Marine Rescue Technologies ltd. says it is pleased to announce that the company has fulfilled two thirds of their contracts to supply the Sea Marshall® man overboard systems to the Spanish fishing fleets.
The Spanish Authorities have passed a law requiring all fishing vessels to have a man overboard system fitted; they have classified this into two sections. Firstly inshore, which is any vessel that operates less than 60 miles from shore and secondly offshore which is any vessel operating at more than 60 miles from shore.
The inshore boats are equipped with a Sea Marshall® Crewguard CG-121 MKII man overboard alarm base unit on the bridge; and the deck crew is supplied with an ISP lifejacket with a Sea Marshall® PLB8-LR’SOS’ man overboard alerting unit fitted.
The offshore vessels are fitted with a Sea Marshall® SARfinder®1003 MOB locating unit instead of the Crewguard to allow them to locate an MOB without coast guard assistance. The system proved its effectiveness in spring of this year when the fishing vessel Cordero, registered in Spain, sank off the Northern coast. The fishing vessel, with a crew of eight, had purchased five lifejackets with Sea Marshall PLB8-LR’SOS®’ units fitted for the deck crew. Only four crewmembers where found, three were alive, one died due to hypothermia. All of the four located individuals were wearing lifejackets with Sea Marshall® AUs fitted. It was confirmed that the inbound SAR helicopter received the PLB8-LR’SOS®’ signal from 30 miles away. The remaining crew members were never located; it can only be assumed they were not wearing any type of lifejacket. One jacket with a Sea Marshall® AU fitted was found afloat with nobody wearing it. The vessel went down at 0139CMt off the Spanish coast in a force 10 storm with waves over 10 metres, details of exact location have yet to be confirmed. It is believed from eye witness reports that the vessel hit a container in the middle of the storm as a loud crashing noise was heard and the vessel subsequently sank in less than three minutes.
The ship's GPS 406MHz beacon did not function correctly when automatically deployed, it did not send out a GPS position, only a general alert that the vessel was sinking. SAR arrived on the scene some two and a half hours later because of this failure, but despite this the SAR helicopter was able to immediately track and recover the crewmembers wearing the lifejackets with Sea Marshall AUs fitted.
Andrew Brown, General Manager of MRT says “It is always sad when we hear that lives have been lost at sea, it is also encouraging to hear that our system was able to save lives and this incident highlights the effectiveness of the Sea Marshall® system.”
