Proposals 2007-2008

• Life Raft Performance During Evacuation, Rescue & Recovery
• East Coast Forecast System
• SAR Exercise Program for Major Marine & Aviation Disasters
• SAR Surface Current Monitoring Network
• Development & Validation of Improved Ocean Drift Theory
• SAREX Ocean Guardian III
• Marine Marker for Common SAR Objects
• CCGA SAR Handbook
• CCGA Equipment Purchase
• Probability of Detection (POD) Validation of Leeway and Drift

Life Raft Performance During Evacuation, Rescue & Recovery

Liferafts are commonly used worldwide as primary or secondary means of evacuation from merchant ships, passenger vessels, fishing boats, and offshore petroleum installations. In many cases, liferafts are required by regulation or law whose explicit aim is to provide for the safety of life at sea.

Despite being almost universally prescribed for and carried by ships and offshore platforms, the actual performance that can realistically be expected of liferafts and the people who have to use them in practice is largely unknown. The absence of quantitative knowledge about liferaft performance - especially in different weather conditions - weakens rational decision-making processes governing a host of associated search and rescue operations and planning.

The proposed project will address this need by assessing liferaft operational performance in terms of technical capabilities in a range of weather conditions. The influence of external factors and mitigating measures on performance will also be evaluated. This includes the role of human factors and training.  The outcome of the project will be practical knowledge that can promote survival and support operational decision-making, with the ultimate goal being to improve the safety of personnel who work on or travel by sea.

East Coast Forecast System

This proposal seeks funding from the NIF program to assist to develop a forecasting system for East Coast/part of the Eastern Arctic surface currents model and transfer the data to CCG for ingestion into CANSARP.  

In search and rescue operations, the search area is determined from the best available information at the time of incident.  At the present, we have 3 East Coast models that overlap in some areas and have gaps in other areas.  Search coordinators must make decisions on what model data to use and be aware of model gaps to ensure the best information is used in the search plan.  During a search operation, it is not the time to evaluate and decide which model to use.  The combined East Coast Forecast model will remove the overlaps and gaps and also extend the surface current model to cover an area in the Eastern Arctic around Baffin Bay where we do not have any surface data to assist us.  Real-time data from surface drifters can provide the most critical information required for CANSARP.  But drifter data have limited spatial and temporal coverage: drifters such as SLDMB’s are deployed by aircraft or ships tasked to a SAR operations and in the search area for the operation.  To initially predict a search area for the operation, the controller must rely on models of surface currents to determine where to send units to search.  Once in the search area, the use of SLDMB’s will increase the accuracy of where the units should search.  This is best strategy for predicting surface currents over a large area is to use real-time data (SLDMB’s) in conjunction with model predictions.  

Over the past ten years, scientists at IML, BIO and Dalhousie University have developed ocean circulation models for the Grand Banks, Scotian Shelf and Gulf of St. Lawrence.  Built on the past experience, a large-domain forecast model covering the entire eastern Canadian seaboard with advanced features and more reliable results will be developed in this project.  The model will be calibrated and validated against data from surface drifters deployed by the Canadian Coast Guard and the Canadian Coast Guard College. A forecasting system based on the architecture of an existing system that combines the operations of data transfer, model execution, graphic display and data delivery will be developed. 

This proposal will integrate three East Coast models with an extension to cover areas not included in the existing models.  The computer generated surface currents will be transferred to CCG and ingested into CANSARP for operational use.  The work described in the proposal is closely linked to DFO/Science’s efforts in operational oceanography with the aim to provide information to operational agencies and contribute to the departmental mandate of safe and accessible waterways.  A recently formed DFO working group on regional ocean modeling strongly endorses a seamless solution for short and medium time scale forecasting on Canadian shelf waters.  Two PERD projects have provided funding for research directly related to the objectives of this proposal - investigation of wave effects on surface currents and construction of a numerical grid for a large-domain ocean model. 

SAR Exercise Program for Major Marine and Aviation Disasters

The purpose of the project is to prepare and plan tabletop and live exercises in Quebec Region. Basically, the exercises aim to raise awareness among the various organizations, passenger ship operators and airport authorities near the St. Lawrence of the potential impact of disasters involving a large number of passengers and to strengthen responder collaboration for actual emergencies. The exercises would also make it possible to meet the objectives of the provincial Public Security Plan in the event of major disasters involving a large number of passengers (responsibility of the du Ministère de la Sécurité Publique du Québec)). The distribution of responsibilities among response levels can present special challenges; only through planned exercises will we be able to avert or overcome all the potential difficulties.
Essentially, then, the purpose of the program is to mitigate the impact of a major disaster by enabling more effective co-ordination among the various response organizations. 

The first part of the program will be to prepare and organize four tabletop exercises in FY 2005-2006 involving three marine disasters and one aeronautical disaster.

Following analysis of the results of these four exercises, two live exercises would be prepared for the beginning of 2006-2007, involving one marine incident and one aviation incident.

The live exercises would involve federal organizations (CCG, Transport Canada, Parks Canada and the CF), provincial agencies and organizations (Sûreté du Québec/ Ministère de la Sécurité Publique du Québec)/Société des traversiers du Québec), municipal agencies (City of Montreal Police Service ) and private groups that are likely to have to organize a concerted response.

