The Hong Kong Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (HKMRCC) is responsible for coordinating

air-sea rescue Air-sea rescue (ASR or A/SR, also known as sea-air rescue), and aeronautical and maritime search and rescue (AMSAR) by the ICAO and IMO, is the coordinated search and rescue (SAR) of the survivors of emergency water landings as well as people ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

and an extensive area of the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phi ...

. Besides the

territorial waters The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potent ...

of Hong Kong, the area includes

international waters The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed region ...

lying to the north of latitude 10° north, to the west of longitude 120° east, and bounded by

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. The area covered is known as the Hong Kong Maritime Search and Rescue Region. The MRCC is a co-ordination centre and neither possesses nor has direct command over search and rescue (SAR) resources. Its role is to co-ordinate all available SAR resources to perform a maritime search and rescue mission. In doing this it may call on the resources of: * the Hong Kong Police Force Marine Region * the

Hong Kong Marine Department The Marine Department of the Hong Kong Government is responsible for maintaining safety and environmental protection of the harbour (Port of Hong Kong), ships registered/foreign ships in Hong Kong and monitor shipping traffic in Hong Kong Waters, ...

* the Hong Kong Government Flying Service * the

Hong Kong Fire Services Department The Hong Kong Fire Services Department is an emergency service responsible for firefighting and rescue on land and sea. It also provides an emergency ambulance service for the sick and the injured and gives fire protection advice to the pub ...

* equivalent resources of other governments in the region * naval forces in the region *

merchant shipping Maritime transport (or ocean transport) and hydraulic effluvial transport, or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people ( passengers) or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by sea has been widely used thro ...

and

fishing vessel A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing. The total number of fishing vessels in the world in 2016 was ...

s in the vicinity of the incident For administrative purposes, the MRCC forms part of the Hong Kong Marine Department.

References

External links

Hong Kong Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre website
Rescue coordination centres Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre Sea rescue organizations {{HK-gov-stub