between ADES

and the RNLI has remained a

permanent and important one, based

on friendship and reciprocity.

With the support of important figures in

Uruguayan national life, in an act of

affirmation and in a truly humanitarian

spirit, the Honorary Association for

Maritime and River Rescue was

founded on July 23, 1955.

In May 1956 ADES obtained legal

status and a year later, using funds

from corporate donations and a public

collection, the association purchased

its first rescue unit, the ADES 1.

Since that time there has been

continuous renewal of the fleet with

more modern vessels equipped with

the latest rescue technology. ADES

has grown and developed

appropriately, and currently has five

bases which, together, provide all-

weather rescue boat cover along

the national waterfront.

For further information please visit

www.ades.org.uy and/or www.facebook.com/ADES.UY

2nd Latin-American Marine Rescue

Meeting

IMRF Trustees and project managers

were present at a meeting of Latin-

Amer ican SAR organisat ions

organised by ADES in Montevideo,

Uruguay, 30 October to 3 November.

(See the South America meetings

page on the IMRF website.)

Attendees discussed fundraising for

SAR, and water safety education

programmes, designed to remove the

need for SAR by preventing the

acc ident in the f i rs t p lace .

International experience was shared

in presentations and round-table

discussions.

The recumbent fishwife above is our

Membership Secretary, Ann Laing, as

Rory, one of the characters in Scotland’s

Maritime Rescue Institute’s children’s

water safety education programme

The meeting also discussed mass

rescue operations (MRO) in some

depth, with presentations from a

number of different response

organisations, and a discursive

tabletop exercise led by the IMRF’s

MRO project manager, David Jardine-

Smith.

The Latin-American meeting ended

with a nautical exercise and a visit to

the ADES rescue boat station at

Punta del Este.

Member Focus: ADES

Asociación Honoraria de Salvamentos Marítimos y Fluviales

Sometimes the sea strikes at the

rescuers too. A severe storm struck

Montevideo on 19 September 2012:

ADES 16’s mooring broke and she

was blown ashore on the Rambla,

the major avenue that runs along the

city’s foreshore.

Although severe damage was

done to her propellers, her

strength preserved her and

she was recovered by crane.

This operation caused major

traffic jams on the Rambla –

and ADES used a TV ad to

thank everyone involved!

Repairs have been promised

free of charge.



Member Focus: Marine Rescue

New South Wales

Stacey Tannos, Commissioner, Marine Rescue NSW, writes:

Marine Rescue New South Wales is

the newest emergency service

operating in the oldest and most

populous state in Australia,

providing a vital safety net for our

large boating community.

As an island nation, Australia’s

location, geography and predominantly coastal settlement

make shipping trade an essential contributor to our

economy and recreational boating a popular pastime. In

NSW alone there are more than 221,000 registered

recreational boats, with this number predicted to reach up

to 350,000 over the next decade and a half.

Marine Rescue NSW (see www.marinerescuensw.com.au)

has more than 3100 volunteer members, based in 45 units

along the State’s 2,137 kilometre coastline. New units are

also planned for inland waterways.

Our volunteers provide an emergency SAR response,

monitor marine radio communications and promote boating

safety through a range of education courses and activities.

Boaters are encouraged to contact their nearest Marine

Rescue unit to ‘Log On’ by marine radio or phone when

they are heading out on the water and to ‘Log Off’ when

they return. This means that a search can be swiftly

mounted if they are overdue and cannot be contacted.

In 2011/2012, our volunteers were tasked by the State’s

water police authorities to respond to 459 emergency

incidents. They also assisted in another 1,766 other

incidents, logged more than 220,000 radio calls, logged on

more than 49,000 boaters and tracked almost 7,000

vessels travelling between ports along the coastline.

While we rely heavily on State Government funding

support, we are not a Government agency but an

independent community-focused organisation established

as a company limited by guarantee. The organisation is

governed by a nine-member Board of Directors elected by

the members: six by volunteers in each of our operational

regions and three by the overall membership. The

Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner are supported by

a small HQ staff focused on operations, vessels, training,

IT, communications, administration and volunteer support.

