Techno Trouble

02. February 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Coastguards, CoastguardSOS, Common Sense, Environment, MCA Cuts, Oil Spills, SafetyAtSea, Technology

Technology is fantastic, it helps us in some quite unimaginable ways but reliability is a bit frustrating at times….. PCs crash, get infected, have component failures and, worst of all, suffer from a lack of real intelligence. The human mind is much more adept at recognising wrong things/information/puzzles and solving them, sometimes instantly, without conscious effort (see example below).

It really is amazing how good the human mind is at solving the things that technology cannot at this moment in time.

The other thing that is remarkable about the mind, is the capacity to remember things such as places, local facilities, local topology, mental images of the area and relationship to nearby places. These points underline the ability that we all have to deal with problems and our capacity to solve them in a variety of different ways all with a successful outcome.

Yes, we all rely on technology but when it fails, we usually have the ability to get round the problem and get that faulty ‘technical aid’ fixed. Generally that’s what technology is for us ‘an aid’, as soon as we rely on it wholeheartedly, we start losing the skills to do the task ourselves.

So, why the preamble? …….. Well, in closing 50% of HM Coastguard Rescue Centres, the Government is banking on technology replacing people and having a cheaper service with less trained staff in the service.

A UK Central Maritime Operations Centre will be the way forward to automation of the HM Coastguard service with a heavy reliance on technology to fill in the gaps and provide many of the answers to emergencies. Useful technologies such as automatic GPS enabled VHF communications sets, Automatic identification systems fitted to vessels/navigation aids/rescue craft, ship & shore radar beacons, radio beacons and, of course, maritime GPS systems.

These technologies when integrated into HMCG in house computer modelling for tide, weather & conditions along with historical databases and a huge catalogue of place names should make quite a sophisticated control & monitoring system.

However, there are justifiable fears about this over-reliance of technology:

  1. You need trained experienced staff, who understand the whole maritime picture and can act independently of technology.
  2. You cannot have every place name logged, when many are place descriptions only known locally, so by keeping data local with regional staff, place recognition is faster.
  3. UK coastline is said to be 20,000 miles long & is quite diverse in conditions and local features which vary immensely during different tide/weather.
  4. UK coastline hazards are changing on a daily basis and only regionalised centres can keep up to date with events.
  5. All existing centres have a close relationship with the rescue assets that they call upon.
  6. Human local observation can assess situations faster, recognise dangers and take actions to avert any incidents in the first place.
  7. There is a delay in data updates which can increase with distance due to many parameters. Similarly relaying information from one end of country & back again can add vital seconds.
  8. Technology is a help when it is working & useless when it is not, much relies on all sea users to utilise this equipment, when we are still struggling to get some people to wear car seatbelts – which is law! Wearing of lifejackets is often ignored, so how can you enforce the use of technology safety devices?
  9. All the technology has accuracy limits & cannot be relied upon in isolation, even maritime regulations recognise this:

Rule 5 Navigation Rules and Regulations

Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper lookout by sight and hearing as well as by all available means [including radar] appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.

There are still collisions at sea every year in the UK, which remind us that technology alone cannot ensure that sea/coastal users are safe. Over reliance in technology in today’s use of GPS navigation for road users, serves as another reminder of how this can get us into trouble, and marine navigation is considerably trickier with the constant changing of channels & depths.

Recent events highlighted by the Costa Concordia disaster demonstrate the difficulties that can arise from navigation hazards. Modern highly sophisticated cruise ships like this one are designed to be able to cope with even the worst situations, however things went wrong and none of the inbuilt safety features or technology prevented the ship from capsizing with tragic consequences. The exact nature of failure will eventually be determined at the conclusion of the ongoing investigation.

Summary

The mark 1 eyeball combined with the human brain are extremely effective tools for experienced & fully trained officers and can be complemented by the correct use of technology.

There needs to be a methodical, progressive approach to technology advancements in the world’s best coastguard rescue service. I welcome any technology that aids maritime safety, but would never agree to it replacing the skill, knowledge, dedication & resourcefulness of our front-line coastguard officers.

Written by Coastal Joe

Portcullis House, Westminster

30. January 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Coastguards, CoastguardSOS, Environment, MCA Cuts, Oil Spills, SafetyAtSea

For those of you who are on Twitter, my name there is @lynnerosie and tomorrow I’m honoured to be going with @Coastguard_SOS and @sosmhcoastguard to a meeting with Mrs Louise Ellman, Chair of the Transport Select  Committee.

The meeting concerns the proposed Maritime and Coastguard Agency cuts to the actual Coastguard Stations. I am proud to live in this wonderful isle of ours and that is what makes where we live so special. We are an island nation – I can remember (many years ago!) when I was in primary school being taught to sing patriotic and rousing songs, one of which included the following -

‘Hearts of oak are our ships, jolly tars are our men, we always are ready, steady boys steady’

I always think of those words when I think of the wonderful teams of people who work at the Coastguard Stations. They are the 4th Emergency Service (as the previous post explained). Our navy has always been our pride and joy and I was looking for a suitable pic to use when I came across this article. It was published on the 17.11.2011 on the MSN News site. Oh my goodness, we are going to have to ask the French for help and hire out their rescue services if there are any disasters in the English Channel!

European MPs have hit out at the British Government's cuts to the coastguard service

European MPs have hit out at the British Government’s cuts to the coastguard service

British and French Socialist Euro-MPs have joined forces to attack UK Government cuts to the coastguard service.

“UK ships will now have to rely on the French to come to the rescue if they get into trouble in the waters of the Channel,” said Brian Simpson MEP, chairman of the European Parliament’s transport committee. “This is further proof, if ever we needed it, that the UK Government’s cuts are going too far and it’s a sorry state of affairs.

