HER MAJESTY’S COASTGUARD

The way the Coastguard delivers the coordination of search and rescue operations on our coast and out at sea is changing.

The modernisation programme will see the National Maritime Operations Centre (NMOC) and 10 other Coastguard Operation Centres around the UK operate as an integrated network managing workload on a national basis. This means in a search and rescue operation there will be a much bigger and better support network available nationally to help Coastguards who may be dealing with multiple incidents at once.

National Maritime Operations Centre (NMOC)
The public won’t notice any difference. If you call 999 and ask for the Coastguard, or issue a mayday broadcast, there will still be someone there to help. There will be no reduction in rescue resources either. The Coastguard Rescue Teams, lifeboats, rescue helicopters and other rescue units that are sent out to help you will be unaffected.

 At the heart of this new set up is the NMOC based in Hampshire. After months of extensive tests and exercises, the centre went live for the first time in September 2014, taking on operations from both Solent and Portland Coastguard.

96 Coastguards will be working at the NMOC once the national network is fully operational by the end of 2015.

LOCATION
CLOSURE
JOIN NATIONAL NETWORK
NMOC

September 2014
Solent Coastguard
September 2014

Portland Coastguard
September 2014

Falmouth Coastguard

October 2014
Brixham Coastguard
November 2014

Holyhead Coastguard

December 2014
Liverpool Coastguard
January 2015

Milford Haven Coastguard

February 2015
Swansea Coastguard
March 2015

Humber Coastguard

April 2015
Thames Coastguard
June 2015

Aberdeen Coastguard

July 2015
Shetland Coastguard

August 2015
Belfast Coastguard

September 2015
Stornoway Coastguard

October 2015
Dover Coastguard

December 2015
London Coastguard

December 2015

Popular posts from this blog

Label your kit at the coast

Image
Kayaks. Canoes. Paddleboards. What do they all have in common? They’re quite often found on the coastline or drifting out to sea. And if we don’t know who they belong to, we can spend time searching for an owner when they’re home safe and sound. So please help us to help you. Label your kit so that if you do get separated from it, and it turns up somewhere, we can get hold of you. In recent weeks, our Coastguard Rescue Teams have found numerous items such as kayaks and canoes drifting out at sea or abandoned near the shoreline. Unfortunately, some of the items we have found have not had their owners’ contact details written on them nor been reported as missing to the Coastguard. As a result, it makes it difficult for us to find out who it belongs to and also means we can never be completely sure if someone is safe or in the worst case, in trouble at sea. This can place a huge strain on our resources especially during the busy summer period when we have to call upon our Coastgua
Read more

A short history of HM Coastguard

Image
Today HM Coastguard is a world leader in maritime search and rescue. Looking back almost 200 years, the goods, which now travel by road, were carried by hundreds of small ships. Year in year out dozens of ships and hundreds of lives were lost within sight of the coast. Public shock and dismay at the tragedies drove forward the creation of national life saving organisations. Though it’s beginnings lie in those decades HM Coastguard originated not to meet the dangers of the seas but to combat a threat to the country’s economy and security – smuggling. As soon as medieval taxes were charged on imports and exports, people began smuggling. By 1743 th e estimate was that half the tea drunk in Britain was illegally imported and shows that smuggling was highly profitable. Smugglers have often been romanticised but the reality was brutal. Local people lived in fear, with violent reprisals on informers and the murder of revenue officers, while corruption enabled smugglers to evade harsh p
Read more

BOSCASTLE FLOODS: TEN YEARS ON

Image
Boscastle Flooding 16 th August 2004 The storms of Monday 16 August 2004 saw three weeks worth of rain fall in one day. The resulting water began to be funnelled down the valleys surrounding Boscastle and soon the steep roads became rivers. By the time that the water reached the picturesque village, it had picked up enough momentum to become a raging torrent, sweeping into buildings, washing cars away and felling huge trees. Graham King runs the Witches Museum in Boscastle and was also the station officer for the Boscastle Coastguard Rescue Team at the time of the floods: “ My museum is situated next to the harbour near the river ,” says Graham “ and I can see the coastguard equipment store from there. Initially I was concerned that the vehicle and equipment were going to become stranded but I soon began to realise how quickly the situation was deteriorating and called Falmouth Coastguard ” From that point on the villagers and tourists stranded in flood waters were he
Read more