A new beach coding system will be officially launched at Gearies Beach in Falcon on Friday, a system named after local surfer Ben Gerring who was fatally attacked by a shark.
The 29-year-old was mauled by a suspected great white shark off the popular surfing beach in May 2016 and died days later in hospital.
His family believe emergency services did everything they could but the rescue effort was slowed as paramedics found it difficult to find the exact stretch of beach where the attack happened.
Since then, the City of Mandurah have installed the new Beach Emergency Number (BEN) signage system at more than 80 coastal locations throughout Mandurah to help emergency services find locations quickly along long stretches of coast.
Each sign includes information to support emergency responders including official beach names, GPS coordinates, coding, closest street addresses and nearest cross roads.
Mayor Marina Vergone said these steps were important to help reduce response times in emergencies.
“It’s good to see that considerable progress has been made to help emergency responders in their critical role,” she said.
“Our beaches and waterways are so important to our way of life and we need to take steps to help those in need.
“We recognise that this needs to be a State-wide approach so are encouraging other Local Governments and the State Government to get on board.”
The new system will be officially launched at Gearies Beach in Falcon at 1.30pm on Friday.
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