“The British have been able to ensure safety of stricken vessels at sea in our coastal waters in one way or another for many hundreds of years, and this is a sad day for British pride as we now abandon the English Channel and cut coastguard services around the rest of the British coast.”

French MEP for North-West of France Estelle Grelier said: “It is unfair for the British Government to expect their work to now be financed by the French national budget. Privatising the UK coastguard service clearly undermines its efficiency.”

Four British tugs were withdrawn from service in the Dover Straits – one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world – at the end of September. One of their main tasks was to get any stricken vessels, many carrying oil and chemical waste, out of the shipping channels and to safety to avoid an environmental disaster.

Security in the area is now financed by France, with Britain able to pay for the use of the service in an emergency.

Calls for the creation of an EU Coastguard have been opposed by Ukip. Derek Clarke, Ukip MEP, said: “The British Government must scupper this idea immediately. The EU has already taken control of our fisheries and they now wish to float a proposal to take over control of our coastguard.”

He also criticised the reduction in UK coastguard services, saying: “The coalition Government has already decided to close eight British coastguard stations to leave the total number of open centres at eleven – a dangerous move for the safety of our fishermen.”

In fact, it is a very dangerous move for anyone venturing near our beaches or out at sea.  We can but hope common sense will prevail, however ……..

We’ll let you know how the meeting goes.

SOS – Save Our Souls – Please!

18. September 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: Coastguards, CoastguardSOS, Environment, MCA Cuts, Oil Spills, SafetyAtSea

September 2011

I wasn’t going to write a post today but I have to in response to an article I read in The Independent – it’s about pollution disasters and the withdrawal of the four tugs that protect this Island of ours.

Since the calamitous oil spill disaster from the tanker Braer in Shetland, in 1993, (a total of 84,700 tonnes of crude oil spilled into the North Sea after the MV Braer ran aground and a total of £45 million was paid out in compensation), we have had four special tugs stationed around the coastline – our first line of defence.  Now the Government has decided not to fund them any more, as of the end of this month.  This flies in the face of advice from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, many MPs, the House of Commons Transport Select Committee and the recommendation from Lord Donaldson’s report after the Braer disaster.

In 2008, the consultancy Marico Marine,  produced a report which stated: “The United Kingdom appears to have little option but to continue its involvement in the contracting of emergency towing vessels.”

“Lack of capability within the commercial tug and towage sector (in effect, market failure), European Union obligations and societal expectations (zero tolerance of major marine environmental incidents) combine to dictate the need for this contingent capability.”

It added: “In cost benefit terms, averting one major shipping disaster and environmental incident of the scale of the Prestige [the oil tanker which broke up off the coast of Spain in 2002] would justify a contract price far in excess of that currently being paid until its expiry in 2011 and beyond.”

Apparently, the Maritime Minister, Mike Penning, thinks differently.  The many years of experience of experts, and all the detail reports written, count for nothing against Mike Penning’s fifteen months in the job!  If this move had a positive point anywhere, it may be digestible; but the fact is, it will only save £8 million, a paltry sum compared with any oil disaster that has happened.  So now it is basically fingers crossed that nothing untoward happens!

Tom Harris, MP for Glasgow South, sums it up well,

“It is completely crazy. It is incredibly irresponsible to be without these emergency vessels, even for a day. I sympathise with the need to look after the public purse, but that cannot come before lives and before the environment. This is a very dangerous game the Department for Transport is playing.”

Mike Penning, MP for the landlocked Hemel Hempstead constituency, is also responsible for the potential closure of some of our Coastguard Stations. This is even more irresponsible and unbelievable. Eight of them are threatened, Brixham, Clyde, Forth, Liverpool, Portland, Swansea, Thames and Yarmouth.

Can you imagine the scenario if these were closed? You’re on holiday in the beautiful county of Norfolk and you decide to go for a walk along the cliffs near Yarmouth. The grass is slippery and you stumble and fall off the side of the cliff and are inaccessible to be rescued from the cliff top. When the emergency call is put through to the Coastguard, it will not be a local person with local knowledge who answers the phone, it will be someone in Humber, which is, according to the AA route planner, 197.8 miles away and would take 4 hours and 36 minutes by road.

The person who answers the phone will not have local knowledge of Yarmouth and, as we all know, local knowledge saves lives. That co-ordinator will have to look up where you are saying the incident has happened. Precious seconds, even minutes, are lost ~ and so will lives be. Putting peoples’ lives at risk is indefensible, no amount of penny pinching is worth that. Our Coastguards go out in all weathers, as does the RNLI, putting their own lives at risk to save others. The men and women on the front line of our emergency services are all heroes, every single one.

The new website for The Maritime and Coastguard Agency proudly says on the front page;

Welcome . . . to the new home of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.  Our vision is to be the best maritime safety organisation in the world, committed to Safer Lives, Safer Ships, Cleaner Seas.

Our values are Safety, Professionalism, Trust and Respect.

The values are superb and, at the moment, the public has trust and respect for their safety and the professionalism of all Coastguard personnel. As for the vision, how can it be the best maritime safety organisation in the world when eight strategically positioned coastguard stations are potentially to close? It is an oxymoron. And what if the modern day technology goes down ~ how on earth will it be possible to do anything?

There is a national petition against the closures which 15 thousand people signed the first time it was made public. It is new and needs your signature to make those numbers become many thousands. There is not much time left in this consultation period but, if we make enough noise, perhaps it will be heard by the people making decisions and not fall on the deaf ears of the Secretary again.

Please, please, please sign the petition!

Written by Lynne Gray and originally posted on www.lynnerosie.wordpress.com