Search and rescue crews launch practice mission in Northumberland Strait

The Canadian Coast Guard and other search and rescue personnel were out on the Northumberland Strait near Charlottetown on a practice rescue mission Tuesday.

It gives us an opportunity to bring our search and rescue partners together. John Drake, Canadian Coast Guard

John Drake, a search and rescue preparedness officer with the Canadian Coast Guard, said the practice scenario involved a tourism operator.

"A tour boat that left Victoria, heading towards Charlottetown, and shortly after it departed this morning started taking on water and had to abandon. So two life rafts out there and some mannequins and some people in the life rafts," said Drake.

"It's very important, actually, to do something like this because it gives us an opportunity to bring our search and rescue partners together and hone some of our skills."

Four coast guard auxiliary vessels as well as officials with the RCMP, Parks Canada, civil air search and rescue, and the 413 Transport and Rescue Squadron, operating out of Greenwood, N.S., were all part of the exercise.

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