The benefits to seafarers in distress include helping rescuers find you faster, sharing emergency contacts, and meeting legal requirements.
The advantage of registering EPIRBs was recently demonstrated in a false alarm to HM Coastguard which involved a three-hour helicopter search during bad weather over the North Sea.
Help us to help you by registering your EPIRB today.
Jamie Long, Team Leader at Humber Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, explained: "During rough conditions we received a short burst from an unregistered EPIRB. It had no details for us to check who might be in distress or to call any emergency contacts.
"EPIRB activations are treated seriously, so we sent an HM Coastguard helicopter and issued a broadcast to shipping to keep watch for anyone in distress. There were no further signals and the search found no evidence of any emergency, so the response was stood down.
"In this case, if the EPIRB had been registered, we could have quickly called the owner or their emergency contacts to make sure they were safe. It would also have avoided searchers going into bad weather, away from other potential incidents."
Jamie added: "Registering your EPIRB is a legal requirement, which now also applies to Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) that are carried on board a UK flagged vessel, hovercraft or mechanically propelled watercraft, such as jet skis.
"By registering, it helps us to respond faster and make use of emergency contacts - both of which could be the vital difference in a maritime incident when time is crucial.
"The process is free and can be done online in just 15 minutes. Help us to help you by registering your EPIRB today."
Visit https://www.gov.uk/register-406-beacons
