Rescue teams search for missing teenager in Fish Hoek rip currents
Rescue teams were deployed along the Western Cape coast after two teenagers were caught in rip currents at Fish Hoek, with one rescued and another still missing as NSRI logged multiple festive-season sea incidents.
Image: File
A teenager remains missing after being swept into rip currents at Fish Hoek, as rescue teams across the Western Cape responded to several water-related emergencies during the festive period.
Darren Zimmerman, station commander at the Simon’s Town base of the National Sea Rescue Institute, said City of Cape Town lifeguards initiated a rescue at 11.22am on Wednesday, 24 December, in front of the Fish Hoek Surf Lifesaving Club after two teenagers were caught in rip currents.
The City’s water rescue network was activated, prompting a coordinated response involving NSRI rescue swimmers, City law enforcement, Cape Medical Response, Western Cape Government Health EMS, Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services and the South African Police Service. Coast watchers were deployed above Fish Hoek, Metro EMS dispatched the EMS/AMS Skymed rescue helicopter and Police Water Policing and Diving Services were alerted.
Lifeguards rescued an 18-year-old male from Belhar, Cape Town, who was transported to hospital by CMR ambulance in a serious but stable condition. A search then continued for a second 18-year-old male from Montana, Cape Town.
As additional rescue resources arrived, including five rescue craft — two NSRI boats, two lifeguard craft and a City law enforcement marine unit — along with the Skymed rescue helicopter, extensive air, sea and shoreline searches were conducted. Despite the efforts, there were no signs of the missing teenager.
Police Water Policing and Diving Services, assisted by a police air wing helicopter, later took over the ongoing search. Zimmerman said the two teenagers had been part of a group at the beach with a carer when they entered the water, and added that thoughts were with the families and friends of the missing teenager and with the teenager who was taken to hospital.
Earlier, NSRI Plettenberg Bay deputy station commander Ross Badenhorst said duty crews were activated at 4.17pm on Monday, December 22, following eyewitness reports of a rigid-hull inflatable boat capsizing at the Keurbooms River Mouth, with six people in the water. NSRI rescue craft were launched from the Plettenberg Bay base, with rescue swimmers and ER24 ambulance services responding, while three private boats helmed by NSRI crew already on the lagoon also assisted.
All six occupants — two adult men and four teenage boys — were rescued from the water and brought safely to shore, where they were medically assessed by NSRI medics and a doctor. Two of the teenage boys sustained injuries and were transported to hospital for further medical care. The capsized vessel was later towed to the Keurbooms Lagoon caravan park, righted and recovered. It appears the boat was overturned by waves while entering the river mouth.
That same morning, at about 8am, NSRI Plettenberg Bay responded to reports of two kayakers in distress offshore at Blinders, off Central Beach. Observers reported the men were waving towards shore and appeared to have no paddles.
An NSRI rescue craft reached them, took both adult men — aged 44 from Mossel Bay and 50 from Jeffreys Bay — onboard and secured their waterlogged double kayak for towing. They were brought safely to the NSRI base and required no further assistance.
In another operation on Monday morning, NSRI Mossel Bay duty coxswain Herman Venter said crews were alerted at 6.40am to a pending medical evacuation from a bulk carrier about one nautical mile offshore of Mossel Bay harbour.
Following coordination between the NSRI Emergency Operations Centre, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre and Western Cape Government Health EMS, a rescue craft was launched with a rescue paramedic, medic and maritime extrication crew onboard. A 32-year-old Filipino seafarer was stabilised on the vessel before being transferred safely to the rescue craft using a harness and safety lines. He was brought into Mossel Bay harbour and transported to hospital by Frontier Medix ambulance in a stable condition, with multiple agencies assisting in the coordination of the operation.
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Cape Argus