The Baltic Sea is home to some of the world’s busiest shipping routes. What happens if there is an accident that requires a large-scale rescue operation? Teams of divers from several countries would likely be required. An EU-funded project is helping to build additional capacity for such a joint intervention.
Preparing for joint rescue operations: divers team up around the Baltic Sea
- 01 August 2017
DiveSMART Baltic is improving coordination and cooperation in the area, and thereby boosting our capacity to save lives.
Initiated by partners from Finland, Poland and Sweden, the DiveSMART Baltic project also involves institutions in Denmark, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as divers from Estonia. National authorities, emergency services and other relevant entities are involved in this bid to foster closer cooperation among the teams of divers that might one day be called upon to carry out joint rescue operations in the Baltic Sea.
The project focuses on disaster preparedness in the event of an incident that places large numbers of people at risk. The partners are notably providing training, mapping resources and drawing up guidelines.
Stronger together
The case for international cooperation in the face of such challenges was thrown into sharp relief by the capsizing of the Costa Concordia in 2012, the partners argue. Few countries would have the capacity to deal with such a severe incident on their own, they note. Given the sheer size of some passenger vessels, search and rescue operations might have to be organised for hundreds or even thousands of people. The sinking of the Estonia, a tragedy that unfolded in the Baltic Sea in 1994, claimed 852 lives.
About 2 000 vessels are estimated to be at sea on any given day in this area, parts of which are notoriously difficult to navigate — and the weather can be rough. If an accident occurs, rescue operations have to be mounted as fast as possible to limit the potential loss of life due not only to drowning, but also to exposure in the very cold water.
DiveSMART Baltic is helping to ensure that teams of divers from several countries can cooperate smoothly and effectively in such situations. “A preparedness that saves time will also save lives,” said Else Timms of the Swedish Coast Guard, who leads the project together with project manager Jonas Westerberg.
Ready, willing and able
By May 2017, with nearly two more years to go on the project, the partners had already made considerable headway, noted Timms. An inventory of diving capacities and resources such as pressure chambers, sonars and remotely operated vehicles had been completed, and an analysis of gaps in emergency preparedness had been carried out.
The partners have also conducted several table top exercises, to be followed by practical exercises scheduled in late 2017 and early 2018. The preparation of guidelines for joint intervention at an accident site is under way, establishing common ground for tasks such as the detection of survivors, underwater cutting and blasting in order to gain access to a sunken vessel, and the handling of decompression issues for individuals that are being brought back up to the surface of the water.
The project also identified improvements that would help to facilitate such operations. Aspects considered notably included evacuation suits for survivors, the provision of light and heat, and adaptations of the diving equipment that would make it easier to use small entrances into a vessel. Adjustments needed in view of the specific conditions in the Baltic Sea with its dark, cold waters were also taken into account.
A diving council involving representatives of all EU countries in the area is to be set up to sustain the momentum created by DiveSMART Baltic following the end of the project, Timms explained. The council’s role, she added, will include annual updates of the inventory as well as the organisation of joint exercises.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “DiveSMART Baltic” is EUR 2 246 914, with the EU’s European Regional Development Fund contributing EUR 1 719 202 through the “Interreg Baltic Sea” Operational Programme for the 2014-2020 programming period. The investment falls under the priority “Sustainable transport”.