About 30 crewmembers from the RCMP, Canadian Coast Guard, Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue (RCM-SAR) and the shíshálh Nation’s resource management department were in Gibsons Jan. 12 for a “SAR pod” training exercise.
“The concept is to exercise the family of maritime SAR resources that are available to the Coast Guard to use in time of need, which includes Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue, RCMP, other vessels of opportunity and other provincial agencies,” said Jeff Carrow, a senior search and rescue officer with the Coast Guard.
The morning was spent in classroom sessions, before the crews of the Canadian Coast Guard lifeboat CG 158, the RCMP vessel Higgitt, RCM-SAR stations in Gibsons, Halfmoon Bay and Pender Harbour, and the shíshálh Nation took to the water.
Carrow said none of the crews know the exercise scenario ahead of time. Saturday’s involved a search for missing kayakers – played by mannequins dropped in the water by the boat controlling the exercise.
“The number one priority for these [exercises] is building the relationships between us and our SAR partners. It’s an opportunity to learn how to work together,” Carrow said. “We get as many partners together as we can and we practise communing on the water, we practise organizing ourselves in a search on the water, we learn about what each other’s resources are.”
Carrow, who also has a lead role in SAR training for Indigenous communities in B.C., said the opportunity to include the shíshálh Nation crew was a key part of the exercise.