The organisation was established in July 2009 and officially

began operations on New Year’s Day 2010, backed by our

volunteers’ decades of experience and skill. MRNSW

brings together members from three former marine rescue

organisations that had long served the NSW community

with distinction: the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard

Association, Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol, and Volunteer

Rescue Association’s marine fleet.

While these organisations had co-existed for many years, a

wide - rang ing rev iew commiss ioned by the NSW

Government concluded that membership cost, operations

and training, as well as vessel and equipment

replacement, was overtaking the organisations’ ability to

recruit and adequately fund-raise. In order to meet the

challenges of ballooning costs and of volunteer

recruitment and retention, the report recommended the

establishment of a single marine rescue service and

additional funding to assist with its establishment.

The Government agreed to provide seed funding of $3

million, an annual grant and an ongoing funding stream

through the introduction of a levy on each recreational

boat licence and registration, to be channelled directly to

MRNSW. A new name, uniform and livery helped create

the new face of marine rescue in this State.

Alongside our operational duties, the organisation’s first

three years have been marked by the start-up phase

challenges of amalgamating the three predecessor

services’ assets and members, introducing new and

upgraded vessels, equipment and training, and

developing a new suite of corporate governance

instruments, policies and operating and administrative

procedures. This work has gone hand-in-hand with efforts

to foster a forward-looking, positive organisational culture.

A Government funding advance has assisted with the

modernisation of our fleet of 73 rescue vessels, providing

up-to-date, safe and reliable equipment. In the past year

14 new and refurbished rescue vessels have been

delivered, at a total cost of $2.5 million. Older vessels are

being phased out in favour of new, smaller, more

manoeuvrable and versatile vessels designed to operate

in local coastal conditions. The new vessels are fitted with

state-of-the-art navigation, electronics, communication,

night vision and first aid equipment, including lifesaving

automatic defibrillators and oxygen therapy.

The process of creating a new entity by drawing on the

strengths of three separate services has highlighted the

difficulties of generational and structural change but also

the rewards that can be gained from a group of people

committed to a common purpose. The tireless work,

commitment to public service and marine skill and

experience of our volunteers is the base on which this

strong organisation has been built to provide a world-

class rescue service. And this is an achievement of which

everyone who has played a role in this fledgling service

can be justifiably proud.



SAR Matters This column provides a forum for LIFE LINE readers

worldwide to contribute to debate on any relevant SAR

issue. You can join in, or propose new items for discussion,

by emailing [email protected].

Or you can join the discussion on our SAR Matters Blog,

online at www.international-maritime-rescue.org.

Have a look at previous discussions on the website too, in

the LIFE LINE archive.

In this edition we look at alerting methods, and ask in

particular how accident alerting can be improved in the

developing world.

Do you remember all the items in the list of internationally-

recognised maritime distress signals? The spoken word

‘Mayday’ by radio, of course; signals transmitted by EPIRBs

(emergency position-indicating radio beacons); and “slowly

and repeatedly raising and lowering the arms outstretched

to each side”. There’s ‘SOS’ by Morse, and there are SAR

transponders – and then there are the rather more obscure

ones: “a signal consisting of a square flag having above or

below it a ball or anything resembling a ball”, for example;

and “flames on the vessel (as from a burning tar barrel...)”.

Also in the list are the pyrotechnics – parachute flares,

handheld flares, orange smokes. Red flares, at least, are

very well-known visual distress signals; which is more than

can be said for some of the others! The trouble with flares,

however, is that they are expensive to buy; they have a

limited ‘shelf life’ – and they are potentially dangerous,

which creates difficulties of transportation, storage and use.

Also (and in common with all other visual signals) they

need reasonably good visibility in order to be seen, and

they also need an observer looking the right way...

Two questions. Should we really still be relying on fireworks

(and inherently dangerous fireworks at that) to raise the

alarm in the 21st century? And even if we should, are these

distress signals – and others in the internationally-

recognised list – really the best we can do for the people at

sea who need them most; artisanal fishermen, for example,

in the developing world? It is among such groups, after all,

that the appalling annual drowning figures which the IMRF

is seeking to address are at their worst.

