The RCMP Underwater Recovery Team (URT) is hoping to bring awareness to some of the causes of drownings. URT has been called out to four drownings already in 2024, and if previous years are any indication, they can expect to be called out to more.

“When my team arrives on scene, it is not typically in a rescue capacity,” said Cpl Kathryn Ternier, head of the RCMP URT.

“We are coming to recover someone from the water. I am asking you, the public, to put me out of a job recovering drowning victims.”

While URT also dives to assist other RCMP units in locating items underwater that are related to an investigation, it is the grim task of recovering drowning victims that keeps URT busy.

“We talk a lot about life jackets and personal flotation devices, and they are so crucial to water safety,” Ternier said.

“However, we also need to be talking about what happens that lands people in the water or makes them unable to survive in the water once they are in there.”

Regardless of how strong a swimmer one feels they are, there are obstacles in the water that can affect anybody’s ability to stay afloat.

Read more in this weeks edition of the Dauphin Herald.