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Matthew Balange, 43, was fishing alone from his boat on Sunday, off the coast of Mooloolaba, in Queensland, and has not been heard from since.
Coast Guard Mooloolaba deputy commander Rod Ashlin said the proposed changes could be their salvation after a tough time fundraising during the pandemic. "While we will still operate independently, the government's idea is to merge volunteer marine rescue and Coast Guard into one body," he said. "There wouldn't be too much difference in the way we operate, we would still be volunteer and no doubt we would probably still be doing some fundraising. "But they have agreed that we can't continue to buy, in our case $1.5 million boats, and sell $2 raffle tickets to pay for it, you just can't do...
The vital service has lost about $40,000 in fundraising revenue as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.
Coast Guard crews fed up with being sidelined by red tape are desperate to join the war on wrecks, in a bid to rid waterways of dangerous derelict vessels. Exasperated Coast Guard volunteers vented their frustration earlier this week at regulations hindering the organisation from assisting with derelict vessels. Mooloolaba Coast Guard deputy commander Rod Ashlin said crews had copped abuse because they were unable to touch any vessel without owner’s permission. Gusty conditions often caused derelict vessels to break their moorings, floating into other boats or personal property. Recent wil...
Mr Ashlin said the problem revolved around the Coast Guard being unable to touch a vessel without owner permission. "If we can we try and anchor them or take them down to the public pontoon but unless we get the permission we can't get aboard to do anything about it," he said. "The frustrating part is often those boats haven't been visited by the owners for months, the owners might not even be in the general area and we are not allowed to access them. "If they're drifting into another boat the owner of the other boat is very adamant that he wants to do something so that puts us in a diffi...