The best way to save life at sea is to minimise the risk to it.

A seaworthy vessel, good equipment, and training and

experience are ‘life-savers’. The IMRF supports every effort

to prevent accidents happening at sea and to better equip

seafarers of all kinds so that, faced with an emergency,

they can deal with it without needing outside help.

But sometimes, of course, such help is needed. That is why

IMRF Members do SAR. However, to get help, you have to

be able to let people know that you need it.

If you can afford radios, satellite communications, beacons

or transponders as envisaged in the Global Maritime

Distress and Safety System (GMDSS), that’s fine. Visual

distress signals still have

their place, if only to assist

SAR units in the final stages

of location. But what if you

can’t afford such things?

As an example, let ’s take

the South Pacific. “Low

cost , ava i lab i l i t y and

usability are key out here,”

says Bruce Tweed of the

Secretariat of the Pacific

Community, “Especially with

local ferries, most of which are small wooden vessels

(15m and under) operated by island councils and

churches to meet a specific demand. A few years back,

for example, an organization designed a compact sail rig

for subsistence fishing vessels to carry as alternate

propulsion, but as it was superfluous equipment that took

up space, it wasn’t carried for long.”

That’s understandable. When you’re at subsistence level

you can’t afford ‘luxuries’ like marine radios, or flares (or

modern variants such as ‘laser flares’).

“Alternatives such as radar reflectors (using cans &

sticks), reflectors (old CDs), and even large brightly

coloured cloth are promoted,” says Bruce, “Along with trip

reporting: reliable, consistent trip reporting and universal

carriage, and registration, of EPIRBs would greatly

improve the response to emergencies.” The expense of

providing EPIRBs is an obvious challenge, as are the

technical issues of approval and certification.

Another way forward – and one which will require a good

deal of careful thought and some technical development –

is to stop thinking about emergency alerting as a stand-

alone communications issue. Instead, we should think

about adapting communications systems already being

used for non-emergency purposes.

Cellphones, or mobiles, have spread around the world

like wildfire. They have become common in many places

which never had landline systems. They are often to be

found in the pockets of people who cannot afford to

purchase marine radios, or beacons, or flares – because

they are of day-to-day use to their owner.

Can we not build on that utility? Current cellphones are

not usually designed for marine use, and coverage out at

sea may be poor or (especially further from land) non-

existent. But the first issue can be addressed, even if only

with a plastic bag; and many phones are already using

satellite signals; for position-fixing, for example. Distress

alerting by satellite – using the phone as an EPIRB – is at

least possible. And if a fisherman uses a cellphone

ashore, he will use one at sea.

Preventing accidents is obviously important. So is

effective search and rescue. But we also need to ensure

that, if help is needed, it can be called for effectively and

efficiently – and by as many seafarers as possible, not

just those who can afford the ‘luxuries’.



income streams, including

support ‘in kind’, should be

identified, and we should look at

increasing productivity.

Staff should be encouraged to

be more cost-minded and

business-focussed, without

losing the SAR ‘culture’.

Knowledge exchange with other

IMRF Members should be

increased, and business plans

and strategies reviewed to

ensure that activity is aligned.

Specialist knowledge and skills

may be available within the

volunteer workforce.

The meeting also made

recommendations for the

IMRF. The European Crew

Exchange Project should be

continued, and the Education

and Prevention Project

advanced with urgency. The

IMRF should facilitate a

seminar focussing solely on

fundrais ing. The IMO’s

possible downgrading of its

consideration of SAR (see page

1) would provide opportunities for

the IMRF, which should

strengthen its branding

accordingly. The Rescue Boat

Guidelines will help make our

presence felt: the project

progresses and the results will

be of use to all. Finally, there are

cost savings to be made through

knowledge exchange and the

sharing of information.

Presentations given on the

recent Crew Exchange Project

and the successful VOMARE

and VOBASE projects in the

Eastern Baltic are well worth

reviewing. The exchange has

proved a great success, with

planning underway to run again

in 2013. And the Baltic projects

are an excellent case study in

collaboration between developed

and developing countries.

