Who Answers the Call?

When a boat with an EPIRB device gets into trouble and a signal is sent, who answers the call?

Never gave it much thought until seeing a tweet from Peter Mello mentioning an interview with an organization called AMVER on his Sea-Fever Blog.

Turns out that the US Coast Guard sponsors AMVER, which receives EPIRB distress calls worldwide and sends the nearest ships to aid in a rescue.

How does AMVER know which ships to send? How quickly does AMVER decide to send help before confirming a signal is real? How can you help?

To get the answers to these and many other interesting questions - answers that can help save lives - take a few minutes and check out Peter's podcast as he gets the facts about AMVER, as well as one of the recent rescues in which they were involved. (Full blog post and interview)

You can also learn more about AMVER at their official website.

U.S. Coast Guard photo by Coast Guard Cutter Northland, www.uscg.mil.

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