The Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary is made up of 800 volunteer mariners and 400 vessels.

Those volunteers respond to 30 per cent of the calls that come into the Rescue Coordination Centre for this province.

Harvey Vardy, superintendent for the Canadian Coast Guard in the Atlantic Region, says that is hundreds of the more than 1600 marine-related calls that come into the Halifax Search and Rescue Region. That region covers 4.7 million square kilometres.

The Coast Guard tasks the call out to the closest vessels, which in many cases are members of the auxiliary.

He says they call on the volunteers at two or three in the morning when it’s blowing a gale and raining, but they don’t hesitate to answer the call.

To maintain the auxiliary’s skills, the Canadian Coast Guard offers search and rescue training seminars each year. One of those training seminars took place at the Royal St. John’s Yacht Club in CBS this weekend. The training included in-class sessions as well as search and rescue demonstrations.