Hoax calls to marine rescue services running at one a week

Hoax calls to the marine rescue services are running at one a week, the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, said yesterday when he issued last year's rescue statistics.

Such calls were irresponsible, costly and must be condemned, the Minister said. They could also be putting people's lives at risk in the case of a genuine emergency. The number of incidents last year was up on 1996, and there was a significant increase in the number of people assisted or saved by units of the Irish Marine Emergency Service (IMES). Some 6,531 people were assisted or saved, compared to 4,588 in 1996. Some 417 fishing vessels, 348 pleasure craft and 59 merchant vessels were assisted.

The Dublin rescue area, covering Carlingford to Youghal, recorded the greatest number of incidents involving pleasure craft in difficulty, reflecting the growth in interest in marine leisure.

During the year there were 283 call-outs involving IMES coastal units, and there were 118 operations for the IMES medium-range helicopter at Shannon. The Air Corps was involved in 122 callouts.

Lifeboat activity also increased, with 511 call-outs compared with 434 in 1996. Again, the Dublin rescue zone was the busiest area. Community rescue boats were called out on 20 occasions.

Referring to the rescue operation involving the Spanish flagship off the south-west coast last weekend, the Minister said the incident had occurred in the British rescue zone and was co-ordinated by Falmouth coastguard.

The RAF helicopter which was deployed refuelled at Cork to take advantage of a tailwind, the Minister said. The IMES helicopter was available at Shannon on standby, he stressed.