Search and rescue calls increase
Pond Inlet organization hits the airwaves to promote safety on the land
Myles Dolphin
Northern News Services
Published Monday, March 3, 2014
MITTIMATALIK/POND INLET
The increasing number of search and rescue operations around Nunavut is a cause for concern, according to a government official.
Volunteers with the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association prepare to board a Cormorant helicopter in Iqaluit as part of a joint search and rescue exercise with the Canadian Air Force in January 2013. - NNSL file photo |
Ed Zebedee, director of Nunavut's Protection Services, said the 10 to 15 per cent annual rise is an alarming trend that must be reversed.
"Our strategy is to get more public awareness and trying to get local search and rescue (SAR) teams to spread the message in their communities," he said. "We encourage hamlets, SARs and hunters and trappers associations to do community announcements. Spring time is right around the corner and that's the busiest season for search and rescue."
One High Arctic hamlet has answered the call to increase awareness. In Pond Inlet, members of the SAR team speak on the local radio station every Thursday and share their knowledge with the community.
Mary Jaworenko, the group's co-coordinator, said the idea came up late last year.
She said young hunters are always going out on the land and they need to be prepared in case of emergency.
"We try to remind people to be ready before they head out," she said. "If they get stranded, or their snowmobile breaks down, they need to know what to do. Maybe they can fix their machine and make it run again."
The hamlet has made 15 SPOT devices available for residents to borrow and Jaworenko said they frequently run out.
The SAR team, made up of 31 volunteers, is much busier than before, she added.
"It used to be so quiet but now we get calls of all kinds," she said.
"People try to be prepared when they go out on the land but accidents happen. That's just part of it."
The group was recently involved in the search for a 13-year-old boy who got lost while seal hunting near Pond Inlet.
Jaworenko wouldn't comment on whether the community planned on changing its search and rescue procedures as a result of the young boy's death.
Zebedee said training for SAR teams, carried out through the Municipal Training Organization, takes place on a rotational basis and covers every Nunavut community after a few years.
In late 2012, Protection Services began using a new tool to track search and rescue operation data, called the Canadian Inland Search and Rescue Incident system.
Zebedee said it turns out most searches are for people aged 41 to 50 years old, and most causes were preventable, such as a lack of fuel or faulty snowmobiles.
Last year, 30 Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet residents were certified as civilian search and rescue spotters.
The Civil Air Search and Rescue Association trained the students to spot "missing" people on the ground on ice floes, and report their positions using the skills they were taught.
