A teenage boy has been rescued off the Clare coast this afternoon after they were reported to be adrift in a small inflatable dinghy.
In the third similar incident over the past 24 hours, a search and rescue operation was mounted at around 4.00pm today after the Coast Guard received a report of a person in difficulty off in the vicinity of the pier at Seafield near Quilty.
Watch officers at the Irish Coast Guard’s marine rescue sub centre on Valentia Island in Kerry tasked the Shannon based search helicopter, Rescue 115, to the incident. The Doolin unit of the Coast Guard was also alerted and requested to launch their boat and send a land team.
While it had been originally thought that there were two boys in the dinghy, it’s not believed that was just one in what onlookers described as a small poorly inflated dinghy that was pushed away from the shore by the wind.
Two members of the public, who were in the area at the time, swam out and helped to the pair safely ashore. Once it was established that the boys were unhurt and didn’t require medical assistance, the rescue operation was stood down.
Staff at Valentia also issued a radio message requesting that any vessel in the area of Seafield report back if they saw anything.
The crew of a local fishing boat, the Emma Elizabeth, responded to the Coast Guard call and they remained in the area until the pair had been taken safely ashore.
This latest incident follows two similar cases yesterday where young people had to be rescued after being swept out to sea.
A 5-year-old girl was airlifted to hospital after she got into difficulty off the Kerry coast. She was located over a kilometre off shore after her lilo was carried away from the beach by the tide and wind. Rescue 115 and the Kilrush RNLI lifeboat were involved in that operation.
Later, in Co Galway, a 6-year-old boy was rescued by a local fishing boat after he was found drifting out to sea on a body board. Rescue 118, Cleggan Coast Guard and Clifden RNLI were tasked to that incident.