An active search will be conducted at the Richmond Maritime Festival by Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue (RCMSAR) Station 10.
Richmond’s volunteer marine search and rescue team will be staging an open boat at the festival, hoping to rescue a low turnout of new volunteers this year.
Volunteer RCMSAR members will show off their main vessel at the dock to curious onlookers while hoping to rope in a few new volunteers.
“We would like to invite anyone interested in learning more about volunteering with us to come by for a chat and to have a look at our vessel and some of the equipment we train on,” said crewman David Poppell.
Donor-driven and Canadian Coast Guard sanctioned, RCMSAR conducts hundreds of missions on the Fraser River each year. In 2016, it reported 93 missions, for instance, one-fifth of which were distress calls. The marine patrol comprising of 40-45 members at any given time logged 963 hours.
“You’ll be woken up at two in the morning to help someone who falls off a bridge or a fisherman who gets stuck on the rocks,” said Poppell.
New members require a Transport Canada Pleasure Craft Operators Card and Industry Canada Radio Operator Certificate followed by the New Member SAR Safety Course, all attainable between working hours. On-shore training is one night per week for three months, followed by training on water.
Poppell said young adults to older seniors may apply.
“The connections you make in the marine field is very beneficial. For young people it gets your foot in the door in many places, for instance, firefighters,” said Poppell.
A condition of joining means being able to commit at least three years and being available to get to the station in Steveston within 15 minutes. Volunteers commit one full weekend of on-call service per month in addition to a 12-hour on-call shift each week.
* This story has corrected information regarding mission and volunteer statistics.
