Category Archives: water safety

Visit to Fingal Lifeguards – 6th June 2015

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Skerries Coast Guard vehicle

This morning, the Skerries Coast Guard team paid a visit to all the Fingal lifeguard stations in our response area. This included lifeguard stations at Donabate/Portrane, Rush, Skerries & Balbriggan. This weekend marked the start of the summer season for the lifeguard beaches. The Skerries team distributed safety posters and Coast Guard “missing children” wristbands to the lifeguards. Despite the sunny weather, the fresh gales deterred all but the kitesurfers from heading out on the water.

Remember – you should always swim at beaches where lifeguard are on duty and do heed their advice for the prevailing conditions.

Skerries Coast Guard – a voluntary coastal rescue unit of the Irish Coat Guard 

Coast Guard helicopter visit to Scoil Moibhi – 29th May 2015

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This morning, the Skerries Coast Guard team assembled at the Hills Cricket Club, Skerries to prepare the landing site for a visit from the Coast Guard’s Dublin based Sikorsky S92 helicopter. The Skerries team were joined by their fellow Coast Guards from Clogherhead.

Shortly before 09:30, the helicopter made radio contact with the Coast Guard ground team to confirm its imminent arrival. Orange smoke flares were deployed at the site, to assist the helicopter crew with assessing wind speed & direction. The Sikorsky helicopter landed on several moments later, the first time a Coast Guard helicopter had ever landed at the immaculate grasslands of the cricket club site.

The purpose of the visit was to allow the excited pupils of the nearby Scoil Moibhi National School an opportunity to explore the impressive helicopter up close and learn more about the work of the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard extends its sincere thanks to all at the Hills Cricket Club for allowing us the use of their club lands for the visit.

Marine Notice #3 of 2015 – deployment of data buoys, North Co Dublin

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The Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport has been advised that Techworks Marine Ltd will deploy four moored Marine Data Buoys to gather scientific data on marine mammals. These buoys will be deployed in the Irish Sea at Loughshinny and Portmarnock between 9th and 16th February. One buoy will be deployed off the Loughshinny coast and will remain in place for up to six months.

Each data buoy is 1.2m wide, yellow in colour and has a navigation light as follows; yellow in colour, 5 flashes every 20 seconds. The light has a 5 Nautical Mile range. All vessels are requested to give the data buoys a wide berth.

These buoys are being deployed as part of the Greater Dublin Drainage project being conducted by Irish Water. Further details on this project are available from their website

The full text of the marine notice along with the exact locations of the buoys is available from the Department’s website.

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Sky Lanterns Advice

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These airborne Chinese lanterns have become increasingly popular in recent years as a way of marking special events. However, they do pose a significant danger to aviation traffic and can cause the deployment of Irish Coast Guard resources on false rescue missions. Chinese lanterns, drifting across a night sky, are commonly mistaken by the public for marine distress flares.

If you are intending to release sky lanterns:

You must, before the release date, obtain permission in writing from the Flight Operations Dept of the Irish Aviation Authority. You can contact them at fod@iaa.ie or by phone at 01 603 1148

Just before releasing the lanterns:

To ensure your lanterns are not confused as a sighting of a distress signal, you must contact the following agencies just prior to releasing the lanterns:

  • Irish Coast Guard
  • Nearest Air Traffic Control unit
  • Nearest Garda station

The detailed advice and all contact phone numbers are contained in the IAA’s Sky Lantern safety leaflet, available from their website or by clicking here.

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Skerries Coast Guard – a voluntary search & rescue unit of the Irish Coast Guard