Groups hone rescue skills

Naturaliste Volunteer Marine Rescue joined forces with St John Ambulance and WA Police last week for the first co-ordinated marine training exercise in almost a decade.

The operation, dubbed Eagle’s Claw 2016, involved two simultaneous simulated incidents and allowed emergency service to assess their level of preparedness.

Commander Geoff Brierly told the Times he was impressed with the co-ordinated response and said the three services working together was for the benefit of the community.

One simulated incident involved a vessel, steered by a drunk and aggressive skipper, hitting a submerged object and losing power.

One casualty had head injuries while the other had broken ribs and a suspected punctured lung.

The second scenario involved a shark interaction at Swan Wreck.

Training officer John Lawrence said the exercise demonstrated areas for improvement for all services involved.

“For us it was great to have St John Ambulance on board the vessels to give advice to the crews on first aid and casualty triage,” he said.

“Everyone in our unit is senior first-aid-trained, but to have people with a lot of experience help you out has provided us with food for thought and highlighted some areas to improve on.

“Working with the local police was great because we’ve had real-life scenarios where we’ve worked alongside each other and building on that relationship can only help us in the future.”

During the post-exercise briefing session, community paramedic Dane Hendry highlighted how services overlap in emergency situations.

”At the end of the day, anyone who is involved in an unusual incident, which is what this would be, knows that whoever’s there at the time does whatever they can,” he said.

Naturaliste Volunteer Marine Rescue plans to hold biannual coordinated training activities.