CAPE DISAPPOINTMENT — Crews at local Coast Guard stations are preparing for one of the busiest times of the year.

The station at Cape Disappointment responds to hundreds of calls for assistance for commercial and recreational boaters each year, with the peak occurring during the summer months. Thousands of boaters frequent the mouth of the Columbia River during the popular Buoy 10 fishing season that began Aug. 1.

Ocean fishing has been lively in recent weeks, while Buoy 10 has started out slow, as usual. Buoy 10 is primarily a coho fishery, and in the absence of rainfall the fish have barely started returning upriver. Between Aug. 3-7, only 11 adult coho and nine immature coho had been counted passing Bonneville Dam.

On Wednesday, Aug. 2, a USCG Station Cape Disappointment crew rehearsed hoist-rescue exercises aboard a 47-foot motor lifeboat in concert with USCG Air Station Astoria, in a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter, near the mouth of the Columbia River. The trainings, used to simulate rescuing boaters in distress, are conducted weekly between the stations along the Columbia River Bar.

The Columbia River Bar, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean, is considered one of the most perilous spots in the world, commonly regarded as the “Graveyard of the Pacific” as more than 2,000 ships have sunk in the waters since 1792, according to the Columbia River Maritime Museum.