The Selsey Coastguard team.

Today, I spoke to Ashley Pledger, who is a coastguard in Selsey.
I asked him what his role was as a coastguard, and he said he was responsible for looking after any problems under the high tide line.
"Being a coastguard means being on call 24 hours a day, and carrying a pager (a type of message device) around all the time, and if it does go off, I have to drop everything I'm doing and go to the station," Ashley told me.
Training also means a lot to him, he does it once a week, and sometimes at weekends. He does mud training, where he gets very muddy, they also do water rescue practices. He also practices casualty extraction as well as first aid in case anyone is injured.
Open day is coming up this Saturday 29th July from 1pm-4pm. You'll be able to see the coastguard truck, some of the rescue gear will be on display and there will hopefully be a slideshow, and if you want to ask any questions, the coastguard team will be in the coastguard house during open day.
These past few years have been very busy, as last year they had received 68 call outs, and this year have received 38 so far.
I asked him how the coastguard work along side with the RNLI, and he said if there is trouble at the beach people can call 999 and ask for the coastguard. The call goes through to the operation center, and it calls any other service needed, like ambulance, police or fire engine, if the helicopter needs to land, they have to make the area clear of people, so it can, and inform the other services of the rescue situation. They also work with other city's or towns, like Chichester or Portsmouth.
The coastguards don't just get called for saving lives, but they also get called for dangerous things found on the beach, like world war II bombs.

Myself and Ashley at the coastguards.

Mia H

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