A full summary of the meeting

and copies of the presentations

can be viewed in the Members’

area of the IMRF website:

www.international-maritime-

rescue.org

European Regional Development

Meeting

In October representatives of

maritime SAR organisations from

the European region converged on

Iceland to participate in the biennial

ICESAR Rescue Conference,

which coincided this year with the

IMRF’s Regional Development

Meeting. The Rescue Conference

was a great success, with almost

600 people attending. The next,

on 17-19 October 2014, should be

in everyone’s diary.

The annual IMRF Regional

Meeting was hosted by ICESAR on

the training vessel Sæbjörg. The

meeting, chaired by Remmi

Pedersen, was a combination of

workshops and presentations. The

group used the workshop time to

review the challenges they face in

the current economic climate; what

Members are doing in response;

and what the IMRF can do to help.

Most Members reported that

support remains good, despite the

signs of a tightening economy.

Decision-making for commercial

sponsorship is slower, and

amounts are reduced in many

cases. There has been some

reduction in support from individual

volunteers and donors too, and

funding for capital projects is

becoming more difficult to find. On

the other hand, government

reductions are causing some

increase in demand for voluntary

organisations.

In response to the economic crisis,

targeted and better-researched

requests for support and

sponsorship need to be made to

potential commercial and private

supporters. New and alternative

News from Morocco

A very successful live SAR exercise, ‘RIF

2012’, was held in M’diq in Morocco in early

October. The international event was

organised by IMRF’s regional coordinator,

Mohammed Drissi, and was observed by

delegates from Guinea-Bissau, Senegal,

The Gambia, Mauretania, and Cape Verde.

The international delegates also attended a

northwest African regional SAR committee

meeting to discuss work to improve SAR

provision in their respective countries.

Moroccan emergency responders and the crew of

a Spanish rescue vessel land a casualty (above);

and the international observers watch the

exercise (below)

IMRF Trustee Hamish McDonald and

Secretary David Jardine-Smith were among

the speakers at a seminar which preceded

the exercise. Hamish spoke on the need for

the provision of regionally relevant and

sustainable operational support and training

programmes, and David gave a briefing on

the IMRF’s mass rescue operations project.

The regional SAR Committee elected

Mohammed Drissi as its chairman for the

next two years, and agreed to develop a

work plan identifying the different issues to

be considered in order to complete the

Regional SAR Plan.

With the collaboration and support of the

IMRF and the IMO, two training sessions on

SAR management and coordination will take

place in Agadir early in 2013, with relevant

personnel attending from each of the

countries in the northwest African region.



IMO Awards for Exceptional Bravery

On 26 November, at a ceremony in the IMO Headquarters in London,

the 2012 Awards for Exceptional Bravery at Sea were presented to

rescue crews from Canada and Chile.

The Canadian rescue was reported in the December 2011 edition of

LIFE LINE. SAR Technicians Sergeant Janick Gilbert, Master

Corporal Max Lahaye-Lemay and Master Corporal Marco

Journeyman of the Royal Canadian Air Force were nominated for

saving the lives of two Inuit hunters in October 2011, during an

operation lasting five hours. The hunters were stranded in an open

boat in icy waters near Igloolik, Nunavut, in freezing temperatures,

strong winds and heavy

swells.

Sgt Gilbert died during

the rescue. Together

with his colleagues, his

widow and his mother

accepted his award, to a

standing ovation in the

IMO’s packed plenary

hall.

César Flores Flores, of the Chilean Navy aerial detachment at Puerto

Montt, received his award for his role as rescue swimmer in the

rescue of the crew of the launch Rosita V, aground and washed by

breaking seas at Locos Islet, in extremely dangerous conditions.

Able Seaman Flores rescued seven survivors, injured and suffering

from hypothermia. As he began raising the

last one to the helicopter, a wave caused the

vessel to lurch and the winch cable became

entangled with the HF antenna and the signal

mast, endangering both the swimmer and the

aircraft. But Flores was able to disentangle

the cable and bring the last survivor up safely.

In his acceptance speech he modestly

stressed that he was only part of a much

wider SAR team.

