The emergency calls rescuers hate most
A vast search area includes rubbish dumps to seek discarded beacons
MARITIME rescuers have been spending countless hours combing through Cairns’ rubbish dumps to turn off emergency beacons that have been thrown away and then activated.
The Australian Maritime Rescue Authority’s SAR (Search and Rescue) Cairns crew are the busiest of the authority’s three SAR bases across the continent, which also includes Perth and Melbourne.
Last year, the aircrew – who are contracted via Cobham Aviation Services – performed 199 search and rescue operations, 94 of which were tasked from Cairns.
Many of these operations included providing high-altitude “top cover” for other SAR aircraft, however there were notable operations during 2018, such as assisting a Papua New Guinean fishing boat after it was attacked by pirates, and supplying antivenene from Cairns Hospital to a trawler in NT waters, after one of its crew members was bitten by a sea snake.
AMSA Cairns drop master Ray Wedmaier said, unfortunately, they had also spent significant time looking for emergency beacons at dumps in Cairns.
“We’ve had to go looking through dumps a few times looking for EPIRBs (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons) that have gone off – that’s not a fun job,” he said.
“That’s a huge waste of resources and I come home stinking of garbage.
“People just think they don’t need the EPIRB anymore and throw it in a wheelie bin.
“But EPIRBs can go for a few days, easily, for at least 48 hours.”
Cairns aircraft mission coordinator Odlanier Marin said emergency beacons, along with life jackets, were important to carry no matter how long vessels were spending on the water.
“We go looking for a lot of small vessels who think they’re going on a day trip, so don’t need much equipment,” he said.
“Those are the majority of jobs that we end up looking for: small dinghies, banana boats.
“The beacon makes the world of difference.”
He urged people to register their distress beacons with the authority.
“If the EPIRB is registered, the authority can contact you directly, or your next-of-kin to resolve issues before they may need to deploy us,” he said. editorial@cairnspost.com.au facebook.com/TheCairnsPost www.cairnspost.com.au twitter.com/TheCairnsPost