Shortly after 18:00 this evening, the Coast Guard’s Maritime Operations Centre received a report of an Emergency Position Indicator Radio Beacon (EPIRB) adrift near Skerries. A member of the public had spotted and fortunately retrieved the EPIRB drifting at the water’s edge on the Skerries coast and immediately notified the Coast Guard.

These EPIRBS are carried on vessels as a means of alerting the Coast Guard should the vessel be in distress. For useful advice and information on EPIRBS, visit the Safety on the Water website by clicking here. The Department’s Marine Notice #8 of 2006 also has useful guidance on the correct operation of EPIRBS.

Thankfully, this was an old and correctly deactivated EPIRB and no false distress alert was transmitted. The Coast Guard did manage to identify and contact the EPIRB’s owner; a local fisherman who confirmed that the decommissioned EPIRB had been reported stolen some months previously. The Skerries Coast Guard team successfully repatriated the EPIRB with its owner.

Incident #13 of 2012

Skerries Coast Guard – a voluntary rescue unit of the Irish Coast Guard.