Among other nominees to be honoured were Attie Gunter, Leon

Pretorius and Quentin Diener of South Africa’s National Sea Rescue

Institute (seen below at the IMO with, right, IMRF Chairman Michael Vlasto

and NSRI’s Rob Wilson). The

crew of the 5.5m RIB Queenie

Paine received Certificates of

Commendation for their rescue

of the four crew of the yacht

Gulliver in gale force conditions

and darkness in June 2011.

The rescue was reported in our

August 2011 edition.

The IMO are now seeking

nominations for the 2013

Awards. Rescues taking place

between 1 March 2012 and 28 February 2013 will be considered.

Nominations must reach the IMO by 15 April 2013. If you would like

more details, please contact David Jardine-Smith of the IMRF

Secretariat: [email protected].

News from China

The IMRF had the pleasure of nominating two

officers of China Rescue and Salvage for the

IMO Bravery Awards. Both are pilots in the

Rescue Flying Service of the Chinese Ministry

of Transport, and both received Letters of

Commendation from the IMO.

Captain Yang Junxing is a helicopter pilot of

considerable experience: he is also an

instructor. At 0500 on 4 December 2011, he

was informed that a container ship, the

Jinshanling, from Zhejiang Province, had sunk

in the Pingtan sea area of Fujian Province.

There were 22 crew aboard.

Capt Yang decided to take helicopter B-7106

from Fuzhou base and ordered helicopter B-

7310, based in Xiamen, to be ready to assist.

When flying conditions allowed, B-7106 left

Fuzhou for the distress scene. While B-7106

was on the way, B-7310 also took off.

On scene, the crews found Force 7 winds and

3 metre waves, with containers floating on the

sea. After a careful search, the crew of B-7106

crew found a drowning seaman. Capt Yang

skilfully positioned the helicopter, while

winchman Zhu Qiangsong got ready to deploy

rescue swimmer Ren Jie.

Lowered to the sea surface, Ren Jie grasped

the man and he was winched aboard. After B-

7310 had also arrived, the two helicopters,

working together, successfully rescued

another two distressed crewmen.

Captain Yu Dongshi is another very

experienced rescue helicopter pilot, with 63

lives saved to his credit. On 11 March 2011 his

helicopter was called to the assistance of three

crewmen from the vessel Yin Zhi, who had

suffered serious carbon monoxide poisoning.

An hour’s flight from Gaodong, rescue

helicopter B-7328 found the weather

conditions on scene very bad, with high winds

and heavy seas making hovering very difficult.

However, Capt Yu was able to maintain

position while his crew conducted five lifts –

the three injured men and two escorts.

B-7328 landed its passengers at Gaodong,

where they were rushed to hospital. We are

happy to report that all three poisoned men

survived.



From Fax to Facebook

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s Tony Roddam writes

about how the RNLI is embracing multimedia.

The social media revolution is challenging organisations

worldwide. For SAR organisations it is arguably a force for

good, transforming how we work and opening a vivid

window into our world. But it is not without complexities.

SAR organisations have to cope with the human, legal,

and ethical challenges of operations becoming more

visible, as social media and video are used to record,

discuss and sometimes judge our actions.

But at the same time social media are finding a key role in

humanitarian activity: I was fascinated to hear at the

Rescue 2012 conference in Reykjavik how the Red Cross

and ICE-SAR are using Facebook and text messaging to

gauge the severity of incidents or warn people of danger.

This revolution has also thrown up innovative ways to

showcase what SAR organisations do. For a charity such

as the RNLI, relying on the generosity of the public, this is

vital. But turning the public relations potential of social

media into a useful reality has been far from simple.

The RNLI is 95% a volunteer organisation. Like many

organisations pondering this revolution, the initial

response was ‘How do we control this?’ But no-one can

‘control’ social media. Nor can the clock be wound back:

the revolution’s here to stay. Better to embrace it and

make it work for you.

This realisation necessitated a sea-change in thinking at

all levels of the RNLI. Five years ago it started to become

clear that many of our volunteers were privately

embracing the freedom of new media, and talking openly

about the RNLI – mostly in ways we wanted but

occasionally not. And the world could suddenly see and

hear them talking. After much internal debate we

concluded that we had to start thinking in terms of guiding

our volunteers on how best to represent the RNLI. We

saw the new social media as a force for good.

