SAN FRANCISCO — The Coast Guard assisted a commercial fishing vessel off Ocean Beach Monday evening
At approximately 4 p.m., Coast Guard Sector San Francisco watchstanders received a distress broadcast from the operator of the commercial fishing vessel Joyce, requesting immediate assistance due to vessel stability issues discovered while retrieving fishing gear.
Coast Guard Sector San Francisco watchstanders issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast and launched a Coast Guard Station Golden Gate boatcrew to respond. Once on scene, the boatcrew was contacted by the operator of the vessel, stating he was no longer in distress.
Shortly after informing the Coast Guard that he was no longer in distress, Joyce’s engines failed. The Station Golden Gate boatcrew took the vessel in tow and safely moored Joyce at Pier 45 in San Francisco.
While conducting a post search-and-rescue inspection of the vessel, the operator began to slip in and out of consciousness. The boatcrew quickly notified the San Francisco Fire Department, which transported the man to California Pacific Medical Center for evaluation.
“Notifying the Coast Guard at the first signs of trouble with a VHF-FM radio is invaluable,” said Lt. Cmdr. Shawn Lansing, Sector San Francisco Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator. “Though mobile phones are a popular means of communicating distress with today’s boaters, utilizing a VHF radio provides us a caller’s location. Had we lost communications with the operator while en route to the Joyce, we knew exactly where to go.”
The Coast Guard recommends all mariners have a marine-band radio on board set to channel 16. Mariners are just a call away from help, since the Coast Guard monitors channel 16 24/7. Although a cell phone is better than no communication device at all, marine-band radios are preferred for communicating distress on the water, since cell phones can experience gaps in coverage and limited battery life.
For more information on VHF-FM radios and other signaling devices, click on the following link http://ift.tt/ZmxGfv.
