THE Solomon Islands Maritime Safety Administration (SIMSA) has clarified criticisms of “slow response” levelled against the authority’s Search and Rescue Unit on the latest boat tragedy that claimed five lives and 15 missing off the coast of Marau.

Premier of Malaita Province Peter Ramohia was reportedly angered by the ‘slow’ response made by SIMSA Search and Rescue (SAR) unit saying that lives have been lost due to no rescue attempts being made at the first instance.

But, SIMSA Director (Ag) Capt Tim Harris, while sending his condolences to the families and friends of all the victims of the tragic boat incident, said it is very dis-heartening when SIMSA Officers are accused of tardiness when the supply of the “platforms” from which to launch SAR is something over which SIMSA Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) has no control.

Capt Harris said SIMSA has no capability to physically go to look for persons who are missing; which is not the MRCC’s responsibility. SIMSA’s MRCC is responsible for ensuring that a response is made by mobilising the local police, the Maritime Police Unit (if necessary) and alerting all ships in the area, who under the requirements of the Shipping Act 1998, must respond to a directive from the MRCC.

From Situation Report (SITREP), Capt Harris quoted the log book as: “MRCC Honiara was informed of the incident at 1430 hrs (2:30pm) on Wednesday 14th June.”

“And it is recorded in the log that [a radio broadcast was made to all ships in the area, and the MV Maetalau responded and was tasked to search the coastal area from Avuavu to Marau Sound.]”

Mr Harris said the search had already been begun by Marau Police and local boats in the area, and the last SAR operation returned to Marau Sound at 10pm on Wednesday, with no sighting. Literally within seconds of SIMSA finding out that there was an on-going situation the “all ships” alert was given.

The Premier of Malaita Province is quoted in an article on Monday’s edition as saying that on Wednesday 14 when the incident happened he received a message that one of the boats was missing he called the search and rescue unit to respond to the incident.

“The log in the MRCC clearly shows that the first call from the Premier of Malaita was received on Thursday 15 June at 1350 hours (1:50pm), almost 24 hours after the SAR mission had been mounted. He again called the MRCC at 1550 hrs (3:50pm),” the head of SIMSA informed.

Mr Harris said on both occasions, Malaita Premier was anxious that not enough was being done to search for the missing persons.

“But the Police Stabi-craft and local boats have already conducted search in the area.”

He said MRCC had requested the Police Maritime Unit to send the Patrol Boat and the vessel was due to sail at 0300 hrs (3am) on the morning of Thursday 15 June, but later that day MRCC were informed that the vessel could not sail as it had developed a mechanical problem.

Capt Harris said the Patrol Boat Auki was not able to sail, so the Patrol Boat Lata was sent instead, but was not able to sail until late in the afternoon of Friday June 16 at 1645 hrs (4.45pm).

“It is very dis-heartening when SIMSA Officers are accused of tardiness when the supply of the “platforms” from which to launch SAR is something over which MRCC has no control.

“The Premier then goes on to accuse the MRCC of failing [This is not the first time for this unit to fail, they have failed many incidents in terms of rescue and many have lost their lives in our waters].”

However, SIMSA Director Capt Harris has disclosed in a MRCC SAR statistics over the past few years since 2013 which shows units co-ordinated by MRCC have saved 1,115 lives out of 1,139 persons involved in sea incidents. (see attached statistics)

Year	Cases	Persons involved	Cases found	Survivors	Cases still missing	Lives lost	Remarks
2013	59	641	59	637	NIL	4	OBM incidents (Solomon Islanders) & Francis Gerena
2014	56	284	56	281	NIL	3	2 foreigners. 1 Solomon Islander
2015	45	67	42	61	4	6	Cyclone Raquel & OBM Incidents, 1 foreigner
2016	15	147	15	136	nil	11	Small open boats with outboard motors / overdue / run out or low on fuel / technical engine failures
Total	175	1,139	172	1,115	4	24

 

“Although every life lost is a failure somewhere in the system, not least of which is allowing a vessel to run out of fuel or be overloaded, the fact that the MRCC with units co-ordinated by it have saved 1,115 lives out of 1,139 persons involved, is something to be proud of, especially when it is considered that some of the deaths were due to diving incidents and where death had occurred before the MRCC was alerted.”

He said SIMSA Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) officers are professional, well-trained, dedicated and committed and they fully understand their roles in the process of mounting a SAR response.

Furthermore, Capt Harris said the first responders are responsible for making the initial response to an incident. In this case, the first responders were the local area RSIPF.

“Once the communications network has been set up (which is standard operating procedure number 1), MRCC waits for the first situation report from the first responders in order to mobilise the required response.

“I am not aware of how much knowledge the Premier of Malaita, Mr Peter Ramohia, has of the work of SIMSA’s MRCC, but SIMSA is no longer the former Government Marine Division. SIMSA has no ships, no active seafarers and no ship repair yards.

“SIMSA has no capability to physically go to look for persons who are missing; which is not the MRCC’s responsibility. SIMSA’s MRCC is responsible for ensuring that a response is made by mobilising the local police, the Maritime Police Unit (if necessary) and alerting all ships in the area, who under the requirements of the Shipping Act 1998, must respond to a directive from the MRCC,” he said.

Capt. Harris said the Premier quite rightly pointed out that this is one of the Government Departments that should be alert at all times. Harris however, assured Premier Ramohia and people of the Solomon Islands that SIMSA MRCC are even more alert when a low pressure system is in the area because they know that people will still be foolhardy enough to put to sea when the sea is far too rough for a small boat to be safe, especially when it is over-loaded.