LIFELINE August 2015 - 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 KCMG, IMO Secretary General Emeritus

Registered office: IMRF West Quay Road Poole BH15 1HZ United Kingdom Company Registration Number: 4852596 Charity Registration Number: 1100883

www.international-maritime-rescue.org

LIFE LINE

The Newsletter of the International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF)

News… Experience… Ideas… Information… Development…

In this issue:

reports on the World Maritime Rescue Congress and the IMRF’s Quadrennial General Meeting

a message from our new Chairman

news from China, Iran, the Mediterranean and the United Kingdom

an opportunity to become an Individual Supporter of the IMRF

and more!

August

2015

WORLD MARITIME RESCUE CONGRESS

Flying the flag! Our picture shows Congress, IMRF and DGzRS 150th Anniversary flags reflected in the windows of the

venue of the IMRF’s 2015 Congress and Quadrennial General Meeting in Bremerhaven in June. Reports inside!

LIFE LINE August 2015

www.international-maritime-rescue.org page 2

Editorial

Welcome to the latest edition of your newsletter.

A great deal has happened since we published our

last edition, just before the World Maritime

Rescue Congress began in Bremerhaven at the

beginning of June. As we promised then, this

edition contains as much as we can cram in about

the Congress and our Quadrennial General

Meeting and their results: see pages 3-6, 9, 10 & 11!

As you will read, there is a great deal of work for

the IMRF to do as we begin our new quadrennium,

and we have a dynamic new Board of Trustees to

direct us on our way: see page 6.

Let us pause a moment first, though, to salute old

and very good friends who retired from the Board

in Bremerhaven after many years of sterling

service to the IMRF and the cause of global SAR.

Below we picture the Board that was elected in

Shanghai in 2011, with some of their better halves.

From left to right, Hamish and Rene McDonald;

Jorge and Sylvia Diena and Udo Fox (Jorge and Udo

remain on the Board); our retiring Chairman,

Michael Vlasto (well: ‘retiring’ in one sense!);

Brooke and Jean Archbold; and Jiahui Song with

Betsy and Rolf Westerström.

Thank you, guys – on behalf of lifesavers the world

over and the people whose lives your hard work

has helped to save. Bon voyages, and stay in touch!

Now: the future beckons... We hope you will stay

in touch too, via the newsletter or the website or

in person. As the IMRF gathers way again on our

departure from Bremerhaven,

there will be much to tell you

about!

Dave Jardine-Smith

[email protected]

Contents

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

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

A message from our new Chairman ... 3

World Maritime Rescue Congress ... 4

Quadrennial General Meeting ... 6

Meet the new Board ............................... 6

SAR Matters ............................... 7

MOAS calls for more donations ... 8

McMurdo partner with IMRF ................. 9

Join us! ............................... 9

Mass rescue operations ................. 10

SAR planning software ................. 11

Pleasure boating in China ................. 11

UK P&I Club gives a helping hand … 12

Rescue stories sought ................. 12

Send us your news & pictures ... 12

Dates for the Diary

IMRF Regional Mass Rescue Operations Workshop

hosted by the Maritime and Port Authority,

Singapore 19-21 August 2015

For details, email [email protected]

United States Coast Guard Auxiliary National Conference

San Antonio, Texas 27-30 August 2015

For details, see http://cgauxa.org/nacon-2015.php

International Civil Aviation Organization / International

Maritime Organization Joint Working Group on SAR

Trenton, Ontario, Canada 14-18 September 2015

For details, contact [email protected]

European Life Boat Crew Exchange

26 September - 3 October 2015

For details, email [email protected]

European Regional Meeting 28-30 October 2015

Åland Islands For details, email [email protected]

Australia & New Zealand SAR Conference 4-15 May 2016

Jupiters Hotel, Gold Coast Details in due course

If you are planning a SAR event of international interest which you would

like to see listed here, please send the details to [email protected]



A message from the IMRF’s

new Chairman

to all the excellent Congress

speakers, and to the team of

‘blueshirts’ (from the IMRF) and

‘redjackets’ (from DGzRS), as well as

the technical team, who worked so

hard backstage to make it all happen.

But I think it is also my responsibility,

as your new Chairman, to raise a note

of caution.

The Congress was a particular

success, yes – but we must be aware

of the expectations it has given rise

to. It may have seemed to colleagues

who joined us in Bremerhaven that

the IMRF is a large, efficient and

effective organisation able to change

the world. This is not entirely true.

In fact the IMRF, at its centre, is a very

small organisation. Efficient and

effective, yes: certainly. But its core

team is small. The IMRF has been

punching well above its weight.

Human and financial resources are

extremely short.

If we want to change the world of

maritime SAR, to save more lives, we

– IMRF’s Members, and your Board –

should recognize that the whole

secretariat (the engine room of the

IMRF) has been permanently working

at a load rate of 100%, and

sometimes 100%-plus. Nobody

should expect that we can go on like

that. Ignoring overload will lead to

engine breakdown.

The Board which led us through the

last four years fully recognised this.

