Leif Wigman-Nilsson, Coast Guard Sector Guam search and rescue controller, said majority of the cases involves fishermen who fish on the edge of the reef and swimmers who swim over and beyond the reefs.
“Fishermen and swimmers are the two groups most involved in the deaths that occur at sea each year,” Nilsson said.
He said other cases involve sea emergencies and accidents where the boats sink, break down, catches fire and other causes.
He said 400 cases a year is a small number compared to other places like Miami which averages about 3,000 search and rescue cases a year, but total coordination between responding agencies is still important.
Nilsson conducted one-day training for Saipan’s first responders at the Pacific Islands Club together with U.S. Coast Guard Guam Planning officer Terence Summers yesterday.
Nilsson said he conducts regular training in his area of responsibility throughout the year about search and rescue.
“The training is important because coordination between all the other agencies that are involved is necessary to be successful. If we all do search and rescue and don’t understand what other agencies are doing, our efforts will not be effective,” he said.
“We have to speak the same language in search and rescue so that when one asks for assistance, we know what to do,” Nilsson added.
He said the last training he conducted was for first responders on Rota, and the next will be on Tinian sometime next year.
Paul Plunkett, Coast Guard contingency planner/port security specialist, said the 30 participants were representatives from the Department of Public Safety, the Emergency Management Office, the U.S. Navy, the fire division, Commonwealth Ports Authority police officers, and other first responders in emergency cases.
Plunkett said during the training, the participants were given situations to address, like the search pattern they have to conduct: shoreline search, barrier, tracking, sector, expanding square search, parallel and creeping line search.
“Last year, we did a full scale exercise where we threw a fake body in the waters between Tinian and Saipan and the participants have to conduct search and rescue operations,” Plunkett said.
Paul said they may be doing another full scale exercise next year that will include first responders from Tinian and Rota.
