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The US Coast Guard takes distress calls seriously, and so when a false call or outright hoax calls their teams into action, a ripple effect propagates across the entire emergency response community, draining valuable time and resources from the Coast Guard and agency partners and potentially putting emergency responders at unnecessary risk. That, according to Great Lakes District Chief of Staff, Captain Mark Kuperman.
Since January of this year, Coast Guard command center watchstanders in the Great Lakes District have received 187 false distress calls, including three confirmed hoaxes. A hoax may include knowingly and willfully communicating a false distress message to the Coast Guard, while a false distress alert can result from misunderstanding, accidental transmissions or outdated information.
Given the growing influence of social media and its contributions of additional challenges to search and rescue operations, the Coast Guard is encouraging the public to avoid posting or sharing content on social media that falsely portrays an emergency.
The Coast Guard recommends that boaters in distress use VHF-FM channel 16 or 911 to call for help during a real emergency.
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