They developed a revised strategy that

Udo Fox writes:

It is an honour, and it gives me great

pleasure, to welcome you to this first

edition of the IMRF’s newsletter since

I was elected as the new Chairman of

the organisation’s Board of Trustees

at the Quadrennial General Meeting

in Bremerhaven in June.

You can read all about the QGM, and

about the World Maritime Rescue

Congress that preceded it, in the

following pages. Both events were a

great success, and helped my own

organisation, the German Maritime

SAR Service (DGzRS), to celebrate our

150th Anniversary in style.

Let me also say what a particular

honour it is to take over Michael

Vlasto’s place as Chairman of the

IMRF. Michael has worked tirelessly

for the organisation for many years,

and his are big shoes to fill! On his

watch the IMRF has gone from

strength to strength and is now well

known and respected at the highest

levels internationally.

Michael will be a hard act to follow,

but he and the outgoing Board have

left secure foundations and a clear

course ahead. Working with my

colleagues on the new Board of

Trustees, with the IMRF secretariat,

and – most of all – with our Members,

I hope to build on this success.

It was great to meet so many

Congress delegates in Bremerhaven,

and colleagues from so many IMRF

Member organisations represented

at the QGM too. There was a real buzz

of excitement – and I can speak for all

who attended in giving special thanks

enables the IMRF to continue to work

effectively, making a real difference,

and which improves our ability to

respond to the rapidly increasing

number of calls for our help.

Implementing that strategy success-

fully is now our core business.

But please let me be very clear. The

IMRF’s financial situation is tight. The

people we have are working at the

limit. To do more, we need more:

more people and more financial

resource. This is a hard fact, but a

simple one.

The Congress was great: the DGzRS

Chairman, Gerhard Harder, called it

“phenomenal” in his closing remarks,

and I agree with him! But that sort of

thing does not come cheap. Running

a Congress of that scale creates a

huge amount of work and a very

large financial burden.

We took a very clear decision at the

planning stage that we wanted the

Congress to be as inclusive as

possible. We kept delegate fees well

below commercial levels, for

example, and helped a lot of people

attend who could not otherwise do

so. We hoped to ‘break even’, but

could not do so in the end.

That was much less important than

making sure that the Congress

achieved its main aims, of course –

but it led to significant financial

losses for the IMRF. We now need to

recover and build up reserves.

We will do so. It is important that

everyone understands what is

needed, but we will progress.

I look forward to working with the

new Board and the secretariat – and

with you, our Members and

supporters – over the next four

years. Let us continue to improve

maritime SAR, worldwide.

To find out how you can support

IMRF development please visit the

“Support us” area of our web-page or

contact us through [email protected].



WORLD MARITIME

The IMRF’s third World Maritime

Rescue Congress was held in

Bremerhaven, Germany, 1-3 June,

hosted by the Deutsche Gesellschaft

zur Rettung Schiffbrüchiger – the

German Maritime Search and Rescue

Service (DGzRS). The Congress

coincided with the celebration of the

DGzRS’ 150th Anniversary, and with

the IMRF’s Quadrennial General

Meeting (see page 6).

Nearly 500 people attended the

Congress in all, 275 as delegates and

223 as crew of the rescue craft old

and new that gathered for the

occasion. 104 IMRF member and

other organisations were represented,

from some 40 countries around the

world. There were 70 speakers in all,

covering a very wide range of

maritime SAR subjects. And 45

organisations took part in an

International SAR Exhibition nearby.

Delegates were welcomed to

Bremerhaven by the city’s Mayor,

Melf Grantz; the DGzRS Chairman,

Gerhard Harder; and Enak Ferlemann,

Parliamentary State Secretary of the

German Federal Ministry of Transport

and Digital Infrastructure.

Opening the Congress, IMRF Chairman

Michael Vlasto highlighted how the

combination of advances in rescue

craft design, improved training

regimes and better communications

had reduced the overall risk to those

carrying out the often difficult and

dangerous work of rescuing those in

distress at sea. He also noted the

growing importance of prevention

and education strategies which had a

vital part to play in reducing the loss

of lives in the world’s waters.

Congratulating DGzRS on their 150th

Anniversary, IMO Secretary-General

Emeritus and IMRF Patron Efthimios

Mitropoulos remarked that, while SAR

practice and technology has changed

Hang out the flags! Rescue boats and

crowds gathered at Bremerhaven to

celebrate DGzRS’ 150th Anniversary;

preparing for the party in Bremen;

and scenes from the Congress

RESCUE CONGRESS

considerably in those 150 years, the

need for SAR services remains as vital

as ever. He highlighted the too

frequent loss of life in accidents on

ferries in domestic trades; the IMRF’s

mass rescue operations project,

which, he said, is a good example of

the positive action the Federation

can take to enhance safety through

the application of its special expertise

(see page 10); and the terrible and

ongoing loss of life among people

trying to cross the Mediterranean as

migrants and refugees.

Paul Boissier, Chief Executive Officer

of the UK & Ireland’s Royal National

Lifeboat Institution, and Martin

Xuereb of the Migrant Offshore Aid

Station (MOAS), also gave keynote

speeches.

