Emergency crews will be put to test
IF EMERGENCY rescue vessels are sighted on the water this weekend there is no need to panic.
Midge Point, Burdekin, Bowen, Whitsunday and Mackay VMR squads are undergoing a Sarex search and rescue exercise alongside the Whitsunday Water Police.
The exercises will run after dark on Friday night and throughout Saturday morning and afternoon.
VMR Midge Point publicity officer Sharon Mclean said the exercises were set up to ensure rescue crews were adequately equipped to adapt to challenges.
"The Whitsunday Water Police set up the scenario so they determine where it (the exercise) will be hosted,” she said.
"They will actually drop a dummy and training EPIRB in the water which will be adrift for a while and we have to work out from the winds and currents (where it is) and use a search pattern to try and find it.”
Ms Mclean said if any non-emergency boaties located the dummy they should not remove it.
The exercises test emergency responses to potential real-life scenarios.
The last Sarex exercise was held in the Burdekin in May 2015.
