USCG Uses Skiff Ice Boat to Rescue Injured Man

Posted by Michelle Howard April 28, 2016

A Coast Guard rescue crew from Coast Guard Station Marblehead, Ohio, aboard a skiff ice, medically evacuates a man from a dredging barge in Lake Erie near Sandusky, Ohio, April 27, 2016. The crew used the skiff ice to remove the man because the water was too shallow for a boat. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Station Marblehead)

The U.S. Coast Guard medically evacuated a man off of a dredging barge in Lake Erie near Sandusky, Ohio, Wednesday evening.

At approximately 5:45 p.m., a good Samaritan called Coast Guard Station Marblehead, Ohio, to report two men on a dredging barge who needed help due to injuries.

The barge was 50 yards off shore in water too shallow for a Coast Guard response boat to get to come alongside, so a rescue team traveled to the location by truck. The rescue team launched from the shore in a skiff ice inflatable boat, normally used for ice rescue, and brought one man back to awaiting emergency medical services.

The other man said he wished to stay aboard the barge and waited for a commercial salvage company, which towed the barge to Johnson Island in Lake Erie.