Area of Operations

United Kingdom Maritime Search and Rescue Region
HM Coastguard responds to Search and Rescue (SAR) incidents that occur within the UK SAR region.  This region covers some 1.25 million square nautical miles of sea and over 10.5 thousand nautical miles of coastline.  The eastern boundary of the UK SAR region joins those of Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium in the North Sea, France in the English Channel.  To the west the UK SAR region extends into the North Atlantic to meet those of Canada, Portugal, the Irish Republic and Iceland.

Around the Coast
HM Coastguard co-ordinates SAR through its network of 19 Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centres (MRCC).  A corps of over 3500 volunteer Auxiliary Coastguards around the UK coast form over 380 local Coastguard Rescue Teams (CRT) involved in coastal rescue, searches and surveillance.

All of the MCA's operations, including SAR, are divided into three geograhpical regions: The East of England Region covers the East and South Coasts of England from the Scottish Border down to the Dorset/Devon border.  The Wales and West of England Region extends from Devon and Cornwall to cover the coast of Wales, North West England and the Moray Firth, with the Scotland and Northern Ireland Region covering the remainder of the UK coastline including the Western Isles, Orkney and Sheltand.  Each region is divided into six districts with its own Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC), which co-ordinates the Search and Rescue response for maritime and coastal emergencies within its district boundaries (East of England Region includes an additional station, London Coastguard, for co-ordinating Search and Rescue on the River Thames).

Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centres By Region