To date, there are no facilities in many areas of the world, including many South Pacific nations. Whilst the theory of one universal global maritime communications system is sound, the implementation of the system has been less than successful. Whilst this solution presents no real problems for Europe, with its multitude of coast stations, and predominantly short voyages, it is next to useless for the vast expanses of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, where voyages of thousands of miles are undertaken by quite small vessels. The result is that, in many parts of the world, there are two separate maritime safety communication systems running in parallel. A merchant ship can therefore sail by a small vessel in distress, and vice-versa.
Alerts go unheard, and people die.
Accordingly, many Coast Radio Stations are now forced to rely directly on funding from their Governments and SAR agencies. Unfortunately, some developing countries have precious little revenue to allocate to Coast Radio Networks. Some countries are now providing SAR-related services only from their stations. Unfortunately, these initiatives may not come into effect for some time. Continue to Part 2 for more problems and possible solutions.