PANAMA CITY BEACH — Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officers are gearing up for their busiest boating holiday.
Memorial Day weekend is one of the Panhandle’s biggest tourist holidays and the first chance of the year for many boaters to test their new toys. With the influx of people — many of them inexperienced or uneducated boaters — the chances for a boating accident or boating while intoxicated increase, FWC officials said.
“It’s the opener for boating season,” said officer Nick Price. “We’ll see a lot of people breaking down because that is when they test their boat.”
Officers will be alerting boaters this week, which is National Safe Boating Week, and during the Memorial Day holiday, officers will be out in force. Their main priority is boater safety and will be checking for proper safety equipment and people displaying reckless behaviors, like allowing people to sit at the bow of the boat.
“Every year at least one person falls off the boat, gets run over and spit out by the propellers,” Price said. “If they survive, they’re usually badly deformed for the rest of their life.”
Price said FWC officers will be working long shifts due to limited resources. Officers also will be on the look-out for intoxicated boaters and administering sobriety tests on the water. Alcoholic beverages are allowed on boats, but the operator cannot have a blood alcohol content of more than 0.08 percent.
Although Florida’s boating season never really ends, the traditional start is marked by National Safe Boating Week, from May 16-22. The week is a time for boaters to focus on simple, effective steps that make boating safer. These include paying close attention while operating a vessel and wearing a life jacket on the water.
According to the recently released FWC 2014 Boating Accident Statistical Report, 634 boating accidents were recorded in Florida last year, resulting in 73 fatalities.
“Many of these accidents could have been prevented if the boat operators had paid attention to everything going on around their vessel, maintained a proper lookout and if everyone had been wearing a life jacket,” said Capt. Tom Shipp.
In many cases, life jackets were available but not utilized. This was true during two recent boating accidents where both adults and children ended up in the water.
Shipp said one victim once told him, “I thought my son would have to watch me die.”.
Fortunately, FWC officers arrived on scene and were able to rescue the individuals. The father said he would never go boating again without wearing a life jacket, Shipp recalled. The second incident, as with so many others, did not turn out as well.
“We live in a great boating state,” Shipp said. “And we believe that safety truly is the key to enjoyment.”
Although boater licenses are not required by state law, FWC officers will be checking to make sure operators born after 1988 have required boater safety cards.