This ‘light-touch’ approach became a key element of our

projects to equip all 236 lifeboat stations with video

cameras, as well as training volunteer press officers to

use our online News Centre (www.rnli.org/press). This

collects news stories, photos and videos from our crews

and makes them freely available to the news media and

the public. Our volunteers now produce around 4,000

news releases a year, and hundreds of photos and

videos, and they run thriving, informative and entertaining

Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and websites.

This liberal approach raised a few eyebrows from visiting

SAR organisations keen to explore how we manage the

process. Some are astonished that we simply let

volunteers post stories, branded with the RNLI’s logo,

direct to the web. But, given that we trust our volunteers to

launch expensive lifeboats into violent seas and take

responsibility for people’s lives, encouraging them to

operate online doesn’t seem too daring.

That is not to say we take this freedom lightly. The RNLI

must preserve its hard-won reputation and that message is

reinforced in training across the charity. We were aware

from the start that video could be of huge benefit but also

that it could be very risky if it showed us in a bad light.

In my view video and photos are the ‘killer apps’ for SAR

organisations, particularly when combined with dedicated

social media channels. Our business has everything a

journalist or the public could wish for – action, human

interest, technology, heroism, and, regrettably, tragedy.

We can bring SAR to life this way. By the end of 2013 all

RNLI lifeboat stations will be equipped with video

cameras; but this has not been straightforward.

There were few suitable ‘off-the-shelf’ cameras when we

started and our engineering team worked hard to

overcome the unholy mix of seawater and delicate digital

technology. The human side proved equally challenging.

One lifeboatman was adamant the camera fitted to his

lifeboat was transmitting secretly to HQ! But most crews

are now using cameras with enthusiasm.

And there have been valuable operational benefits too.

The cameras have been used to great effect in low-light

searches, and crews are increasingly contributing video of

their own mistakes, during exercises, for example, so that

our training department can educate newcomers and help

protect the lifeboat crews and lifeguards of the future.

We learned quickly that video alone was not enough – the

public and media need the wider story. So we reshaped

the training programme for our volunteer press officers.

We recognised the need for consistency across the RNLI,

and developed three key documents: Loud and Clear, a

factsheet issued every year; the Media Skills Handbook;

and our Guide to Social Media, which offers friendly

guidance on the benefits and risks of social media.

We train our volunteers to think about showing the world

what the RNLI does well – not showing people in distress,

or suffering, or in humiliating situations. We emphasise

courtesy, respect and dialogue: the keys to safe navigation

through the choppy waters of social media.

The results have been promising: the news media are

hungry for our pictures and our social media channels are

busy. The reward is a high level of awareness amongst

the British and Irish public. It has not been plain sailing

and it might be reassuring to hear that we are feeling our

way: sharing that learning will help us all. As revolutions

go, however, this one can be good for SAR.



wheelhouse. The modified Sea Axe

Bow – a successful design by Lex

Keuning from Delft University of

Technology – cuts through waves,

reducing vertical g-forces by 45%

and enabling top speeds of over 30

knots, while radically transforming

seaworthiness. In addition, retract-

able rear fins can be lowered for

more course stability, or raised to

give extra manoeuvrability.

In the wheelhouse, state-of-the-art

and fully-integrated electronics

permit real-time data exchange for

ship-to-shore communications (an

earlier version of this Ship

Information and Management

System is already proven by the

RNLI in the UK). Crew working

conditions have been considerably

enhanced by not only limiting the

“slamming” motion of the vessel, but

also by a host of ergonomic features,

such as spec ia l i sed cha i rs ,

c l imate control, improved visibility

and reduced vibration and noise

levels.

The vessel’s dimensions are

generous, giving extra space not

on ly on deck, where 125 people

can be accommodated, but also in

the engine room. This gives staff

bet ter access to machinery,

improving maintenance conditions

and effectiveness.

The launch of the first NH 1816

Class vessel is scheduled for the

third quarter of 2013. Following sea

trials, the KNRM will be offering NH

1816 Class lifeboats to other SAR

and coastguard services. They will

be constructed by Damen Shipyards

and its affiliates.

