Idea | GPS in life jackets | Shiretoko sightseeing boat sinking accident

Measures against marine accidents

Rescue activities in cold seas are required within 1 hour

The tour boat "KAZU I" sank on April 23, 2022.

Even after 10 days, there are still 12 missing people.

The discovery of 14 passengers at depths above 100 meters is a constant effort of the searchers.

Shiretoko sightseeing ship, country-led withdrawal of hull ... Starts onboard search and preparatory work with "saturation diving": Society: News: Yomiuri Shimbun Online (yomiuri.co.jp)

Since the sea is wide and deep, and is moved by ocean currents, it may be difficult to easily search for missing persons with current technology.

According to a survey by "Are there any survivors here? What are thesurvival conditions for passengers in the accident of the Shiretoko sightseeingboat Kazuwan? |  Brilliant eggs (greenpinkeggs.com)", the seawater temperature at that time was 2 to 3 degrees Celsius.

It seems that the time to survive at this water temperature is about 1 hour.

You can see that it is a very harsh environment.

Regarding this matter, I wondered if it would be possible to equip passengers and crew with transmitters such as GPS in order to promptly rescue them.

It seems that there were people who thought the same way, and when I looked it up, I found the following sites.

Proposal) GPS for life jackets – ProposalJAPAN (Proposal Japan) (teianjapan.com)

Here, along with a proposal to attach GPS to life jackets, it is said that the cost-effectiveness of GPS normalization and search activities should be clarified as a material to consider whether it is realistic.

What you should know when you look into amarine accident What is the unexpected rescue cost? ?? According to(bousai.press), there is no claim to the rescued party.

This is because the Japan Coast Guard and the Marine Rescue Japan, which works as volunteers, are responsible for the rescue.

Apart from that, it is also written that it will cost about 220,000yen considering the cost to doctors and nurses.

This is only the burden of the rescued side, and the amount that the Japan Coast Guard and others actually worked on should have been paid from taxes, so the cost-effectiveness of search activities must continue to be considered.

In addition, it is estimated that it will cost more than 1 billion yen for the scale of this tour boat to raise the hull.

These are likely to be in a different field from the GPS measures this time, but just in case, the bill seems to go to the tourist company that caused the accident.

Is it possible to use a GPS key chain or bracelet?

Well, I thought about wearing a GPS bracelet or key chain to help with the search activity.

It is rechargeable and of course completely waterproof.

Life jackets can be considered as suggested by the above person, but depending on the situation, it may not always be possible to wear a life jacket.

GPS key chains can be worn on clothes, trousers, arms, watches, etc.

This is a loan.

It may be a condition for getting insurance.

Tourism prices may be higher than ever, so it may be necessary to consider a mechanism that allows the government to compensate for the impact on the tourism industry.

Besides the key chain, I also considered a smartphone.

Use the GPS function of your smartphone and have your smartphone put in the provided waterproof bag.

The advantage here is that you can use your own smartphone, so the cost is low.

The disadvantage is that not all customers have smartphones.

In addition, it is left to self-management such as the charging status of the smartphone.

And the durability of the waterproof bag and the fact that the smartphone will be taken out of the waterproof bag.