Neel Mehta
The International Maritime Rescue Federation and its partner McMurdo Group have given four Honouring Excellence in Rescue Operations awards in recognition of search-and-rescue efforts around the world.
IMRF and McMurdo gave the H.E.R.O. awards at a ceremony held Wednesday in Washington, D.C. and Lisbon, Portugal. The event was made available via video conference from both locations.
The ceremony also included the first-ever designation of an outstanding service award named after Vladimir Maksmimov, a former Inmarsat director of SOLAS services who died earlier this year and was chosen for a H.E.R.O. lifetime achievement award.
Mohammed Drissi of Morocco received the new Vladimir Maksmimov Award for his service in the search-and-rescue arena as regional coordinator for the International Maritime Organization in the Rabat SAR region.
Captain Herve LePage, master of France-registered ship CMA CGM ROSSINI, and his crew were chosen for the individual contribution award in recognition for their rescue of catamaran Llama Lo off South Africa’s coast in October 2015.
The Proactiva Open Arms Team won the team award for their rescue of several hundred victims of people smuggling after a vessel broke apart in the sea off Lesbos with a large loss of life.
James Benson from the RNLI and Bournemouth University design department took the technology award for their design of a “Bottle Buoy” flotation device for low-resource communities to use as a public rescue equipment and swimming instruction tool.
