If you have ever floated in a pontoon boat on one of Michigan’s inland lakes or cruised in a powerboat off Florida, you know that recreational boating and angling is a hallmark of the American outdoor recreation experience. With nearly 12 million registered boats in the United States and more than 100 million Americans hitting the open waters each year, the boating industry has become the backbone of the outdoor recreation economy, and continues to be the number one contributor to the $689 billion outdoor recreation industry.
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, hundreds of thousands of Americans looked for new ways to enjoy the great outdoors, and boating was among them. The industry has seen near-record growth, welcoming 415,000 first-time boat buyers to the market for the second year in a row in 2021 — levels not seen since before the Great Recession of 2008.
As more boaters join the boating community, there are natural questions about how the industry can take steps to keep new and veteran boaters alike on the water, and about how to continually improve the boating experience. One key facet to this equation is boater safety and education. With new boaters comes the responsibility to train first-time owners on best practices for keeping themselves safe, as well as for ensuring the safety of those on and near the water around them.
The Coast Guard’s recently released 2021 Recreational Boating Statistics show a decrease in boating injuries and fatalities compared with 2020. Notably, accidents dropped 15.7 percent, injuries decreased 17.2 percent, and fatalities fell by 14.2 percent. Where information was available, 75 percent of deaths occurred on boats where the operator had not received safety instruction or on-water training. Operator inattention, inexperience, improper lookout, machinery failure and excessive speed ranked as the top five contributing factors in accidents.
While boater safety data shows positive trends, there is an ongoing need for mandatory education courses that will keep people safe on our nation’s waters. Statistics affirm the dangers that a lack of instruction creates, and it would be remiss not to mention how significant variation among state boater education laws — particularly with regard to age — plays into these situations, as well. For example, in Michigan, only individuals born after 1996 are required to have a boater education certificate. Meanwhile, in neighboring Indiana, there is no requirement to have safety training at all.
When facing these facts, the answer is clear: Mandatory boating safety education for all ages is the right way forward for our industry.
The National Marine Manufacturers Association has long supported mandatory safety education for all boaters, regardless of age. As boating continues to experience unprecedented growth, we believe it is our responsibility to look out for the community and establish safety standards so everyone can responsibly enjoy the water for years to come. The boating industry has a history of taking a comprehensive approach to safety, such as making boat designs safer through innovative, improved and standardized technologies, all while educating boaters to equip them with best practices so they can adapt to a variety of situations on the water. Mandatory safety education is a comprehensive, commonsense policy that puts boaters first.
Specifically, the NMMA supports a boating education curriculum that is certified by the National Association of Boating Law Administrators as meeting its educational requirements. In addition, laws should require a person to complete the course and test within 60 days of a boat purchase, either online or in-person, and allow for online instruction and testing.
And as the number of new boaters grows, other safety regulations must complement mandatory education courses to ensure that accidents are minimized and that our nation’s waters are safe for all to enjoy.
Our industry laid the foundation for boater safety decades ago when it spearheaded the enactment of the Federal Boat Safety Act of 1971. Looking forward, the boating community wants to build on these efforts by advocating for reasonable regulations, including the carrying of emergency position indicating radio beacons under certain conditions. When activated, this GPS-based tracking equipment transmits the location of the beacon to rescue services.
The boating community has a history of being proactive when protecting our waterways so that Americans can continue to enjoy our nation’s natural resources. Each year, our community contributes $742 million in conservation efforts, including funding for infrastructure and clean water projects, wetland restoration, fish restocking and boating-safety programs.
In addition to these broader national initiatives, several local boat dealers and private instructors hold on-water training sessions and provide educational handouts after boat purchases, expanding the scope and reach of critical boater safety education information. The boating community also supports several campaign efforts to educate consumers on safe boating practices and etiquette. Discover Boating, powered by the NMMA and the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, is the industry’s largest online resource and guide to recreational boating. Across the platform, Discover Boating shares information with consumers and educates them on all aspects of staying safe on the water, including life jacket use, educational requirements, equipment checklists, watersport activities and more.
Further, the Water Sports Industry Association spearheads the Wake Responsibly campaign, which promotes best practices to educate wakeboats drivers. These best practices include remaining 200 feet from shorelines when towing to protect our shorelines and ecosystems, playing music at reasonable levels, and eliminating repetitive passes in one stretch of shoreline.
It is now up to state governments to enact comprehensive, commonsense laws that mandate safety education for all boaters, continuing the strong work of our community.
Straightforward education and training will improve safety, and the conservation and general health of our waters. At a time when boating is experiencing record growth, our state lawmakers have a duty to protect those on the water through prudent legislation. With such regulations in place, we can ensure that our waters will be safe for generations to come.
David Dickerson is vice president of state government affairs at the National Marine Manufacturers Association.
This article was originally published in the September 2022 issue.