Paul said that every SAR organisation

has to decide what it wants to

achieve, and reflect that ambition

honestly and openly in its vision

statement. It then needs to create a

strategy that will allow it to move in

the right direction, and a structure

that gives it the best possible chance

to deliver the strategy.

Martin described the situation faced

by SAR organisations responding to

the migrant and refugee crisis in the

Mediterranean, and the establish-

ment and work of his own charity as

part of that response (see page 8).

The Congress delegates also heard

from Bruce Reid, IMRF’s CEO, who

introduced brief reports by the

project leaders on the Federation’s

ongoing work on SAR development,

mass rescue operations, rescue boat

guidelines, and the crew exchange

boat. (Please see www.international-

maritime-rescue.org for details, and see

also page 10 as regards the MRO project.)

The main work of the Congress was

divided into three parallel work streams

(continued on page 5)

photo: Manfred Buttke



(continued from page 4)

under main headings of ‘SAR Organisation &

Management’, ‘SAR Coordination’ and ‘SAR Operations’,

each loosely divided into ‘workshops’. The opportunity to

discuss the wide-ranging subjects raised, and to network

generally, was enhanced by a programme that included

many breaks and social events.

We encourage you to join in the conversation! The full

Congress report and all the presentations may be

downloaded in pdf format from www.international-

maritime-rescue.org/index.php/homewmrc. As a taster,

here are the workshop titles and contents:

Prevention

o to significantly impact drowning worldwide, do we need

to look beyond just rescue organisations?

o the WaterWise Academy, South Africa

o risk identification and ‘black spot’ models

o Coastguard New Zealand’s Boating Education programme

Mass Rescue Operations

o the IMRF’s online MRO resource library

o unconventional solutions in improving MRO response

o operational prioritisation in MROs

o the Local Incident Coordinator function

o process-optimised communications

o the FIRST project: hoistable liferafts

o the Medical and Psychological Emergency Cell, France

Unmanned Systems

o unmanned aircraft and surface systems in SAR –

potential roles, benefits & limitations (3 presentations)

Development

o domestic ferry safety in the developing world

o the SAR response to ferry accidents (see also page 10)

o an appraisal of maritime SAR in Nigeria

o transforming a charity into a social business in Uganda

o restructuring a long-established SAR organisation

o developing a culture of innovation

o an analysis of maritime and riverine SAR services in Brazil

Databases

o NikooSAR – SAR management software package

o modelling maritime casualty investigation

o a study of deaths due to drowning in Africa

o Surtsey.org: open source projects, ideas and innovations

Decision-making

o research into decision-making in maritime SAR

o Vessel Triage: enhancing situational awareness

Funding

o is it possible to cut costs and deliver a better service?

o a case study of funding SAR support

o better use of modern mass communications

o the power of stories, pictures and social media

o a fundraising and budget allocation workshop

Special Cases

o international humanitarian law and SAR in conflict

zones (2 presentations)

o migration and loss of life at sea

o UNHCR’s perspective on the ‘mixed migration’ problem

Training

o the potential of simulation in complex incident training

(3 presentations)

o training and practice in high-speed navigation

o stress exposure training: ‘drills versus reality’

o training in low cost and low technology environments

o the IMRF European Region’s crew exchange project

o a resuscitation course for rescue craft crews

o an intuitive first-aid assistance application

Communications

o challenges & opportunities in the ‘SAR ecosystem’

o MEOSAR and 2nd generation emergency beacons

o a close scrutiny of the GMDSS

o SAR-related communication issues

o SAR and the Global Navigation Satellite System

o crisis communication management and social media

Organisational Culture

o building an effective organisational culture

o leadership and innovation in high-risk teams

o volunteers in rescue service organisations

o making safety a core cultural component

Casualty Care

o what happens during drowning and how this affects

resuscitation

o medical support by SAR crew: strategic considerations

o an integrated approach to casualty (patient) care

Other presentations

o ‘KNRM Helps’: an innovative mobile safety app

o responding to floods in low-income countries

o experience gained from a liferaft exercise

o the effects of Whole Body Vibration

o the response to major marine incidents in China

The Congress is over – but it’s still not too late to join in!

Visit www.international-maritime-rescue.org.



The IMRF’s Quadrennial General Meeting

A well-attended IMRF Quadrennial General Meeting

(QGM) took place on 3-4 June, in Bremerhaven, Germany,

after the close of the 2015 World Maritime Rescue

Congress. Michael Vlasto was in the chair.

In his report Michael noted the IMRF’s successes over the

last four years, including significant increases in

membership and improvements in communications and

our international reputation and presence; the

establishment of the Asia-Pacific Regional Centre (APRC);

and successful progress on IMRF projects – for example,

on SAR development in North and West Africa; Mass

Rescue Operations, the Rescue Boat Guidelines, and the

European Crew Exchange programme.

