COAST GUARD ROUNDUP

ON THEIR GUARD

Despite lockdowns, the Irish Coast Guard had a busy 2020 under difficult circumstances.

Despite the impact of COVID-19 that saw movement and activity severely restricted over the course of 2020, the Irish Coast Guard saw another very busy year, particularly in late summer. In total, the maritime emergency organisation’s three Rescue Coordination Centres at Malin Head, Valentia Island and MRCC Dublin responded to 2,643 incidents. This compares to 2,490 incidents in 2019.

Due to nationwide lockdowns when the country was hit by the first wave of the pandemic, the months of February, March and April saw the lowest recorded number of incidents in recent years, but the figures rose dramatically as summer approached, and August and September proved to be exceptionally busy.

There were 464 maritime incidents recorded in August, compared to 369 in the same month in 2019, and 307 incidents recorded in September compared to 239 the previous year.

DANGERS

The Coast Guard noted that an increase in two particular activities contributed to the rise in safety concerns and the number of incidents in these months: The number of people using inflatable devices such as lilos and dinghies on beaches and inland waterways during the summer months, and an increase in the number of people participating in open water swimming in autumn and into winter.

Public safety messages were promoted throughout the year via the revamped www.safetyonthewater.gov.ie website and other social media platforms in conjunction with the Marine Safety Communications Sub-Group consisting of the Coast Guard, Water Safety Ireland, the RNLI, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, and the Commissioners of Irish Lights and Irish Sailing. This campaign proved successful, with the Coast Guard praising the fact that the majority of the public were heeding these safety messages regarding open water swimming and adhering to basic safety precautions.

The core safety message of Raise the Alarm and Stay Afloat, also continued to be promoted across the year, highlighting the importance of never engaging in any commercial or recreational boating activity without wearing a fully-serviced life jacket or personal flotation device, coupled with a capacity to raise the alarm via radio or personal locator beacon.

Unfortunately, the Coast Guard did nevertheless record a total of 72 drownings in Ireland in 2020, and while each of these was tragic, the figure is down on 2019 numbers.

However, with a particular emphasis on what it categorises as Lives Saved, which is assistance provided that prevented loss of life, severe risk to life, or protracted hospitalisation, the Irish Coast Guard recorded that 391 individuals’ lives were saved in 2020 through their direct action.

OTHER SERVICES

The Coast Guard Helicopter services provided under contract by CHC Ireland, which operates day and night services out of bases at Sligo, Shannon, Dublin and Waterford, flew a total of 781 missions, up slightly on 2019 (770 missions).

In addition to Search and Rescue services, these missions included 24/7 emergency medical support and interhospital transfers to the HSE, including emergency paediatric transfers to the UK.

The 44 Volunteer Coast Guard units that provide a combination of rescue boat, cliff rescue, shoreline search and emergency community support in conjunction with other emergency services such as An Garda Síochána, the National Ambulance Service, Fire Services and Mountain Rescue, were tasked with a total of 1,270 missions in 2020. These missions included COVID19-related transport support provided to the HSE.

The RNLI, which is categorised as a declared resource to the Coast Guard meaning that each individual station can be directly requested to respond to individual incidents, were tasked with 783 missions in total in 2020. On top of this, Community Inshore Rescue Boats responded to 84 missions.

MRCC Dublin, which acts as the national single point of contact for processing satellite beacon alerts and Emergency Locator Transmissions (ELTs) from vessels and crafts of all types within the Irish rescue region, recorded a total of 192 satellite beacon alerts.

ADVANCES

2020 saw further development in the use of Small Unmanned Aircraft drone systems (UAVs), which have enabled Coast Guard units to enhance their search capabilities, and this year the organisation anticipates it will have nine units with these search capabilities.

In preparation for future developments in VHF (Very High Frequency) Data Exchange systems, the Coast Guard’s engineering branch also completed equipment updates to several of their hilltop sites around the country in 2020.

Following on from the publication of the 2019 National Search and Rescue Plan (NSP), June of last year saw the publication of the National Maritime Oil & HNS Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP). This important document established a national framework and strategy to coordinate marine pollution preparedness and response, which the Coast Guard will play an essential role in.

THANKS

Over the course of what was a difficult year for all, the Irish Coast Guard said that their biggest challenge was to ensure the 24/7 delivery of their full search and rescue services despite the unprecedented situation brought on by the global pandemic, but Coast Guard Director Eugene Clonan praised the organisation for their achievements, saying: “I want to thank all the men and women that make up our search and rescue community for the discipline and commitment they have demonstrated in maintaining service availability through the most challenging of times.”