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About the Coast Life Guard Rescue Service
The Malta Red Cross Coast Life Guard Rescue Service provides a comprehensive coastal safety and emergency response service across Malta’s beaches and coastal waters. Designed to operate as part of Malta’s national emergency response framework, the service combines prevention, medical care and specialist sea rescue, ensuring rapid and professional assistance wherever coastal emergencies occur.
A Comprehensive Coastal Safety System
Malta’s coastline is one of the most intensively used in the Mediterranean, supporting millions of beach visits each year alongside high levels of recreational and commercial marine activity. These conditions create complex and dynamic risk environments that require a coordinated, multi‑layered response.
The Coast Life Guard Rescue Service operates as an integrated coastal emergency system, providing coverage both on land and at sea. It is recognised as one of the leading lifeguarding and coastal rescue operations in the European Union, delivering high professional standards across prevention, surveillance, rescue and emergency medical response.
Highly Trained Emergency Teams
Each day, the service deploys over 80 trained emergency professionals, including:
- Qualified lifeguards
- Emergency Medical Responders
- Specialist sea rescue operators
Lifeguards are stationed on strategically selected beaches, identified through detailed risk assessments that consider beach usage, environmental hazards and emergency response time requirements.
Mobile and 112‑Tasked Emergency Response
Beyond fixed beach operations, the Malta Red Cross operates mobile coastal emergency response teams that are directly tasked by Malta’s national 112 emergency service. These teams respond to serious and life‑threatening incidents across all coastal localities, providing rapid medical and rescue intervention on beaches, along the shoreline, in coastal waters and in nearby public areas.
This mobile capability ensures coast‑wide coverage beyond designated bathing areas, allowing emergencies to be addressed wherever they occur.
Specialist Sea Rescue Capability
Sea rescue operations are coordinated from the Malta Red Cross Maritime Rescue Station in Mellieħa, providing rapid access to some of the island’s most heavily used and operationally challenging coastal areas. Sea‑based resources are forward‑positioned to ensure fast intervention in locations where access is difficult and response times are critical.
The service is supported by:
- 10 rapid response vehicles
- 4 dedicated sea rescue vessels
This fleet enables fully coordinated land‑and‑sea operations and allows emergency teams to reach incidents along the coast in under 10 minutes.
Prevention, Early Intervention and Medical Care
Across a typical operational season, the Coast Life Guard Rescue Service carries out thousands of interventions, most involving minor injuries or medical conditions treated safely on site. A significant proportion of interventions are preventative, where early identification of risk and timely action prevent incidents from escalating.
Where advanced care is required, patients are referred appropriately to local health centres or hospital services, ensuring continuity of care while reducing unnecessary pressure on hospital emergency departments.
Partnership and Continuous Improvement
The Coast Life Guard Rescue Service operates in close collaboration with the Malta Tourism Authority, working together to analyse performance, identify emerging risks and continuously improve service delivery. Operations are regularly reviewed to reflect changing patterns of beach usage, tourism activity and coastal demand.
Staying Safe at the Coast
Beach users and sea‑goers are encouraged to follow safety guidance, remain alert to changing weather and sea conditions, and cooperate fully with lifeguards and rescue teams. Prevention, awareness and early response remain key to ensuring safe and enjoyable use of Malta’s coastline.
As the pioneer of lifeguarding services throughout the Maltese islands and as an auxiliary to the government, we provide essential back-up to the Department of Health, the Civil Protection Department and the Armed Forces of Malta.
We ensure all our lifeguards hold internationally recognized ILSF Certification in both pool and open water.
In 2012, Malta Red Cross engaged a team of gold medalist lifeguards from the Belgian Red Cross to train our volunteers, with two of our lifeguards receiving further training as Chief Lifeguards and Lifeguard Instructors.
Since then, Malta Red Cross has expanded its team to over 40 qualified lifeguards including:
- Junior lifeguards
- Lifeguards
- Lifeguard supervisors
- Chief lifeguards
All lifeguards are qualified in First Aid, AED, Oxygen Administration, Full Body Immobilization and First Person on Scene
Malta Red Cross Lifeguards operate hroughout the year and are on duty at:
- The National Pool, Tal-Qroqq
- Inspire
During the summer lifeguard season (June 1 - September 30), Malta Red Cross lifeguards can be found on duty across many of the beaches in Malta together with Ghajn Tuffieha, Popeye Village (Anchor Bay), Villa Rosa, db San Antonio, db SeaBank and Westin Dragonara Resort.
In addition, the Malta Red Cross Water Rescue Team and Community First Response Unit patrol the beaches of the North and the South of Malta to provide further support to the Lifeguard Service.
Should you be interested in becoming a lifeguard or would like the services of a lifeguard, please contact us on +356 79 000 112 or send us an email at [email protected].