Coast Guard divers should enter capsized vessels: jury

[DennisS]

Each ship has a training budget. Engine room personnell, boat handlers, electronics technicians, navigation, pursers and the slew of other personnel have to be trained. There is a constant flow of people on and off the ships as people rotate. It all comes down to the money in the training budget. Daily needs tend to get the priority, diesel school for the engineers, radar schools for the ETs, and bridge courses for the deck personell. It's a zero sum game. There is never enough money to send everyone to school that needs it.

 

[armyscuba]

The problem comes down to funding.
Every Coast Guard I know of is seriously underfunded, how are they to find the money to train people and buy equipment for penetration diving and then keep these people diving enough to stay proficient?

That is quite not the truth these days. The CG no longer falls under the D.O.T. but the Dept. of Defense..The CG has enough money for training. It just needs to decide on what.

 

[Bob3]

... The CG no longer falls under the D.O.T. but the Dept. of Defense.....

The initial post was concerning the Canadian Coast Guard, I'm not sure of their pecking order but if you violate SOPs there is usually hell to pay.
I recall the days when the Coasties would mooch spare parts off of us to keep their boat running.

 

[uwhooligan]

In Canada the Coast Guard and Armed Forces fall under different Federal Govt Department namely 'Fisheries and Oceans Canada' and 'National Defense' but for the purpose of maritime SAR they work together. Technically the Minister of National Defense is the Lead Minister for SAR, tasks being coordinated by 3 Rescue Co-ordination Centres, one on each coast and one in Trenton Ontario.

Link to CCG site mission statement which includes a budget breakdown, $73 million for Search and Rescue in the fiscal year 1998/1999
http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/sar/program/index_e.htm

 

[jillianheart]

The part that is the most tragic to me... i am from Galiano Island where the Captain and family were from, i was on the island that day everyone was listening to live scanners, residents of galiano who are trained divers and close friends of the family went to scene and were refused access to boat to attemp to save their own friends/family even though fully qualified and more years of diving expreience than anyone on the navy and coast guard. Secondly we are listening to reports over live scanner of coastguard hearing life activity in the boat and still NO ONE moved to go help due to the navy not being on scene. 3rd coast guard is search and rescue and should have the training before navy due to the fact that the are SEARCH & RESCUE, and 4th i have 5 good friends who are coast guard and cover those areas, and my best friend (coast guard) straight up said....the coast guard trains the navy is dive rescue!!! so eventhough the two govenment entities share training and experience, and even though the coast guard failed to do there main job and RESCUE we are coming up to yet another anniversary of the deaths of 5 amazing people, and one of the most amzing men i have ever met (father husband friend & captain of CR2) receives critisism from uneducated people with opinions, some hate mail blaming him for something beyond his control and not his fault, and an empty heart for those held dearest to him! I hold him to the highest regard, beleive he is one of the most amazing men i have ever had the pleasure of knowing and take solice in the fact that all the amazing lives lost that day are together and in a place that is so much more amazing than us, and we will all see them again!

 

[DT]

Better call Phil Nuytten and the boys to do the job from NUYTCO Research out there in BC.