But Michael also spoke about the challenges the IMRF

faces. He pointed out that the IMRF’s ability to progress

an increasing number of opportunities for global SAR

development has been limited by the resources available

to us. CEO Bruce Reid supported this in making his

financial report: there had been significant organisational

change and progress over the quadrennium, but this came

at a cost. The focus is now on increasing IMRF income, to

enable us to do the work required of us.

In other business, the QGM agreed to a revision of the

IMRF’s constitution – a revision primarily required by

changes to the UK legislation under which we work, but

which also created a new membership class of ‘Individual

Supporter’ (see ‘Join us!’ on page 9) and improved the way

in which IMRF Trustees are appointed. The revised

constitution may be found on the IMRF website. Michael

and Bruce also discussed the revised strategic plan

developed by the outgoing Board: more on this in the

October edition of LIFE LINE.

In accordance with our constitution – old and new – a new

Board of Trustees was elected, to guide the IMRF through

the next quadrennium (see right). Five members of the old

Board – Rolf Westerström, Song Jiahui, Hamish McDonald,

Brooke Archbold and Michael himself – had retired. They

were thanked and applauded by the membership, and

received certificates acknowledging their new status as

Honorary Members of the IMRF. Thank you, gentlemen!

The full minutes of the QGM are available on the website.

Meet the new Board

The IMRF’s Board of Trustees, who oversee the charity

and provide our strategic direction, is elected every four

years, at our QGM. With five of the previous Board retiring

in Bremerhaven (see left), a full election was held. We are

delighted to introduce our new Board (in

alphabetical order):

Jorge Diena is a member of Asociación

Honoraria de Salvamentos Marítimos y

Fluviales (ADES, Uruguay). He has been

an IMRF Trustee since 2011.

Mohammed Drissi was co-opted onto

the Board at the 2015 QGM. He is head

of the SAR Bureau at the Ocean Fisheries

Ministry, Morocco, and IMRF’s Regional

Coordinator for North & West Africa.

Matthew Fader works in Human

Resources, Training and Project

Coordination at the Swedish Sea Rescue

Society. He was elected to the Board by

the QGM in Bremerhaven.

Udo Fox is a longstanding IMRF Trustee,

and has been Executive Director of the

German Maritime SAR Service (DGzRS)

since 2001. He was elected Chairman of

the new IMRF Board in Bremerhaven.

(See Udo’s article on page 3.)

Dean Lawrence, elected to the Board by

the Bremerhaven QGM, is President of

The Royal New Zealand Coastguard.

Dean has an extensive 'hands-on'

operational SAR background.

Rikke Lind became Secretary General of

Redningsselskapet (the Norwegian

Society for Sea Rescue) in August 2012.

She too was elected to the IMRF Board

at the 2015 QGM.

James Vaughan was co-opted by the

previous Board, and elected by the QGM

in Bremerhaven. He is International

Director of the UK & Ireland’s Royal

National Lifeboat Institution.

Zhang Rongjun, also elected by the

QGM, has been Deputy Director-

General of China Rescue & Salvage’s

Donghai Rescue Bureau since 2012, and

is also Deputy Manager of the IMRF’s

Asia Pacific Regional Centre (APRC).

Welcome aboard. It’s going to be quite a voyage!



SAR Matters

This column provides a forum for LIFE LINE readers

worldwide to contribute to debate on any SAR issue. Have

a look at previous discussions in our Newsletter Archive,

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

LIFE LINE since 2010 is available there for free download.

You can join in the debate by emailing [email protected].

It’s good to talk!

In this edition we return to the ongoing crisis of migrant SAR.

The rescue of migrants and asylum-seekers at sea in

unseaworthy vessels and dangerous conditions has

become perhaps the greatest SAR challenge of our time.

Tens of thousands of people are moving across the

Mediterranean, fleeing poverty or fear and seeking safety

or simply a better life in Europe. Thousands are dying in the

attempt. People are trying to cross other seas too:

Bangladeshis, and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar,

looking for work or escaping persecution, are facing terrible

conditions in the eastern Indian Ocean, for example.

The SAR challenges are manifold. The number of people

needing rescue is obviously a huge difficulty: these are

multiple mass rescue operations (see page 10). The people

at risk are not equipped for survival at sea: their rescue is

therefore more urgent. For both these reasons merchant

ships are essential to the rescue effort, for despite the extra

SAR units now helping out – which we will turn to shortly –

there are not enough available. We need passing ships to

help; but the pressures on ships’ crews and operators are

immense, under-reported, and inadequately addressed by

the authorities. We are relying on them too much.

Perhaps most challenging of all, however, is the fact that

this is not a problem that can be solved at sea. It can only

be resolved at source, ashore. Something must be done –

in reality, a large number of different things must be done

– to stop people risking their lives in this way.

The most basic principle of maritime SAR is that people in

distress at sea should be rescued whenever possible. It

should not matter who they are or how they came to be there.

Yet it would be disingenuous to argue that migrants and

asylum-seekers are the same as other rescued people.

They are more difficult to land.

Some States take a hard line. Some divert ‘migrant’ boats

to other countries. Some are said to be simply sending

them back out to sea. Some argue that they bear no

responsibility. Some, on the other hand, continue to

accept their humanitarian and legal responsibilities, and

save thousands of lives.

