Ten rescued from water craft

MAYO lifeguards made four rescues last month, with a further 10 people saved from craft on our waters.

Nationally, lifeguards rescued 173 casualties from our beaches, rivers and lakes in July - 240 less than July 2014, confirming the poor summer we are having.

There were 278 children lost and reunited with their parents – three of them in Mayo.

When they're not rescuing people the county's lifeguards have been giving lots of advice to water users – over 6,000 benefitted last month.

The CEO of Irish Water Safety, John Leech, is urging the public to use local authority manned lifeguarded bathing places to ensure there are no swimming tragedies before the children return to school. Swim between the flags and take heed of the advice given by the lifeguards and always supervise your children.

Mr. Leech has also warned the public that the seasonal weather and sea conditions has brought potentially dangerous jellyfish to some of our beaches.

The Portuguese man o' war has been reported on Barleycove Beach in Co. Cork and the Lions Mane jellyfish has been reported on a number of beaches on the west and east coasts.

For information on jellyfish and treatment of stings visit http://www.iws.ie/beach/jellyfish-safety.321.html.

There will also be a risk to the public of being stung by weever fish over the last weekend of the month due to the full moon and the associated spring tides.