A bleating goat on an island off the west coast prompted a multi-agency search and rescue operation amid fears that someone was stranded or in difficulty.
The alarm was raised late on Tuesday night when persons on the mainland at Cappa near Kilrush, Co Clare reported hearing someone shouting for help from the area of Hog Island about a kilometre from shore.
Believing these were “calls for help” and fearing that someone was stranded on the uninhabited island or in difficulty in the water, a call was made to the 112/999 Emergency Call Answering Service (ECAS).
The Irish Coast Guard marine rescue sub centre on Valentia Island in Kerry was alerted at around 9.00pm and watch officers quickly mounted a search and rescue operation.
The Kilrush RNLI lifeboat was launched while the Kilkee unit of the Irish Coast Guard was also tasked. The Shannon based search and rescue helicopter was requested to assist in the search while local gardaí also attended the incident.
The lifeboat raced to the island which is just a kilometre from the RNLI station at Cappa. Volunteer members of the service were attending a meeting at their base at the time and were able to launch immediately.
Reports suggested that the calls were coming from the western side of the island so the lifeboat routed to that location while Coast Guard volunteers and gardaí prepared to commence a search of the coastline.
As the air, land and sea search was getting underway it was established that the ‘calls’ from the island were most likely from a distressed goat that appeared to have separated from the main herd.
Once it was confirmed there were no persons on the island or in difficulty on the water, all resources were stood down and crews returned to their bases.
An RNLI spokesman said its always better to alert the Coast Guard if someone believes there could be someone in trouble around water.
Kilrush Lifeboat press officer Charlie Glynn said: “In this instance, this call-out was a false alarm with good intent, but Kilrush RNLI would rather launch to a false alarm, rather than be called out too late to an emergency situation.”