The team was called out around 11.15pm on Saturday night after a member of public saw some lights at the base of the cliffs at Ballard and was concerned that someone was in trouble.
Arriving within minutes, the Coastguard team split into two groups, and whilst one group went to Ocean Bay and spoke to some local fishermen, the other went to Sheps Hollow to get 'eyes on' through the binoculars.
The tide was right up, preventing anyone from walking to the source of the light, and indeed preventing anyone from walking back, but towards the north end of the bay there is plenty of beach, even at high water and so there was no immediate danger. However it soon became apparent that there was no danger at all, the source of the lights was a couple of fishermen who'd been there for 2-3 hours according to the chaps we spoke to at Ocean Bay. The Sheps Hollow group confirmed that even in the dark it was clear enough to see that folks were fishing, and with the permission of the National Maritime Operations Centre, both groups stood down and returned to station.
We never mind being called out to these types of incident - False Alarms With Good Intent as they are termed. We'd far rather the public called us just in case, rather than not for fear of wasting our time.
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