6. Conclusions
This paper has introduced the Vessel TRIAGE method, which
offers a novel way to assess and communicate the safety level of
vessels in a maritime distress situation, addressing a need voiced
by especially SAR operators. The method is developed in close
cooperation with various stakeholders, and is used to categorize
the situation in one of four Vessel TRIAGE safety levels. These have
implications to operational focuses by the involved actors. A central
element is a threat factor matrix, which is used alongside a
set of questions to determine the safety level, accounting for contextual
factors such as crew capabilities and weather conditions. A
form for using the method in practice has also been developed.
The results of a survey among various stakeholders in maritime
SAR indicate that the method in itself is a good tool to categorize
the vessel’s safety level. Notwithstanding some negative feedback,
the method is very positively received by the survey respondents.
Some concerns about the practical use of the method suggest that
one area of further study should be to test the method in SAR exercises
and ultimately in actual maritime distress situations. Nevertheless,
the Vessel TRIAGE method is already being implemented in
Finnish SAR organizations and several Finnish shipping companies’
emergency procedures, and has led to technological developments
in operational survivability decision support systems.
A key advantage of the Vessel TRIAGE method is that it has been
developed in close cooperation between multiple stakeholders.
This way, the method is kept as simple as possible, while condensing
knowledge from diverse sectors and organizations. The authors
believe this is an important reason why the evaluation results are
so positive across the range of evaluation criteria