Emergency procedures in New Zealand
Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand
The Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) is New Zealand’s national search and rescue organisation.
RCCNZ covers one of the world’s largest search and rescue regions (SRR) and leads major maritime mass rescue operations within its SRR.
Search and Rescue Plans
Ideally, cruise operators to New Zealand will lodge a search and rescue plan for their vessels with RCCNZ.
The need for a uniform basis for the establishment of plans for cooperation between passenger ships and search and rescue (SAR) services in accordance with SOLAS regulation V/7.3, is very important. For this reason, the International Maritime Organization has published guidelines to help ships to cooperate with SAR services. MSC.1/Circ.1079/Rev.1
A passenger ship must have a plan on board for cooperation with the appropriate SAR services in event of an emergency. The SAR plan does not replace a company’s more detailed emergency response plans already in place, but these should be linked so the response to an emergency is co-ordinated effectively between the response on-board, the Company’s emergency response team ashore and SAR services. The SAR plan is to be exercised periodically based on the circumstances in which the ship operates, but not more than once in any twelve-month period.
The plan for cooperation should contain the basic information which will enable the response to any emergency to commence without delay. This information will include direct contact details for the three parties – ship, company, and SAR services or SAR data provider.
Maritime NZ believe it will significantly enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the response to an emergency if passenger ship crews and operators have developed a good mutual understanding with the SAR services available to them, however, there can be administrative difficulties in maintaining direct links between a ship transiting a number of SAR regions. For such ships it is not necessary to hold a copy of the ship's SAR plan for cooperation at RCCNZ, provided that the plan is readily accessible by each RCCNZ through the use of a SAR data provider.