Coast Watch stations could be coming to Scarborough and Whitby in the next few years.
Currently Hornsea is the northernmost Coast Watch station on the east coast of England with a new station in Filey is due to launch this Summer.
The stations are operated by the National Coast Watch Institution, a charity which provides facilities and training for teams of volunteers to keep watch over coastal waters to aid safety.
Mike Johnson from the National Coast Watch Institute says their ambition is to open more sites on the Yorkshire Coast.
Mike says that with organisation's focus on keeping people safe on the waters they feel there is a need for stations further up the coast and they have a clear idea of where they would want to focus their efforts in Scarborough.
Currently there are 57 Coast watch stations around the UK operated by over 2600 volunteers
They keep watch around the British Isles for maritime emergencies and provide reports to the coastguard.
The National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) is a 100% voluntary organisation set up in 1994 to restore a visual watch along UK shores following the closure of a number of small Coastguard stations.
NCI say :
"High technology and sophisticated systems have vastly improved safety at sea but there is no substitute for a watchful pair of eyes. Accidents do happen, but a computer cannot spot a distress flare, an overturned boat, a yacht with engine failure or a swimmer in distress.
A trained Watchkeeper can and each NCI station is manned by a team of fully trained andVHF licensed volunteers who keep a daylight watch up to 365 days a year. All stations aspire to and most have already achieved DFS (Declared Facility Status) which means that they have been designated as available for maritime search and rescue (SAR) under the direction of HM Coastguard, according to a specific standard or set criteria. "
More information about NCI is available here https://www.nci.org.uk/
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