National Coastwatch Institution

The National Coastwatch Institution is a voluntary organisation and registered charity providing a visual watch along the UK's coasts, and is not to be confused with HM Coastguard.

The National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) was founded in Cornwall in 1994 following the deaths of two local fishermen who drowned below a recently closed Coastguard Station at Bass Point. Most of HM Coastguard's visual watch stations were closed following a period of rationalization and modernization. The Institution, registered Charity number 1045645, originated from a campaign to re-establish a visual coastal watch in Cornwall. The first NCI Coastwatch station was thus established at Bass Point, on The Lizard peninsula, Cornwall by November 1994.

Following the successful launch of NCI Bass Point, other Stations quickly followed in Devon, Cornwall, East Anglia, Somerset, Sussex, Essex, Dorset, the Tyne-Tees area and South Wales. As of September 2014, there are 50 NCI Coastwatch stations operational around the coast of England and Wales, from Fleetwood in the Northwest, through Wales, along the South Coast, and up the East coast to Tyne and Wear, with over 2000 trained volunteer watchkeepers.

The Institution has a joint Memorandum of Understanding with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), HM Revenue and Customs and more recently the Home Office Border Force, and these documents are guides to NCI’s role and provide the basis for the working relationship the Institution enjoys with all these Departments. Most NCI Coastwatch Stations have acquired, or are working towards acquiring "Declared Facility Status", giving NCI a very important role to play when needed among the UK’s Search and Rescue organisations.

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