The IMRF salutes the latter – but, while the flows

continue, the victims and their would-be rescuers remain

at risk. And so do some fundamental SAR principles. Just

as we need passing ships to help pick people up, we need

States to accept their responsibility to provide places of

safety. The two things together are what ‘rescue’ means.

The IMRF urges the international community to address

the wider issues urgently, so that the pressure on SAR

authorities and responders – merchant shipping in

particular – can be relieved, and the threats now visible

to the basic principles of SAR at sea can be averted.

Fundamentally, there are thousands of people in distress.

What caused it, and what should be done with them after

they have been rescued, are separate arguments. SAR –

from retrieval to delivery to places of safety – stands

alone, and its principles must be staunchly defended.

Some of these issues were addressed at our World

Maritime Rescue Congress in June (see page 4). Sumbul

Rizvi, representing the United Nations High

Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and Konstantinos

Mitragas of the Hellenic Rescue Team spoke about the

matter, from the international and a SAR organisation’s

perspectives. Martin Xuereb of MOAS (see page 8) gave a

keynote address.

Congress delegates suggested that IMRF’s larger member

organisations could support the Mediterranean rescue

effort, and volunteer SAR organisations in the region in

particular. This is now happening, in various ways.

For example in June Matthew Fader, of the Swedish Sea

Rescue Society (SSRS) – a newly elected IMRF Trustee and

also a registered nurse specialising in pre-hospital

emergency medicine – joined a rescue operation initiated

by the charity Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without

Borders) and, aboard Bourbon Argos, helped rescue over

1,200 people in a period of two weeks.

Many of those rescued were in poor condition before

they set out, and needed extensive medical treatment

after being rescued. Bourbon Argos has a medical clinic

with emergency room aboard, staffed by experienced

nurses and doctors around the clock; for transfer to places

(continued on page 8)

photo: MOAS.EU/Jason Florio



(continued from page 7)

of safety in Italy can take over 48

hours. SSRS contributed expertise in

mass rescue, SAR methods, and

recovery of people from the water,

and supported medical evacuation

from boats containing up to 400 men,

women and children.

Redningsselskapet (RS: the Norwegian

Society for Sea Rescue) is another

IMRF Member which is contributing

to the SAR effort in the Mediterranean.

The RS rescue vessel Peter Henry Von

Koss has been assigned an operating

area between Greece and Turkey as

part of the European Union’s

‘Operation Poseidon’. The vessel is

manned by RS crews, Norwegian

police and representatives of the

Greek authorities. She made her first

rescue on 29 July, picking up 14

Syrians whose rubber boat foundered

as they tried to make the crossing.

"We have been working to make the

Norwegian coast safer for 125 years,

and now we are taking part in an

operation outside Norway for the first

time,” says Rikke Lind, Secretary

General of RS and also a newly-

elected IMRF Trustee. “We are pleased

to accept this new responsibility."

Rikke Lind (right) with RS crew and

Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg

“When we started MOAS we had faith

that the global community will be

inspired to respond to this

humanitarian crisis of historic pro-

portions. We created an innovative

direct response which the public could

support and help finance. Now people

have responded to our call that

nobody deserves to die at sea,” said

MOAS founder Christopher Catrambone.

The biggest single donation to MOAS

came from drone operator Schiebel,

who will be providing two drones and

personnel for free for the months of

September and October, worth

€600,000. Meanwhile, the Avaaz.org

community has raised an additional

€450,000 following an online appeal

to its large member database. A

fundraising activity in Germany also

helped raised an additional €250,000

thanks to the efforts of the

Archdiocese of Cologne and Caritas.

MOAS has also received direct

donations from the public and enjoys

ongoing support from MSF and

German philanthropist Jürgen

Wagentrotz and his company Oil and

Gas Invest.

“This is a great example of civil society

responding to a global problem. We

are incredibly proud of what we’re

witnessing,” said Mr Catrambone.

Donations can be made to

www.moas.eu/donate.

photos: MOAS.EU/Jason Florio

MOAS calls for more

donations

Christian Peregin of MOAS writes:

SAR charity MOAS (Migrant

Offshore Aid Station) has saved

more than 5,500 lives in the first half

of this year’s operation, while

raising just about enough money to

complete its six-month mission in

the Mediterranean Sea.

The recent rescue efforts at sea

have significantly reduced the death

toll in the world’s deadliest border

crossing, but more financing is

urgently needed to keep MOAS at

sea beyond October.

Following a successful two-month

mission last year in which MOAS

saved 3,000 men, women and

children from crammed and

unseaworthy boats sent out by

smugglers, the NGO set sail again on

May 2nd aboard MY Phoenix.

In three months, MOAS assisted 17

vessels in distress, under the

guidance and coordination of

Rome’s Maritime Rescue Coordin-

ation Centre. All the refugees were

disembarked in Italy where they can

be processed for asylum.

Public support for MOAS has also

shot up in these past months, with

almost €1.5 million raised within a

few weeks.

