Coastguard chiefs have called for people to show common sense after an abandoned inflatable sparked a major weekend emergency operation off the Mearns coast.
The alarm was triggered on Saturday afternoon after the crew of a fishing boat picked up the empty inflatable canoe at Todhead lighthouse, near Catterline.
Fearing that someone may have fallen out of the black and red inflatable, Stonehaven Coastguard team and the town’s RNLI lifeboat were called out.
They combed harbours in the area and carried out a shoreline search, but no trace of anyone in distress was found/.
After an operation lasting some three hours, the search was stood down, but the mystery of the canoe was solved when further enquiries revealed it had been damaged and ditched by its owner.
A Coastguard spokesman said: “Following the search and no further information indicating anybody had been in the canoe, the team and crew stood down at 16.30.
“Following further enquires it is understood that the owner had encountered damaged and abandoned it on the shore of the Bervie Water.”
The spokesman added: “Should you ever have issues with any vessel, on inland waterways or on the coast, please take the time to notify ourselves or our partner agencies to avoid putting volunteer crews and teams in unnecessary danger, responding to what they believe to be a person in immediate danger.”
The coastguard praised the fishing boat crew for raising the false alarm with good intent but revealed the operation had cost almost 40 man hours in terms of the six-man coastguard team, three lifeboat crew and shore-based personnel.
