Members of the maritime SAR community gathered on 27 March for the IMRF’s latest #FutureSAR webinar, which was held to celebrate the launch of the IMRF’s #FutureSAR report entitled ‘Tides of Change: Adaptive Strategies for Maritime SAR in a Changing Climate’.

Click here to access the full report and Executive Summary, as well as to learn more about the IMRF’s #FutureSAR initiative.

The webinar was chaired by Jaakko Heikkilä, IMRF’s International Programme Manager, who highlighted the impact of climate change on the world’s ecosystems and oceans as well as on human health and socio-economic systems. Such changes in turn impose different kinds of impacts on emergency response services, including maritime SAR organisations.

Jaakko also highlighted the work done by the #FutureSAR Working Group, which includes members from Canada, Chile, China, Finland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The webinar also included talks from Brad Geyser, Honorary Life Governor at the NSRI in South Africa, and Tristam Newey, Civil Resilience Lead at HM Coastguard in the United Kingdom. Both highlighted climate change related real-life case studies that their organisations have had to tackle. Dr Jan Przydatek, Director of Technologies at Lloyd’s Register Foundation, which is supporting and helping to fund the IMRF’s #FutureSAR campaign and report, then spoke about the critical work Lloyd’s Register Foundation is doing to help advance public education in maritime issues, with a forward look to the future of maritime SAR operations amid a climate change-impacted environment.

You can watch the full webinar below: