28-04-2025
Salmon Holes rescue: Beach closed as police divers resume search for man who slipped off rocks into the ocean
Salmon Holes beach was closed on Monday as authorities resumed their search for a man who slipped off rocks into the sea on Friday.
Albany police officer-in-charge Sen. Sgt Carlos Correia said rescuers had not given up hope.
'The search is continuing to locate the missing person,' he said.
'The family is aware.
'They saw the person leave the rocks and disappear, so we are making all efforts to try and find him.
'There may come a time when we cannot do anything further, but that time is not yet.'
Emergency services were called to the rescue at 1.35pm on Friday with crews from Albany SES, Albany Career Fire and Rescue Services, Albany Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service, and St John WA attending.
Two boats from Albany Sea Rescue along with police divers, drones and other surveillance equipment were used in the search over Friday, Saturday and Monday.
Though the beach reopened on Sunday, it was closed again on Monday to allow divers to work without distraction from the public, Sen. Sgt Correia said.
He said he was not sure when the beach would reopen.
Witness Esmatullah Akbari, on holiday with his family from Perth, said he saw someone who had been fishing slip off the rocks into the water.
The beach is a popular fishing spot near Albany and notoriously dangerous. A 29-year-old woman was swept out to sea while fishing on the rocks in March last year with a bystander swimming to her rescue.
Experienced fisherman Paul Smetham, of Little Grove, said it was time the rocks were made off limits during the Easter holidays.
'People should not be allowed on the rocks during the Easter break,' he said.
'It doesn't take much of a wave to sweep you off your feet.
'They shouldn't be called the Salmon Holes, they should be called the 'drowning holes'.
'That might put people off coming there.
'Even if people have life jackets, it's not enough.
'They give you a false sense of security and a lot of visitors have no experience of them.
'There is a major rip and the rocks have razor sharp barnacles and shells.'
Signs along Frenchman Bay Road exhort holiday-makers to 'fish safely, fish from the beach'.
It was the second time in a week that emergency services were called to Torndirrup National Park after a female hiker fell down a ravine at Stony Hill on Easter Monday.
