WXMI — It could be a very busy season ahead for the Coast Guard station in Grand Haven, an epicenter for visitors from both around Michigan and the country.
“If we’re not actually out doing recreational boating safety or search and rescue or we’re back here training for those types of things when they happen,” said Sean Whelan, Coast Guard Station Grand Haven.
And this year may be busier than the last couple.
“I think with kind of the rollback of COVID, I think we’re going to see a lot more boaters in the water,” said Whelan.
It will be that much more imperative those boaters have all the required safety gear on their boat. If they don’t, the Coast Guard will be there.
They conduct sporadic spot checks and they have the ability to stop you for no other reason than to do those checks.
When they aren’t checking your boat, they might be saving it.
“We expect a lot of flooding calls to come in. People forget a lot of the times to reattach that, you know, those critical pieces of equipment that might stop flooding or stop a hole, you know, through their hole or something like that,” said Whelan.
If the situation becomes more serious, they train for nearly every scenario, which is why they practice rescuing ‘Oscar the dummy.’
While much of their focus is out on the water, that’s not where the dangers are limited to.
“I think a lot of people mistake Grand Haven Beach, especially a lot of the beaches up and won the shoreline has been just extremely safe.
“And, you know, no one could ever get hurt here, but unfortunately, there are a lot of drowning accidents that have happened in this district.
“So it’s one of the big things we try and prevent by just educating the public on, ‘hey, you know, watch after your kids. Watch after anybody who’s not a strong swimmer,’ or, you know, ‘they tend to be a weak swimmer and just keep an eye out on him,’” said Whelan.
