FROM THE NORTHSIDE
Gordon Sampson writes about the 911 of the sea.
Two weeks ago, this column dealt with the Coast Guard Auxiliary; today we are taking a look into the world of marine communications and traffic services.
Just what is MCTS and how near is one of the marine centres to us?
Clermont Charland is an MCTS instructor located at the Canadian Coast Guard College.
“Just think of these services as the 911 of the sea; it’s the safety of life at sea,” he says.
He tells his graduates, “You are going to be the 911 of the sea. On the radio side you will be the ears of the Canadian Coast Guard. On the traffic side, you will be the eyes of the Canadian Coast Guard.
“If a ship is in distress at sea, they may call mayday, mayday, mayday. If you have a VHF radio, you call mayday on Channel 16. Channel 16 is the international distress and calling frequency in the marine world.”
A typical situation could be a fishing vessel fire 30 miles east of Glace Bay. The skipper manages to send a mayday call on VHF channel 16. The MCTS officer on duty receives the call. He requested all the essential information (position, number of persons on board, nature of the incident, vessel description, weather and sea conditions, type of life saving equipment, and so forth). Then the MCTS officer will contact the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre (JRCC) in Halifax. JRCC will then decide what kind of assistance is needed. They could send a rescue helicopter or a Coast Guard ship to assist. In the meantime, the MCTS officer will broadcast a mayday relay to see if any vessels in the area could assist.
When did all this come about? All the Coast Guard stations across Canada have the VHF Channel 16. The nearest one to us is located here in Sydney at the Canadian Coast Guard College, Sydney Coast Guard Radio/VCO.
And if you are on the ocean side as we are, you use another frequency, the MF or medium frequency. It’s like VHS but for short distances (within 50 miles). But if you were, say, 100 miles south of Louisbourg, you would use the MF (2182 KHz) frequency for long distances.
There is a lot of history behind such a development. In the early 1900s, the Coast Guard Radio Stations were implemented as a result of Marconi’s discovery of wireless telegraphy. The Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) centres were implemented in the 1970s.
VTS is like air traffic control, but on the oceans; it controls traffic within 200 nautical miles of Canada and the St. Lawrence
River.
They are high level VTS zones, e.g. if a ship is going to Halifax or St. John’s, for example, depending on their size, participation is mandatory.
There is no high level system here in Sydney Harbour. Rather, there is ECAREG –the Eastern Canada Vessel Traffic Services Zone.
On April 1, 1995, the Coast Guard Radio Stations and the VTS centres were amalgamated to form what we call today MCTS or Marine Communications and Traffic Services.
Today the Canadian Coast Guard Marine Communications and Traffic Services centres provide distress and safety call monitoring and co-ordinate responses, broadcast maritime safety information (weather and navigational warnings), screen vessels entering Canadian waters, deliver information and advice to regulate marine traffic movement, and take appropriate action to ensure the safe and efficient movement of vessels in Canadian waters.
As an MCTS Officer, you work 12-hour shifts and it could be very quiet or very busy, like 911 you never know what to expect.
The MCTS simulators are located at the Canadian Coast Guard College and we visited the radio and traffic simulator. We also visited the Sydney MCTS and met two officers on duty there, Shawn Hudson and Ray Samson. They could be working at the radio simulator, safety position, responding to distress messages, or at the traffic position to control traffic in the Canso Strait or Northumberland Strait. These officers are on duty 24/7.We don’t realize all that goes on at these consoles at Sydney Coast Guard Radio. There’s even a spare console in
case of a grave emergency.