Rescuer call-out for new recruits

A plea has been launched for volunteers to come forward and help protect the northeast coastline.

Coastguard teams from Banff and Moray have asked for local people to consider signing up with the agency to ensure that life-saving duties, including missing-person searches, can continue.

A message posted online by the Moray Coastguard team detailed the need for more volunteers and has since been shared almost 100 times.

A spokeswoman for the Coastguard Agency urged people considering a role in the Banffshire area to make contact.

She said: “It takes a special kind of person to volunteer as a Coastguard.

“It could be you helping to save a life or reuniting someone with their family.

“It’ll stretch you in ways you’ll never expect and you’ll find you can do things you never dreamed of doing.”

In Aberdeenshire, Coastguard teams have bases in Portsoy, Banff, Gardenstown, Fraserburgh, Peterhead, Cruden Bay and Stonehaven. They are regularly called out to assist police, ambulance and lifeboat crews with searches of the coastline and recovery operations.