PENARTH's RNLI lifeboat station rescued the second highest number of people in the whole of Wales last year.

Volunteer crew from the station rescued a total of 81 people in 2014; just one less than The Mumbles, where 82 people were aided during the year by the all-weather and inshore lifeboat.

In Port Talbot, the number of people rescued has almost doubled to 41 compared with 22 in 2013.

Nicola Davies, RNLI Community Incident Reduction Manager, said that the number of callouts for Penarth lifeboat station had gone down in 2014, but that the number of people rescued had gone up. She said that in cases like Sully Island they had previously rescued one or two people at a time when they had been cut off by the tide, but in 2014 there had been an increase in families and groups of people stranded on the island.

"We can't look at that as a bad thing as we tell people not to go to the coast alone," she said.

"If they get into trouble they could be cut off by the tide. In the case of Sully Island people stay together as a group and dial 999, so we are rescuing more and more people than we have in previous years."

She said that although the number of callouts to Sully Island has increased by one compared to the year before, the introduction of a traffic light system warning visitors to Sully Island about the tide times had still been a success.

"The sign went live on June 23 and we had already had a number of callouts by then," she said.

"We are still in the evaluation phase but will be piloting it for another year.

"We will also be making modifications to it with increased signage.

"A lot of walkers coming from either side of the beach miss the sign, so we want to put an extra sign on the island too."

Statistics revealed by the RNLI this week show that the number of people rescued by Welsh RNLI lifeboats in 2014 was at its highest since 2006.

The RNLI charity has announced 1,244 people were rescued in 2014 - an eight per cent increase on the previous year.

Volunteer crews at Porthcawl experienced their busiest ever year, with 73 launches – making them the busiest RNLI Iifeboat station in Wales. Compared with 49 launches in 2013, the volunteer crew have seen a massive (49 per cent) increase in lifeboat launches, with the number of people rescued also doubling.

RNLI lifeguards in Wales had another busy summer in 2014, responding to 1,261 incidents and assisting 1,376 people.

One of the biggest increases was at Horton and Port Eynon, where the number of people rescued has rocketed from 17 in 2013 to 64 people in 2014. Burry Port also saw a huge hike in the people rescued, almost doubling from 42 people to 80 people brought to safety.

Nicola Davies said that the increase in the number of rescues was due to more visitors to the coast, the big tides throughout the year, and more people being cut off by the tides.

Stu Thompson, South Wales RNLI Lifeguard Manager said:

"Whitmore Bay was once again the busiest RNLI lifeguarded beach in Wales; the lifeguards responded to 197 incidents and assisted 212 people over the summer. Across Wales we are focusing our efforts into prevention, both on the beach and off the beach in the community. The lifeguards dealt with slightly fewer incidents last year compared to 2013, which shows that our safety advice and education work is helping to keep the public safer when enjoying our coastline."

In regards to Whitmore Bay Nicola Davies added: "Whitmore Bay is the busiest for visitor numbers and we get a lot of people coming to the beach that dont usually have access to the beach, as they come from inland and the valleys. It's the busiest beach for visitors so its the busiest beach for incidents."

Of the 1,076 Welsh lifeboat launches in 2014, 584 were to leisure craft and 388 were to people requiring assistance. Machinery failure remains the most popular cause of a lifeboat launch with 230 launches of this nature in 2014. The RNLI advises and encourages people to check their equipment before setting off, especially if it has not been used for long periods.

People becoming cut off by the tide was also a common reason for the launch of a lifeboat, with 130 call-outs to this type of incident during the year.