Meanwhile, a flotilla of other

private ships has joined MOAS at

sea, including two boats run by

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF –

Doctors Without Borders), which

also has a presence aboard Phoenix

where its doctors and nurses

provide post-rescue care.



Member Focus: McMurdo partnering IMRF to improve

maritime SAR globally

McMurdo – world leaders in search and rescue and

maritime domain awareness solutions – have partnered

with the IMRF to help us target some of the key challenges

facing maritime SAR globally, including rescue team

training, the safety of artisanal fishermen and the

emerging requirements of the SAR services managing

unsafe mixed migration by sea.

The IMRF’s partnership with McMurdo will help us build

on the work we have been doing with the International

Maritime Organization’s Technical Cooperation

Committee and Secretariat, and with developing SAR

organisations, to complete the Global SAR Plan – which

aims to provide consistent SAR response and emergency

communication around the world.

“The depth of knowledge of the entire end-to-end search

and rescue process which McMurdo brings to the table

will add enormous value to the workshops, forums and

meetings we will hold over the next two years,” says IMRF

Chief Executive Bruce Reid. “By combining our

knowledge, skills and influence we can do more to

prevent loss of life in the world's waters.”

Randel Maestre, Chief Marketing Officer for McMurdo,

has been instrumental in identifying the key SAR areas the

organisations will be working together on.

“Our vision to build an ecosystem of products,

technologies and services that prevents emergencies,

protects assets and saves lives is tightly aligned with

IMRF's goal of preventing the loss of life in the world's

waters,” says Randel. “We look forward to working with

the IMRF, the IMO and with search and rescue

organizations to implement these key initiatives and to

create a world where everyone – whether on land, in the

air or on the sea – feels safe and secure.”

The IMRF’s partnership with McMurdo is initially for two

years. Its cash component will help us meet the increasing

demand for IMRF involvement coming from the SAR

community. But as important to this support is the access

to the information and knowledge McMurdo can provide

to support our key projects and expansion of information

available to our members and the wider SAR community.

Join us!

As noted in our report on the recent IMRF Quadrennial

General Meeting (page 6), we are now able to offer a new

class of IMRF membership, that of ‘Individual Supporter’.

The IMRF has always been based on membership by

organisations (see below). But now anyone wanting to

support global maritime search and rescue development,

or the promotion of water safety, can join in.

The minimum subscription for an Individual Supporter is

€30 a year (although you can give more if you wish!). The

IMRF is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom, and

therefore subject to UK charity law – so you can be certain

that your membership subscription will be carefully used

in our work of preventing loss of life in the world’s waters.

And there is a great deal of work to do. The IMRF has an

international reputation in this field, and we are asked to

help with all sorts of SAR development projects. Your

support will help us meet more of these requests.

What do you get in return, apart from the knowledge that

you are helping save lives? Well, you will receive this

newsletter; you will be made aware of any promotions

and events and will be eligible for any Member discounts

available; and you can benefit from a 20% discount on

purchases you make in the IMRF’s online bookshop.

Visit www.international-maritime-rescue.org and click

on ‘Become a Member’ for more information.

And, if you represent an organisation, have a look at our

other membership classes too:

o ‘Full Members’ provide maritime search and/or rescue

services as one of their primary purposes, and are our core

membership group, with ultimate responsibility for

governing what the IMRF is and does;

o ‘Affiliate Members’ are subsidiaries of Full Member

organisations; or organisations whose primary purpose is

the promotion of water safety; or organisations engaged

in setting up search and rescue services; and

o ‘Associate Membership’ is open to any organisation or

person with an interest in the provision of maritime search

and rescue, or the promotion of water safety.

Visit the website – and join us if you can!



The WFSA’s analysis reveals that

there were over 17,000 fatalities in

domestic ferry accidents between

2000 and 2014: about 1200 deaths

per year. Developing world nations

accounted for 95% of the fatalities.

Ferry capacity is increasing but

vessels are often sub-standard (an

issue that the IMO too is now

seeking to address).

Kiersten’s report may be found at

www.international-maritime-

rescue.org/index.php/qgm-papers-

download/file/989-search-rescue-

response-to-ferry-accidents-common-

problems-potential-solutions-good-

practice-by-kiersten-sander.

She concludes that when rescue is

necessary SAR resources may be

insufficient or, apparently, not

available at all. SAR reports are often

lacking, but “the results of this

research suggest that SAR authorities

in developing nations are under-

resourced, with vast rivers, lakes and

coastlines to monitor.”

A mass rescue operation is, by

definition, one that is beyond the

normal capability of the SAR services

available. Even if low probability

incidents, they carry high conse-

quences, and require planning for.

The IMRF’s Mass Rescue Operations

Project has sought to gather and

share experience and information on

these most challenging types of SAR

operations. David Jardine-Smith, the

project manager, announced the

launch of the IMRF’s online ‘MRO

Library’ at Congress. The Library is

primarily designed to share inform-

ation useful to the MRO planning

and training processes. It may be

found on the IMRF website at:

Mass rescue operations

Costa Cruises have announced

recently that they are to build two

ships which, at 6,600 passengers

apiece, will set a new capacity record.

