Malibu Search and Rescue (MSAR) team’s rescue numbers have been growing over the past few years, something team members said they believe could be due to social media.
On Tuesday, the team shared a Daily News article on its social media. The article, titled “Hiking rescues increase in Southern California; could social media be to blame? Some law enforcement officials think so,” details that a number of search and rescue teams in and around Los Angeles County have experienced an uptick in rescues. Some areas see more rescues than others, which some believe have to do with their popularity on social media apps like Instagram and Facebook.
The MSAR rescue numbers were as follows (as of April 24):
- 2013 – 93 rescues
- 2014 – 97 rescues
- 2015 – 132 rescues
- 2016 – 110 rescues
- 2017 – 162 rescues
- 2018 (to date) – 49 rescues