Find more information, film and

contacts on www.knrm.com.

An ‘OSC SAR vessel’

KNRM’s new lifeboat

The Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue

Institution – KNRM – enjoys a

reputation for excellence in maritime

search and rescue. It operates in one

of the world’s busiest locations, the

North Sea; and to be able to cover all

the emergency situations that arise

within its area of operations the

KNRM has a dense coastal coverage

of 44 lifeboat stations, all equipped

with fast, all-weather, self-righting

lifeboats.

The Institution’s response time and

service performance (average time to

rescue location) is one of the highest

in the world, and is achieved at a

relatively low cost.

More improvements are on the way.

The KNRM has announced the next

generation of fast all-weather

lifeboats: the NH 1816 Class.

Working with some of the best Dutch

marine experts, the Institution has

created the concept of an advanced

“on-scene coordination search and

rescue vessel”.

Innovations in hull design, ergo-

nomics, communications and navi-

gation systems, will give the NH 1816

Class superior capabilities to any

conventional lifeboat, say the KNRM.

Speed, range, efficiency, sea-

worthiness and safety are all aspects

that have been funda-

mentally improved in this

design, not to mention

significant upgrades in

crew comfort and ease of

maintenance.

The NH 1816 (named

after its sponsor, De

Noordhollandsche 1816)

is a self-righting, fast and

seaworthy monohull, with

alloy hull and composite

Miracle on the Yangtze

You would be forgiven for thinking

‘Not again!’ – but the ditched

passenger aircraft above is not quite

what she seems to be...

China's first large-scale search and

rescue exercise involving a civil

aircraft was held on 26 September in

the mouth of the Yangtze River off

Shanghai.

The drill was a reconstruction of

United States Airways Flight 1549’s

ditching in the Hudson River in 2009,

with 155 people on board. Flight

1549 lost power in both engines as

a result of striking a flock of birds

shortly after taking off from La

Guardia Airport, New York. A major –

and successful – rescue operation

followed.

A full-size model was placed in the

Yangtze River estuary to simulate a

similar accident. 140 passengers and

10 crew members were on board.

More than 20 vessels took part in the

exercise, along with four helicopters

and a maritime patrol aircraft.

The exercise was organized by the

Ministry of Transport and the

Shanghai Municipal Government,

and included emergency response,

evacuation of the aircraft, self-

rescue, maritime search and rescue,

medical services, fire-fighting, traffic

control, on-scene cordoning and

aftermath treatment.

The rescue itself was a race against

time, as the aircraft would ‘sink’ after

45 to 60 minutes. Like its New York

original, the Shanghai drill was a

great success: the rescue was

completed inside 45 minutes!



SAR Europe

The IMRF is supporting an

international SAR conference to be

held in Portsmouth, in the UK, on

19-21 March 2013: see www.sar-

europe.com/IMRF.

The conference will help answer the

international SAR community’s key

question of how to ensure that the

best lifesaving standards are

practiced while increasingly trying to

balance cost against required

capability.

This event will showcase the latest

operat ional exper iences and

pract ica l examples of SAR

techniques utilised across Europe. It

is also a unique opportunity to view

the latest technology and solutions

available to the SAR community.

Key presentations will include

Jonathan Heald, o f f icer

commanding the UK’s Aeronautical

Rescue Coordination Centre, on

European SAR cooperation and

integration; developing techniques

for maritime emergencies in and

around offshore wind farms and

renewable energy installations, by

Roly Mckie of the UK Coastguard;

and two o f the On Scene

Commanders from Oslo Police on

the 2011 Norwegian terrorist

attacks, sharing first-hand insight

into SAR activities on the day.

There will also be a ‘focus day’ led

by the IMRF on 19 March on

planning and improving mass

rescue operations.

Registrations are now open! For

more information about sessions

and the speaker line-up, visit the

website, download the brochure at

www.sar-europe.com / brochure,

email [email protected] or

phone +44 (0) 207 036 1300.

To register interest in attending the

event, please visit www.sar-

europe.com/reg.

