Watch: marina swimmers video gets 60,000 views

Tuesday 14 June 2016

A group of teenagers who took a dangerous dip in the marina last week are lucky not to have been seriously injured or killed say Jersey Coastguard who have now shared the footage of their swim on social media to try and stop them, or anyone else, doing it again.

The three were swimming across the entrance to the Elizabeth Marina on Wednesday afternoon when a boat narrowly missed hitting one of them as it was leaving the harbour.

Jersey Coastguard's footage, which shows one of them being sucked under the water several times by the undercurrent and all three of them being dragged by the tide inside the Marina gates as boats had to swerve to avoid them, has been seen on Facebook almost 60,000 times.

Ports of Jersey’s Group Marketing and Communications Manager Alan Donald said: “This illustrates the dangers of swimming in a working harbour, any working harbour where you’ve got vessels coming in and out. The after-wave dragged them into the marina and you can see for yourself the dangers. We have other working harbours like this and we are urging everyone to swim only in safe areas."

Jersey Coastguard are preparing to launch their annual 'Safety @ Sea Campaign' to make sure Islanders and visitors heading out on the water take the proper precautions.

Safety concerns last year led them to banning “tombstoning” from piers, and swimming and diving around St Helier Harbour.