Mass Rescue Operations Library Launched

Two significant products to help global maritime Search and Rescue (SAR) services have been launched by the International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF) at the World Maritime Rescue Congress.

The first are Rescue Boat Guidelines, developed from more than 2,000 contributions saved in a central database, and the second is the Mass Rescue Operations (MRO) library which complements the IMRF’s MRO workshop package.

The Rescue Boat Guidelines (RBG) enables users to go online and, after identifying the scope of activity they wish to undertake, to generate a report giving guidance on equipment, training and other procedures recommended by the IMRF.

IMRF CEO, Bruce Reid, said: “The RBG is guidance: we know that rescue is undertaken in a variety of craft. The ability to filter out areas that are not relevant to an organization will help provide manageable lists of recommended actions that will not overload users with too much information.

“After filtering there is a priority list of recommendations, rated against a risk matrix. This will help organizations to target development in areas our experts view as being of highest risk.”

The MRO online library – which is dynamic and user friendly – is organized around a series of guidance papers developed by an IMRF subject-matter expert group led by David Jardine-Smith.

This guidance draws on lessons learned in maritime mass rescue incidents of all kinds, in exercises and drills and at the IMRF’s Gothenburg series of conferences.

The IMRF’s guidance is backed up by incident and exercise reports and guidance published by the IMO and other experts, including the United States Coast Guard. It is also published as an eBook and is available here.

The library supports the development and testing of MRO planning and training, and complements the IMRF’s MRO workshops, which enable discussion by relevant organizations of this most difficult of SAR subjects.