IMRF Web News

Work continues on the IMRF website:

www.international-maritime-

rescue.org.

Bruce Reid and Wendy Webster of the

Secretariat have been working hard to

improve the look and user-friendliness

of the site, with a dynamic and exciting

selection of news and reports. Watch

out for new developments, including

project-specific pages!

Our sister site, run by the IMRF’s Asia

Pacific Regional Centre, is also a lively

place to visit. Have a look at

imrf.asia.com.

SAR and the weather

Antti Kokko is a master’s student

working in the Finnish Meteorological

Institute, doing research for the

Finnish Border Guard on SAR

operations caused by the weather.

Antti is investigating which weather

parameters cause most incidents; how

the quality of forecasts corresponds to

the amount of weather-related

accidents; the geographical and

temporal distributions, etc.

The final aim of this research is better

understanding of the effect of

hazardous weather on SAR in

Finland’s sea areas – but the research

will have general value too.

If you can help with statistics, please

contact Antti at [email protected].

Mass Rescue

The urgent need for further action to

prevent or respond to incidents at

sea involving large numbers of

people continues to be tragically

demonstrated.

The dreadful collision between the

Sea Smooth and the Lamma IV off

Hong Kong in October left 39 people

dead and 87 injured. Lamma IV’s

stern was torn open in the impact,

throwing scores of passengers into

the sea. The vessel's aft end flooded

within minutes, trapping passengers

in the submerged cabin.

The SAR response was rapid and

efficient – but what can be done for

people trapped in such horrific

circumstances? Prevention remains

key. But so does preparation, should

the worst happen.

The Singapore Maritime and Port

Authority conducted a live exercise,

FEREX Heron, in September. The

scenario involved a ferry colliding

with a tug: more than 350 personnel

from nine agencies participated.

Chief Executive Lam Yi Young said,

“FEREX Heron had three purposes –

to familiarise all parties in their roles

and responsibilities in the Ferry

Mishap Contingency Plan, in the

event of an accident during the

annual Kusu pilgrimage season; to

test agencies’ readiness in handling

mass casualty incidents; and to test

the involvement of our newly

upgraded Port Operations Control

Centre.”



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.

Honours for our Patron

Efthimios Mitropoulos, who retired as Secretary-General

of the International Maritime Organization at the end of

2011, and graciously agreed to become the IMRF’s

Patron at that time, has received two important honours.

The IMO is based in London, and Her Majesty the Queen

has recognised our patron’s long and outstanding service

to international maritime safety, security and protection of

the marine environment by appointing him an Honorary

Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of

Saint Michael and Saint George.

And Admiral Mitropoulos has also been honoured by his

own. During a ceremony at the IMO’s headquarters by the

Thames on 27 November, he became the latest recipient

of the IMO’s prestigious International Maritime Prize.

He joins a select body of

recipients of the Prize – a

group which includes the

IMRF. Then the International

Lifeboat Federation, we were

very pleased to be awarded

the honour in 1998 (the only

Non-Governmental Organis-

ation to be awarded it to

date); so we are all the more

pleased to welcome our

Patron to the club!

The Ultimate Float Test

Testing the seaworthiness of your rescue boat is

important, of course – but you can overdo it...

In early October 2009, a

general SAR exercise was

hosted by ICE-SAR rescue

teams in Grundafjörður,

Iceland. The Suðurnes team

headed for the exercise in

their Arun class boat, deciding

to tow their Atlantic-class

rigid-hull inflatable instead of

transporting it by road.

About halfway, off Faxaflói

bay, the Arun took a breaking

sea and the coxswain hurt his

head. After his crew had fixed

him up they discovered that the tow had parted. A search

was mounted – but the RIB had vanished.

996 days later she was found, off Norway. The picture

above shows her being lifted from the sea (a testament to

the strength of her towing eye, incidentally). She looks as

you might expect her to look after all that time.

But the second picture shows

what she looked like after

she’d been hosed down. The

sponson and the self-righting

bag had gone (and the

engines wouldn’t start!) but

she was in extraordinarily

good condition otherwise – a

real credit to her builders.

We don’t recommend that you

go quite this far when testing

your own boat, though!