Drifting kayak sparks massive hunt in North Wales

A kayak which slipped loose from its tow has sparked an extensive search and rescue effort off Moelfre, north Wales this afternoon.

The kayak was spotted around 1.40pm today (24 August) and reported to HM Coastguard. Moelfre lifeboats, along with Cemaes and Moelfre Coastguard Rescue Teams were sent to search along with the HM Coastguard search and rescue helicopter from Caernarfon.

However it was found that the kayak had come loose from its tow and was just drifting with no-one on board.

Linda Roberts, senior maritime operations officer for HM Coastguard said: ‘Every time we receive a report where lives could be at stake, we have to carry out a search and rescue. We treat every emergency call on that basis. This afternoon we launched all the essential people and crews to go and search for someone who might have got into difficulty.

‘All it needed was for someone to contact us and tell us what had happened and all this would have been prevented. Please take a moment to think – if you lose something at sea like a kayak or inflatable, please let us know. We will always respond to a 999 call to the Coastguard but please help us by letting us know about lost maritime items at sea.’




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