Search and Rescue at Sea: Do New Challenges Require New Rules?

Search and rescue at sea (SAR) has been always carried out under principles of customary law of the sea obliging vessels and states to help persons whose ships are in distress at sea. International treaties define more detailed conditions and obligations to provide adequate SAR. The rationale of all these principles and rules, as well as of the associated duties affecting the obliged persons/states to carry out and organize SAR activities, was that of increasing safety at sea and taking care of seafarers and fishermen (or passengers onboard vessels) who were at sea mainly for the purpose of work. The safety of ships has increased enormously in recent decades. Therefore the number of classical SAR operations has become a minimal fraction of those actually carried out to rescue, for example, leisure yachts, migrants and cruise ship tourists that venture into dangerous waters (including the Arctic) in pursuit of adventure. Thus, the original SAR rationale has drastically changed. We need to consider whether the obligations set at the international level for rescuers and affected states should be updated to deal with current rescue missions. To deal with the migration problem in the Mediterranean, the normal SAR schemes – while not being abandoned – have been largely supplemented by other forms of international cooperation. This chapter investigates these new forms of cooperation and presents some proposals for updating the SAR international regime to meet the new challenges posed by persons venturing to sea. The Author wishes to thank Chiara Cellerino and Lorenzo Schiano di Pepe for valuable comments on the draft of this paper. Neither of them is, however, even partly responsible for any remaining mistake or inaccuracy.