AMSA Connect phone services may have longer wait times on Monday 1 June 2026 while we operate with reduced staffing due to the Reconciliation Day Public Holiday in Canberra. Our search and rescue team will continue to operate during this time.
From 1 January 2022, AMSA will provide 24-hour nationwide monitoring of high frequency (HF) radiotelephone distress, urgency and safety communications in Australia.
We are responsible for casualty response and pollution prevention in the marine environment. Our response capabilities are coordinated and maintained under the National Plan for Maritime Environmental Emergencies.
Under the National Plan, we have marine pollution response equipment positioned in strategic locations around Australia to support response to an incident.
In September 2017 the Western Australian Department of Transport ran Exercise Ningaloo Challenge, which was the largest and most complex maritime environmental emergency response exercise ever conducted in WA.
Our search and rescue modules provide background information as well as information about preparation, principles of how to conduct a search and rescue operation and how to respond to specific kinds of emergency.
Exercise George Bass, held on 5 and 6 June 1996, was the major national oil spill response exercise conducted by Australia's National Plan to Combat Pollution of the Sea by Oil for the years 1995 and 1996. Similar major exercises are held each two years, the last being Exercise Capricorn held in Gladstone in March 1994.