SAR people may think that, when you

add their crews and a maritime

disaster, they present potentially the

biggest SAR challenge in the world.

But this is not necessarily so. Modern

ships of this size are built to survive

major accidents, keeping their people

aboard. The challenge, as pointed out

in the IMRF’s mass rescue operations

(MRO) project (see below), is to

consider how SAR organisations

should adapt their responses so as to

be able to support such ships’ crews

and operators in dealing with the

consequences of an accident.

The main MRO challenges actually lie

elsewhere, however; often in the

developing world, where accidents

are too often under-reported. Since

the World Maritime Rescue Congress

closed at the beginning of June, the

IMRF has been made aware of a mix

of cases, in Indonesia, the Philippines,

Sweden, the United States, Egypt,

Papua New Guinea, Greece, Bangla-

desh and Oman. As LIFE LINE goes to

press there is news of a passenger

boat capsizing after a collision in the

Kenyan waters of Lake Victoria. And,

of course, from the Mediterranean

comes a stream of stories of mass

rescue operations, often in desperate

circumstances (see pages 7-8).

As our Patron, Efthimios Mitropoulos,

noted in his speech to Congress (see

page 4), the loss of life in ferries in

domestic trades – not covered by inter-

national regulation – is far too high.

Kiersten Sander of the IMRF has been

collaborating with the Worldwide Ferry

Safety Association on research into

the causes of passenger vessel

accidents and the SAR response to

them. Both sets of research were

reported at Congress (see page 5).


rescue.org/index.php/homemropublic

The Library contains a wealth of

useful documents freely provided by

IMRF members or available from

other sources. It also contains ‘MRO

guidance papers’ prepared by the

IMRF’s project team to provide an

overview. These guidance papers

can be individually accessed on the

site, enabling the user to quickly find

information relevant to his or her

particular needs.

They are also available in eBook

form, as a down-loadable pdf

formatted to enable printing, if

desired, in A4 size. To help raise

funds for the continuing project, this

version of the guidance is for sale, at

the modest price of £10 – £8 for

IMRF members. Please visit the IMRF

Bookshop at www.international-

maritime-rescue.org.

The IMRF also runs MRO workshops,

designed to enable discussion of the

issues and to assist planning and

training. We take this opportunity to

extend an invitation to maritime SAR

organisations across the Asia-Pacific

region to join us in Singapore for a

regional MRO workshop, 19-21

August. This event will include a

demonstration utilising multiple

simulated bridges and a full day

workshop delivered by IMRF MRO

specialist, John Geel.

For further information about the

Singapore event or future MRO

workshops, please contact us at

[email protected]. As has been said,

with MROs it is not ‘if’ but ‘when’.

Preparedness – improving capability

– is key to success.



Comprehensive SAR

planning software

The IMRF is delighted to pass on a

very kind offer made by the

NikooSAR team to share the SAR

management software package they

presented at the World Maritime

Rescue Congress in June.

The NikooSAR software provides a

comprehensive view of any SAR

region in the world. It includes live

data on the waves, currents, wind

and weather conditions, offshore

platforms, environmentally sensitive

areas, buoys, MRCCs and MRSCs, as

well as vessels in the area. It can

zoom in, allowing the SAR planner to

oversee the local situation, and also

provides for regional and inter-

national cooperation.

In addition to monitoring, the

software helps locate people in

distress, using live information to

provide a probable location of the

search object, whether a person,

liferaft, vessel or aircraft.

The software will be provided free of

charge, without conditions or

requirements for the countries or

authorities interested in having it.

“It would be our pleasure,” say the

NikooSAR team, “To follow in IMRF’s

footsteps and play a small role in this

humanitarian movement.”

Any interested SAR organisation is

invited to contact the team direct, at

[email protected]. See too the

team’s Congress presentation, at


rescue.org/index.php/homewmrc

Please note that, as a matter of policy,

the IMRF does not endorse any product

or service we advertise, nor can we act

as ‘agent’ between interested parties.

Pleasure boating in China

The IMRF’s Asia-Pacific Regional

Centre (APRC) recently co-hosted an

International Yachting Safety and

Rescue Forum as part of the Shanghai

International Marine Festival

organised by new IMRF Associate

Members Shanghai Yuan Zhou

Cultural Communications.

Pleasure boating is still very new to

China, though it is growing in interest

and participation. The IMRF arranged

international speakers from New

Zealand, the UK and Finland to

provide presentations on regulating

the recreational fleet, educating the

recreational boating community and

establishing volunteer search and

rescue services. The audience was a

mix of regulators, insurers,

recreational boat builders and rescue

services.

Mr Zheng Weihang of the China Yacht

Development Experts Committee

provided valuable insights into the

growing recreational boating

community. Currently, recreational

boating is the domain of the wealthy,

with pleasure craft being used more

for entertaining while securely

moored than for cruising. But there is

a strong push to create public

marinas and make boating more

accessible to the wider community.

With only an estimated 7,000

pleasure craft the market is still very

small – but demand is growing.

