Pacific Search and Rescue Discussion Group
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) hosted the inaugural meeting of the Pacific Search and Rescue Discussion Group (PACSAR DG) this week.
The group includes representatives from the major contributors to search and rescue (SAR) in the Pacific, including: Commissaire Sebastien Tarquin of France, Mr Rodney Bracefield from Maritime New Zealand, Mr Richard Roberts from the United States Coast Guard, and Ms Amanda MacKinnell from AMSA. The group is chaired by Mr Bruce Tweed representing the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). The meetings will provide a forum for the development of SAR practices and resources in the Pacific.
The PACSAR DG aims to meet every two years to seek to progress the actions arising from previous Pacific SAR Workshops and develop opportunities for further regional activities and engagement. The group has highlighted avenues to strengthen SAR through education and commonality of practices in response to incidents and events, and provide reporting to interested agencies.
One of the key aims of the PACSAR DG is to encourage participation in a regional Maritime SAR Arrangement to improve maritime SAR coordination, communication, cooperation, and planning within the Pacific region. Completing the proposed SAR Arrangement would be a positive step towards building SAR capability and partnerships in the Pacific. From this, further guidelines, procedures and partnerships will be developed by the group and the wider Pacific SAR community to improve regional and national response efforts.
Other achievements and discussions from the three-day meeting include:
- AMSA’s response to recent incidents and Australia’s crisis coordination functions
- finalisation of the group’s terms of reference
- development of communication and work plans
- development of a SAR response tools and statistical database.
Planning is now underway for the 5th Pacific SAR Workshop to be hosted by SPC in Fiji in 2013.
Source: AMSA
