Words by

Andie Sophia Fontaine

Photo by

LHG

Half of those rescued by the Icelandic Coast Guard (LHG) last year were foreign nationals, with a record year had for rescues in total, according to an announcement from LHG.

In all, LHG responded to 278 calls in 2018, and there has never been a greater number of rescue calls for any year previous. In addition, this marks an 8% increase from 2017’s numbers.

The record was officially broken by November of last year, with about half of those rescued being foreign nationals.

LHG points out that rescue calls have been steadily increasing in recent years, and have increased by 78% since 2011 alone, when 160 calls for help were made to LHG that year.