MEDIA RELEASE
20 September 2011

Southland Search And Rescue Exercise to Test Volunteers

Coastguard units in the southern region are once again pooling their resources and expertise to participate in a full-scale Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX) in Southland next weekend.

Code named ‘Tawhiri’(Maori God of Wind and Storm), the exercise, which was postponed in May due to weather conditions, involves staging a marine incident and is designed to test multiple search and rescue agencies’ standard operating procedure in response to a marine emergency.

The SAREX will also serve as a trial for the new location of the Incident Control Point which will be situated at Emergency Management Southland, where there is a state of the art, fit for purpose Emergency Operations Centre.

An integral part of the “one SAR” philosophy promoted by the NZ Search and Rescue Secretariat, the SAREX exercise involving volunteers from Coastguard’s Riverton and Bluff units as well as the Coastguard Southland Air Patrol unit, will be coordinated with the New Zealand Police and Land SAR.

Coastguard volunteers will need to expect the unexpected when they are paged for help next Sunday as they could find themselves assisting in any number of incidents faced by Coastguard on a regular basis. All influential elements including weather conditions, witness reports and communication mediums will come into play.

Mark Whitehouse, Exercise Director for the SAREX, says the aim of the SAREX is to get everyone working together so that when a real emergency happens they have the best chance of saving lives at sea, working together as one search and rescue team.

“The more Coastguard and other agencies practice together, the more it becomes second nature to our volunteers to respond effectively in a real emergency. When someone is in trouble, we want to instinctively put into practice all our skills and knowledge to save lives at sea.

“The SAREX provides volunteers with a hands-on experience which will ultimately prepare them even better than before for real-time marine search and rescues,” says Whitehouse.

Search & Rescue Exercise (SAREX) - Tawhiri
When: Sunday 10.00am, 25 September 2011
Where: Southland

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