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NavalCalling the Coast Guard when the person is not found
The ring buoy is out, the lookout is posted and the rescue boat is in the water, but the person overboard is not located right away. You notify the Coast Guard and the other vessels nearby from the operating station, with the radio that reaches a Coast Guard or public coast station from where the vessel is working. It is the fifth step of the federal man overboard procedure for commercial fishing vessels.
Free to startScenarios
- Close to shore, within VHF range of a Coast Guard station.
- More than 20 miles from the coastline.
- More than 100 miles from the coastline, or Alaska waters with no station in VHF or 2-4 MHz range.
The steps
- The person overboard is not located right away: notify the Coast Guard and the other vessels nearby.
- Go to the operating station, where the communication equipment is operated from.
- Call on the VHF radiotelephone, in the 156-162 MHz band, the public coast station or Coast Guard station serving the area.
- More than 20 miles from the coastline, use the 2-4 MHz radiotelephone transceiver as well.
- More than 100 miles from the coastline, or in Alaska waters with no station in VHF or 2-4 MHz range, use the 2-27.5 MHz radiotelephone transceiver.
- Where the vessel carries it instead, use satellite communication or a cellular telephone that reaches the station serving the area.
- Make the call with the posted distress procedure: Mayday three times, the vessel's name three times, position, nature of the distress, people on board.
- Continue searching until the Coast Guard releases you.
To pass
- Coast Guard and nearby vessels notified as soon as the person is not located right away, and the search kept up until released.
- Satellite communication or a cellular telephone is acceptable only as an alternative to the 2-4 MHz and 2-27.5 MHz radios, never to the VHF radiotelephone.
- All communication equipment has an emergency source of power.
Official source
U.S. Coast Guard · 46 CFR 28.245 and 28.265
46 CFR Part 28: Requirements for Commercial Fishing Industry Vessels (28.265 Emergency instructions, 28.270 Instruction, drills, and safety orientation)
The eCFR publishes 46 CFR Part 28 free: the emergency instructions every commercial fishing vessel posts, its lifesaving equipment and the monthly drills.
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