The Global Maritime Distress Safety System (GMDSS)'s an internationally agreed-upon set of safety procedures, types of equipment, and communication protocols used to increase safety and make it easier to rescue distressed ships, boats and aircraft. GMDSS consists of several systems, some of which are new, but many of which have been in operation for many years. The system's intended to perform the following functions: alerting (including position determination of the unit in distress), search an… (More on Gmdss)