RESCUES INVOLVING leisure craft and shore anglers have shown another increase in offshore and inland waters over the past year, according to latest Coast Guard statistics.
The figures for 2007 show a 38 per cent rise in nuisance calls to Irish Coast Guard staff, while hoax calls are at half the level recorded almost a decade ago.
Incident numbers last year involving Coast Guard staff and rescue agency volunteers were up by 154 cases on 2006. Almost half of the total number of 1,961 incidents occurred within a mile of the coast, at 958 rescues.
Some 658 alerts occurred offshore and 345 in inland waters.
Last year began with the extensive sea, air and shoreline searches in January for the seven fishing crew missing off the southeast after the sinkings of the Pere Charlesand Honeydew II. The bodies of the seven men still have not been found.
Incidents involving yachts and dinghies were up 50 per cent, while there was a 75 per cent increase in call-outs involving shore anglers in difficulty. There was a 120 per cent increase in diving incidents, up to 22, and there were four call-outs to assist people in caves.
There was a 31 per cent increase in surfing incidents and a similar increase in call-outs to kayakers. There was a 10 per cent increase in jet-ski incidents. There were 27 aircraft incidents which required Irish Coast Guard assistance.
Royal National Lifeboat Institution crew and volunteers were in extensive demand, being involved in 736 incidents co-ordinated by the Coast Guard. The Shannon Sikorsky was the busiest of the four Coast Guard helicopters, with Sligo a close second, followed by Dublin and Waterford.
There were 112 medical evacuations from islands and 78 from vessels in Irish waters.
The Coast Guard said that a drop in call-outs to people involved in angling, rowing, sailboarding and kitesurfing showed that its safety on the water message was being heeded.
In the continuing row over proposed downgrading of Donegal's Malin and Kerry's Valentia coast radio stations, the Department of Transport says a review of locations is "currently under way" and the possibilities of a "west coast base" have narrowed.
The choice will be between a site in the Limerick-Shannon area or Malin or Valentia, it says. "No officer will be forced to move or lose their jobs. Should the decision be to move from Malin or Valentia, the possibility of keeping existing staff running their current watches from their existing stations is also under evaluation."
