Sea Rescue spokesperson Craig Lambinon said due to reckless firing of flares, rescue volunteers at times waste considerable time searching for someone who is not in distress.

"At 21h43 [on Christmas Day] NSRI Jeffreys Bay duty crew responded to Kabeljous, Jeffreys Bay, where there were eyewitness reports of two red distress flares sighted seaward. During an extensive search it was determined that the flares had been fired from land and no vessels or persons were in distress," said Lambinon.

"Sea Rescue is making a special appeal to members of the public not to fire flares other than in an emergency.  Firing a flare because it has expired is dangerous and wastes hundreds of hours of Sea Rescue volunteers time searching for someone who is not in difficulty."

Lambinon said laser beams have been directed at Sea Rescue vessels engaged in a search, endangering the lives of search crews.

"Laser beams have previously been a huge danger to helicopter crews when they are directed at the aircraft. For the first time, laser beams have been shone at Sea Rescue vessels engaged in a search. This completely disrupted the search endangering the lives of our volunteers and those who we were looking for. Please never shine lasers at anyone and particularly not at operational rescue services at night," said Lambinon.

African News Agency (ANA)