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Commercial fishing remains one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States, and by law all commercial fishing vessels operating more than three nautical miles from the coast are required to carry an EPIRB, whether offshore, on inland waters or the Great Lakes. According to the Coast Guard, the Mid-Atlantic region alone is home […]
Innovation in maritime search and rescue beacon technology has been developing at an exponential rate, resulting in faster detection of digital cries for help, greater accuracy in pinpointing the exact location of the distress signal and the ability to generate localised alerts; allowing nearby vessels to support a rescue. The overall impact has been to […]
The addition of GPS receivers into 406MHz search and rescue beacons in the 2000s was the biggest shake up of the international search and rescue system since the activation of the global Cospas Sarsat distress alerting satellite network in 1981. By including GPS recivers beacons reduced the search location from square miles to an exact […]
This page explains everything you need to know about EPIRBs: how they work, how much they cost, how they differ from Personal Location Beacons (PLBs) and how you can set one up. An Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon or EPIRB is used to alert search and rescue services in the event of an emergency. It does this by transmitting […]
The inclusion of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) receivers (better known as GPS) into 406Mhz search and rescue beacons in the 2000s was the biggest shake up of the internationally search and rescue system since the activation of global Cospas Sarsat satellite network in 1981. By including GNSS; via GPS satellites; beacons reduced the search […]
The multi-national, free to use, satellite-based search and rescue network COSPAS SARSAT will reach the 40th anniversary of its 1981 launch in less than three years. Yet, the seemly invisible lifesaving network has much to celebrate, besides the 43,000 lives saved to date through its complex infrastructure of satellites, ground stations and rescue coordination centres.
Galileo’s development is part of the EU’s preparations for upgrading the international distress beacon locating organisation COSPASSARSAT’s Search and Rescue (SAR) Ecosystem under the MEOSAR program, which requires new earth based antenna and a network of 72 GNSS satellites, made up of the US GPS, EU Galileo and Russian Glonass constellations.
Recent research has shown that 570 fires have occurred on large vessels in Europe between 2000 and 2015, with 359 of these occurring at sea. The report produced by the Finnish Border Guard and Finnish Transport Safety Agency, shows that ship fires pose the greatest risk to maritime safety compared to other types of […]
Within the marine industry, the importance of mandates in driving safety innovation and equipment adoption is widely known. From AIS electronics legislation for internal waterways, requirements for hands-free options on EPIRBS and the future banning of non-GNSS (GPS) EPIRBS, the US has been leading the way. Ireland’s BIM organisation used life jacket and PLB […]
In Part I of our blog, Shipping: Is the Industry safer than ever, we discussed recent research that shows losses at sea in the shipping industry have been on a consistent downward trend over the past ten years. That post reviewed historic regulations that have contributed to better safety at sea. Today we will […]