MERRF is sited in the remote north-coastal Gitga’at community of Txalgiu (Hartley Bay) BC. The Gitga’at First Nation, a member of the Tsimshian Nation group, showed the world their generosity and Maritime expertise in 2006 when Gitga’at voluntarily rescued, and then housed, 200 Queen of the North passengers from their sunken ferry. The Nation’s mission through that icy wet night and the days that followed inspired the emergency response component of this RCM SAR (Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue), which recognizes the Nation’s countless generations of ecological and maritime knowledge.