Salt Spring Search and Rescue

It is Salt Spring Island Search and Rescue’s privilege and primary goal to serve the citizens of the community.

Salt Spring Island Search and Rescue (SAR) was founded in 1989 and operates under the Emergency Management of BC (EMBC). It is run by a group of dedicated volunteers trained to find and help missing or lost individuals, as well as to provide assistance during natural disasters like forest fires and earthquakes.

We are responsible for ground searches, both wilderness and urban, as well as inland waters (lakes and rivers) and shorelines.

Our primary geographic area is Salt Spring Island and the southern Gulf Islands, which includes Galiano, Mayne, Pender, Saturna, and more than 50 smaller islands in the vicinity. Combined, this area is over 348 square kilometres and is home to 14,750 residents.

We are activated, primarily, at the request of the RCMP, but other agencies can request our services: BC Ambulance Service, the Coroner’s Service, the Capital Regional District, Parks Canada, or the Ministry of Defense.

We also provide mutual aid support to other SAR groups in British Columbia. Typically, our mutual aid requests come from the Vancouver Island communities of the Saanich peninsula, Juan de Fuca, Cowichan Valley, Ladysmith, and Nanaimo.

SAR members are skilled in first aid, navigation, outdoor survival, radio communications, search procedures, helicopter safety, tracking, and high-angle rope rescue. The group has approximately 34 men and women, ranging in ages from 25 to 70.