Mr Zheng, and other speakers, also

noted that recreational boats looking

to go out on the coastal waters are

treated in the same way as

commercial vessels. It is hoped that

regulations will be developed better

suited for recreational activity.

By comparison, New Zealand has a

recreational fleet of approximately

900,000 with very little regulation,

and no requirement for licencing or

registering boats. The UK is a similar

environment with about 2.8 million

people going boating and no skipper

training or licencing required.

In both countries the safety record is

good with around 30 fatalities per

year. Many of these occur in vessels

of under 5 metres length, and a good

number would have survived had

they been wearing lifejackets.

Lindsay Sturt, of Maritime New

Zealand, explained how a strategic

approach had been used to improve

recreational boating safety, bringing

all the stakeholders together to

discuss, plan and collaborate. This

approach has provided a focus point

and a sounding board for proposed

safety regulations.

John Cowan of NZ Coastguard

Boating Education provided an

overview of the training and

education they deliver, with a move

to on-line training recently

implemented. Without compulsory

training having options for training

that fit the time available to students

is key to completing the courses.

John also noted that because of the

increasing number of Chinese

moving to New Zealand the courses

have now been translated to cater

for this growing market.

The Finnish Lifeboat Institute’s Jori

Nordström made the important

point that in many cases distress is

relative to the skipper’s experience.

He discussed how volunteer rescue

groups are an effective way of

improving the response to pleasure

craft in distress. Identifying where

the service is needed requires good

relationships between Governmental

and non-governmental groups, but

the establishment of volunteer

services can happen quickly. Jori

cited Estonia as a good example.

Building a safety culture is an exciting

challenge – and the work has begun!



LIFE LINE

mariners who have had interactions

with migrant boats. The accounts will

contribute to a chapter in a new

book on Lampedusa (a focal point of

the Mediterranean migrant traffic

and response). Stories sent to me will

be anonymised on request.

Your contributions will provide a

unique perspective on events that,

while separated by time and place,

remain strikingly similar – not only in

their acutely tragic nature but also in

the humanity of the seafaring

community’s response. As a judge in

an 1880 salvage case observed, ‘the

impulsive desire to save human life in

peril is one of the most beneficial

instincts of humanity, and is nowhere

more salutary in its results than in

bringing help to those who, exposed

to destruction from the fury of the

winds and waves, would perish if left

without assistance.’

If you would like to discuss or

contribute to this project, please

contact me at:

[email protected]

I look forward to hearing from you.

Rescue stories sought

Researcher Kathryn Kingston writes:

Providing assistance to those in

distress is an ancient maritime

custom. Seafarers know better than

any that the search and rescue

system relies on their commitment

to this fundamental humanitarian

tradition.

The Master of the ship Sibonga

provides a record of one such rescue:

‘Having been in such tightly packed

conditions for almost four days, some

could hardly stand, their badly

cramped limbs refusing to take the

weight of their bodies. Cargo gear

was rigged and a large box inside a

cargo net was used to hoist those

aboard who could not climb the

shipside ladders. A couple of the

ship’s crew went onto the refugee

boat to lift people into the box and

prevent it being overloaded, as

refugees, afraid I would leave

without them, kept throwing

exhausted children into the box in an

attempt to ensure their safety. It was

a heart-breaking scene and one I

shall never forget.’

Today, of course, it would not be

uncommon for a ship passing

through the Mediterranean Sea to

encounter such a scenario – but this

eye-witness account was recorded

over 35 years ago. The migrants the

captain describes were among the

‘boat people’ fleeing Vietnam in the

late 1970s. But encounters between

merchant vessels and migrants in

distress are almost unchanged since.

I am looking to illustrate the often

unreported role of merchant sea-

farers in the rescue of migrants by

collecting eyewitness accounts from

UK P&I give the IMRF a

helping hand

The UK P&I Club is one of the oldest

P&I Clubs in the world. It provides

protection and indemnity insurance

in respect of third party liabilities and

expenses arising from owning ships

or operating ships as principals. One

of the largest mutual marine P&I

organisations, UK P&I insures over

200 million tonnes of owned and

chartered ships from more than fifty

countries across the globe.

Each year the Club supports a

number of charities in the maritime

sector and in Bermuda where the

Club is incorporated. The Club’s

Directors, at their board meeting in

May, chose the IMRF as a charity that

they would like to support this year

and authorised the Secretary to make

a donation of $5,000.

The IMRF pass on our thanks to the

Directors of UK P&I Club for their

support which will help us continue

to deliver on our shared

humanitarian goal of preventing loss

of life in the world’s waters.

To get behind the IMRF with a

donation please go to


rescue.org

and click on the ‘support us’ tag.

And finally...

We hope that you have found this

issue of LIFE LINE informative and

interesting. If you would like to

contribute articles and pictures

about your news, projects, events,

ideas or lessons learned, please

contact [email protected]

http://www.international-maritime-rescue.org/

http://www.international-maritime-rescue.org/

LIFELINE August 2015 - English

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Transcript of LIFELINE August 2015 - English