The emergency preparedness plans of the CCG, DND and the Province of Quebec would be amended to enable a greater degree of harmonization among them, and a planning guide would be prepared for distribution to small excursion boat operators.
Finally, a video would be produced to create a lasting record of instructional value (the video would have a useful life of 10 years).
Reference: exercise Tadoussac May 2004 / 2004 workshop on contingency planning for major marine disasters.

SAR Surface Current Monitoring Network

Operational wide-area (i.e. synoptic) sea-surface current information is crucial to finding victims of a marine casualty in a timely manner. Presently, such information is not available for Canadian waters. This deficiency can be eliminated by installing a network of CODAR SeaSonde surface current sensors. This technology has recently been demonstrated by the U.S. Coast Guard to be effective in defining search area, and it is already being used by the Japanese Coast Guard.
The purpose of this project is to have DFO/CCG partner with the DND and the University of Maine to lead the installation and integration of a network of CODAR SeaSondes in the high current and SAR activity area of Southwest Nova Scotia.
Once the network has been installed and initialized, CF MetOc Halifax will assume ownership, operation and maintenance of the network. The long-term life-cycle management and maintenance of this system will become the responsibility of CF MetOc.

Development & Validation of Improved Ocean Drift Theory

Current procedures used in Canadian and international maritime search theory, as described by Bernard Koopman (1946), were derived for Anti-Submarine Warfare techniques in World War II. While automation of drift calculations with computers has sped up the process, the underlying search and rescue theory has remained unchanged (IAMSAR Manual, 1999). The currently accepted international search and rescue theory developed for rudimentary 1946 environmental inputs and manual calculations needs improvement to take full advantage of modern computing power as well as significant advances in the fields of meteorological and ocean forecasting. These improvements would refine and diminish the search area yet increase confidence of locating survivors.

This proposal will address the prediction of drift and search area calculations currently undertaken by CCG and explore and recommend improvements in the form of a manuscript for submission to Coast Guard and the International Maritime Organisation. The theoretical development and validation work will be complemented by a short field trial.

SAREX Ocean Guardian III

Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX) Ocean Guardian III is a full-mission profile, multi-jurisdictional search and rescue exercise with Federal Maritime, Aeronautical and Ground SAR components as well as components involving Provincial and Municipal jurisdictions and authorities.

The two-day scenario involves the evacuation of a passenger-carrying vessel on the West Coast of Newfoundland and Labrador during a distress scenario and provides an opportunity to test the Major Maritime Disaster Plan (MAJMAR) of the Halifax Search and Rescue Region (SRR).

The Province of Newfoundland and Labrador Emergency Measures Organization, Provincial Police Force’s (Royal Newfoundland Constabulary & RCMP “B” Division) and Emergency Health Services as well as the City of Corner Brook will also benefit through the opportunity to test their emergency action and disaster plans.

Authorities will cooperate and test response capabilities to ensure that a timely and coordinated effort will achieve an effective response. The exercise debrief and after action report will examine any deficiencies that are identified in the coordinated response effort to improve on the response capacities of all agencies to a MAJMAR in the Halifax SRR
 

Marine Marker for Common SAR Objects

C-Core to find a multi-application marine marker for CCG, SAR resources that is easily deployable, reliable, cost effective, and have the ability to survive in the harshest marine enviornments.  To improve search operations, saving valuable search time.

CCGA SAR Handbook

The Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary (CCGA) would like to develop and implement a SAR enhancement program that would improve the safety and security of SAR responders, new and old. Using the UK-based The RNLI Handbook as a starting point, the CCGA would like to develop a Canadian version for distribution to all CCGA members, along with a companion CD-ROM.   

Based on the successful Lifeboats program instituted in the UK, the Canadian version of The RNLI Handbook would be useful to all members of the CCGA, whether they operate from private or community-owned vessels.  The most seasoned mariner will find it a handy reference point, while new CCGA recruits will have a detailed mariner’s manual at their fingertips.

CCGA Equipment Purchase

Safety and the well-being of our SAR personnel during SAR cases directly impact the SAR response effectiveness. The Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary (CCGA) would like to supply its members with personal strobe lights. The strobe lights would be used for personal safety when tasked at night. Made for harsh conditions, more economical than strike flares, safer due to concerns of safe storage, shelf life, possibility of responders receiving burns, no toxic emissions released when used, 16 hour life with “D” cell batteries. Flashing rate of 60-70 per minute, with visibility of two miles in clear conditions.

The CCGA also would like to equip 500 units with additional VHF handheld marine radios. When CCGA vessels are responding to SAR cases, the stricken vessel may be unable to respond to or provide effective communications. If a portable VHF is available on the CCGA vessel, it could be transferred to the stricken vessel to ensure effective communications are maintained.
 

Probability of Detection (POD) Validation of Leeway and Drift

To collect Probability of Detection (POD) data and determine the sweep width for 4- and 7-person life rafts using an All Weather SAR vessel that would be tasked for SAR missions during poor weather during the fall and winter off Eastern Canada. The main goal of the project, collection of POD data and determination of the sweep width for 4- and 7-person life rafts using a typical All Weather SAR vessel, would be a logical extension to the collection of leeway data for the new Ovatek life raft that continues to be popular in Eastern Canada and across Canada. Similarly the work presents an opportunity to the USCG to acquire POD and sweep width data on targets of interest to them.