The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) has over 900 unpaid volunteers who respond 24/7/365 to save lives on South African waters. We also teach disadvantaged children about basic water safety through our proactive educational initiative the WaterWise Academy. In 1966 at Stillbaai on the East coast, just below Mossel Bay, 17 fishermen drowned after three fishing boats sank in a terrible storm. Oom Gerhard Dreyer, now deep in his ‘80s, was the skipper of that boat and remembers how he, and his crew, threw everything that they could, including the fish that they had caught, off the ‘skuit’ … making it as light as they could. He then turned the bow into the storm and headed out to sea. In the small hours of the morning, as the storm was abating, Oom Gerhard turned back to shore, and amongst the wreckage of the other boats he found a lone survivor from the other three ‘skuits.’ It was fisherman John Aries, who was clinging to a life ring, and was so shocked that he could not talk. Following this tragic incident, Miss Pattie Price (whose own life had been saved by a RNLI lifeboat in the English Channel) began a committed letter-writing campaign to motivate for the formation of a sea rescue organisation in South Africa. Captain Bob Deacon and Ray Lant were the first volunteers to respond to this call and in 1967 the South African In shore Rescue Service (SAISRS) was born – its first rescue craft – a 4.7m inflatable boat called Snoopy was donated by the Society of Master Mariners. Soon the SAISRS became the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) and today carries on the proud tradition of volunteering started in 1967. All rescue crew of the NSRI are still unpaid volunteers. From that first inflatable boat, manned by two men who sometimes had to strap it to the roof of their vehicle and drive it to where it was needed for a rescue, the organisation now has over 900 highly trained volunteers at 31 bases around the coast and on 4 inland dams. A massive organisation, with phenomenal support from the community, Sea Rescue has an annual running cost of over R52.5m that is used to run 90 rescue craft, 29 Rescue vehicles, 10 quad bikes and 10 tractors. In 2006 Sea Rescue’s proactive educational initiative, the WaterWise Academy, was launched. The Academy has twelve Instructors spread out from Soweto, to Ceres to Nyanga, and their job is to teach children how to avoid danger, what to do in an emergency, who to call for help and gives them the confidence to initiate basic bystander CPR while they wait for an ambulance to arrive. The WaterWise Academy targets disadvantaged youth and since its inception is very proud to have taught over 550 000 children about basic water safety.
