Mayday Hoaxes

Mayday!

The word every member of the boating community is familiar with, but also a word they almost dread to hear.

Tragic when it is a true call, appalling when it’s a hoax.

When a mayday is called it stuns the fishing community. “Oh my God. Who? Where? How? Why?” Every nearby vessel immediately joins the search. Personnel are stood up –paramedics, emergency rooms, law enforcement, etc.

Right now, the U.S. Coast Guard is investigating a hoax call that wasted up to $100,000 in taxpayers' money and many hours of rescuers' time early this past week-end.

Bob Coster, a Coast Guard civilian search and rescue controller said that a hoax caller, using a handheld radio, claimed his boat, the "Chum Bucket," was disabled by Buoy 10 at the entrance to the Columbia River.

"For the next three hours he sank, then he made it to shore and was the only survivor, then he said he was going to swim back out, because he could see his boat still partially afloat, and then he changed his mind," Coster said. "We pinned him down to the vicinity of Hammond, but he quit transmitting before we could really pin him down."

The Coast Guard searched for hours in the dark of night with helicopters from Air Station Astoria and motor lifeboats from Station Cape Disappointment, in Ilwaco, Wash., said Coster, only to determine the mayday was false.

"We even put the air crew into fatigue status," he said. Fatigue status is standby mode for a second shift. The Coast Guard investigates many false alarms each year, but only a handful are later classified as hoaxes, he said.

The idiots that call in hoaxes endanger all boaters by reducing the agency's ability to respond to real distress cases. They risk the lives of Coast Guard crews and cost taxpayers millions of dollars in wasted resources. Law enforcement and medical personnel are made ready instead of going about their normal jobs. Time and money are wasted by people who join in the effort, putting their own lives at risk and on hold.

Intelligence specialists investigating the Saturday hoax have a decent chance of catching the caller, because search and rescue coordinators traced his signal to a Hammond neighborhood, Coster said.

If caught convicted, he could face serious time in prison, fines of thousands of dollars and might have to reimburse the agency for the cost of its response.

Then there are the false flare sightings. Well intentioned people will often call in a vessel in distress when in fact it was fireworks. Regardless of the situation, the Coast Guard launches its search and rescue.

Before locking gates, improved lighting and port patrols, vessel break-ins were a fairly common occurrence. Almost every boat owner I know had their boat broken into on multiple occasions. As a rule the perps were teen-age boys and their favorite item to steal? Flares and smoke canisters. Go figure.

Here is a recent press release from the Coast Guard about tracking the callers:

COAST GUARD UNITS IN WASHINGTON STATE USING NEW COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

On December 22, 2006, Coast Guard units in Puget Sound and along the Washington coast took operational acceptance of a new maritime communications system known as Rescue 21. This system harnesses global positioning and cutting edge communications technology enabling the Coast Guard to perform all its missions with greater agility and efficiency.

This advanced command, control and communications (C3) system provides coverage in the Puget Sound, the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and the west coast of Washington, north of the Quinault Indian Reservation. This maritime "911 "system replaces a 30-year-old legacy communications system and improves the Coast Guard's search and rescue mission capabilities.

Components of the system include advanced direction-finding technology, which helps the Coast Guard identify hoax callers, saving time and taxpayer money and helping prioritize real emergencies. Rescue 21 technology also helps close coverage gaps and will narrow search areas, speeding rescues.

The new C3 system also improves interoperability with local, state and federal agencies as well as with first responders.