PRLog -
Jan. 29, 2013 - David Jardine-Smith, Secretary, IMRF, joins Search and Rescue Europe to share insight into the IMRF’s project to improve Maritime Rescue Operations Response globally, and to offer advice on how the Search and Rescue community can best carry out effective planning and training for MRO.
SAR Europe: Today I’d like to ask you six questions, so firstly the IMRF are leading Search and Rescue Europe’s focus day on Mass Rescue Operations so I’d like to ask you if you could share some more insight into the IMRF project to improve maritime Mass Rescue Operations response globally.
D Jardine-Smith: The IMRF, that’s the International Maritime Rescue Federation, we represent search and rescue organisations from all around the world aiming to work together to improve global search and rescue by sharing ideas, technologies, lessons learnt. Our members have asked us to run a number of projects, like this one for example, developing guidelines on the build and equipment and crewing of small rescue craft for developing SAR organisations. The Mass Rescue Operations project, again our members have asked us to lead off on. We began by scoping the issue at a conference in Sweden in 2010 and are now getting on with the main areas of work agreed that we can make a difference in. There will be further conferences, there are workshops; for example we just held one in Uruguay, and of course the focus day at SAR Europe will be another such workshop or a different type of workshop. We’re also developing an online library to help our members with planning and preparation for mass rescue events. Overall, the aims are to raise awareness of the problem, to share experience of course, that’s what we’re all about, if requested to we can help audit progress in planning for mass rescue operations. We’re also in consultative status as a non-governmental organisation that the International Maritime Organisation, the IMO and anything relevant to the IMO will of course be reported to them as it comes out of the project. So that’s the background to it. It’s a big area of work but an exciting one and we’re getting on with it.
SAR Europe: It sounds like there are lots of resources for people. Why is this such a big priority for the IMRF?
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