Cara Loverock
Northern News Services
Published Monday, Friday, June 27, 2008

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Yellowknife and Hay River RCMP launched an extensive search of Great Slave Lake's East Arm after a distress call was sent from a SPOT location device Sunday.

A private vessel was later located as the source, however no assistance was needed.

RCMP had responded to the distress call with a fairly extensive aerial and marine search.

The emergency call came into the Yellowknife RCMP dispatch from a call centre in the United States around 1 a.m. The device was traced to a Yellowknife resident who had gone boating on Great Slave Lake.

According to Yellowknife RCMP Sgt. Larry O'Brien, an aircraft and coast guard auxiliary from Yellowknife and Hay River were immediately dispatched to the area.

He said it appears the SPOT device was triggered accidentally and no charges are currently being contemplated against the individuals who activated it.

"We do advise people to be very careful with these (devices) because of the amount of resources that are deployed when we do have an emergency like this," said O'Brien.

"Only use them in an absolute emergency."

SPOT devices and similar devices, like personal locator beacons, use satellite technology to send out a distress signal when activated.

O'Brien could not give a dollar figure on how much the search cost, but said it is a waste of resources when an emergency search is launched unnecessarily.

"They are an incredible piece of equipment, but they have to be used properly," said O'Brien.

"People who are going to fool around with them and then push the alarm button without proper need of it, it's going to cost us a lot of money to try and recover,"

He said the Yellowknife RCMP have three of these SPOT devices and in a place like the NWT with many remote locations, emergency communication devices can be a valuable tool.