Salmon Holes rescue: Emergency services suspend search for person in the water due to bad light

Emergency services called to a rescue at Salmon Holes, near Albany, have called off the search due to bad light.

A person slipped off rocks on Friday afternoon and was in trouble in the water, prompting the emergency call out.

Crews from Albany SES, Albany Career Fire and Rescue Service, Albany Fire and Rescue volunteers and St John WA responded to the incident, which was reported at 1.35pm on Friday.

Witness Esmatullah Akbari, on holiday with his family from Perth, said he saw someone who had been fishing slipped off the rocks into the water.

The beach is a popular fishing spot 10km south of 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.”

It is the second time this week emergency services have been called to Torndirrup National Park after a female hiker fell down a ravine at Stony Hill on Easter Monday.