HELPING people out at sea and daytrippers in trouble at the beach used to be all in a day’s work for the coastguard, but crews on Canvey have seen a change in the type of calls they receive.

Increasingly, the coastguard are called by police to help them search for vulnerable missing people.

Mick Allwood from Canvey Coastguard said: “Although the number of calls have been down, we’ve had an increase in the amount of times we’ve gone out to help vulnerable people, whether that be people who have gone missing or people who are attempting suicide.

“There has been a lot less traditional seaside incidents.”

In 2013 the crew helped with three vulnerable people and this year alone they have already been called to help six vulnerable or missing people.

Mr Allwood said: “We work closely with the police now and they often call us as a last resort.

A lot of the time it is to help people in need.

“Often when people are vulnerable they do head to the sea as a cry for help.

“We make contact with them and then step back and let the police, who are specially trained, deal with it.

“We follow our own training and procedures to do what we can to help.

“It can be very frustrating trying to search for people, but at the same time it’s very rewarding when we do find them and knowwe have helped.”

As well as the change in the types of call they receive the coastguard has also faced a very quiet summer.

Mr Allwood said: “It’s really been quiet, unusually quiet and I’m not sure why this is.

“It’s a good thing, as we don’t want people to have accidents.

“I must admit even in this weather, with it being so warm, I have driven past the seafront thinking something will happen as there have been so many people about –but nothing has.

“Hopefully our advice has had a positive impact.

“We’ve had five call outs a month since January and roughly the same amount as last year, but the difference was most of last year’s shouts were concentrated in the summer and we’ve not seen that this year.”

In comparison, Southend lifeboat has experienced their busiest summer ever, being called out more than 100 times already this year.

  • The coastguard coordinates search and rescue operations, whereas the RNLI responds to requests and operates lifeboats.