Anglers & Boaters Still Dying

A personal note from Ray:
January’s cold-weather water and the imminent danger of hypothermia make the following column (make that the following plea) even more important.  If one person – just one single angler out there plugging away on winter waters – decides to buckle up in the boat, this column has done its job.

“Boat Smart From the Start…Wear Your Life vest” is a good slogan to live by.  The U. S. Coast Guard annually counts some 800 lives lost to boating mishaps, a majority due to drowning.  Yet 80 percent (8 out of 10) victims will NOT be wearing a life vest.

In the case of riding in an automobile the law requires – makes you – buckle up.  “Click It or Ticket It” is the highway patrol’s motto.  As a result, many lives are saved in roadway accidents.

The time has come for such a mandatory law in the case of recreational boating.  As the U. S. Coast Guard’s figures show, many more lives can be saved by requiring boaters (i.e. bass anglers) to wear the required on-board life jacket, not just “have it available in the case of an emergency.”

Twice the U. S. Coast Guard has tried to mount a campaign for a “mandatory life jacket” law.  At every turn, the Coast Guard administration has been torpedoed by an out-cry of too much heavy-handed legislation, rebuffed by even marine dealers and manufacturers claiming the strict life jacket rule will hamstring sales and turn the public away from boating.

There was a time when I would have joined the picket line, protesting such a law.  The old style, bulky life jackets and even the later Type III personal floatation devices (the foam-filled vests) are uncomfortable to wear much less to wear while fish on a midsummer day, they’re an instant sauna.

But despite possible backlash, in the early days of the Bassmaster Tournament Trail, as founder of the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.), I laid down the law that “anytime the big motor is cranked” the angler and his boat partner would have on a Coast Guard-approved life vest.

There was no protest by the tournament angling crowd.  A rule is a rule, particularly in the case of a B.A.S.S. sanctioned tournament.  The pro fishermen buckled up without question.  However, most stripped out of the life vest on reaching their fishing spot until time to crank the outboard again (Exception:  inflatables are now so cool and comfortable anglers often keep it on because it’s not hot and uncomfortable.)

The safety example shown by the Bassmaster Tournament Trail pros carried over, for the most part, into the B.A.S.S. Federation bass clubs and to some degree influenced other fishermen to buckle up.

Today, with the newest U. S. Coast Guard-approved inflatable CO2 fired life vest, there’s no excuse or reason to not “Boat Smart from the Start…Wear Your Life vest.”  These ultra-comfortable, suspender-style vests are a bass fisherman’s friend.  And a life-saving friend indeed, if you are in need.

Some years ago, Scott Swanby, a Fruitland, Idaho fisherman, introduced himself as a man on a mission.  He was on a quest to save lives.  Scott had lost a close friend in a duck hunting accident, who stepped into a deep hole and drowned while setting out decoys.  Swanby had to tell his friend’s family what happened.

Scott Swanby was so distraught he became obsessed with the idea of developing a life vest – one that outdoorsmen would wear.  After years of trials and tribulations and knocking on the high-level doors at the U. S. Coast Guard Administration, Scott Swanby designed and achieved approval for his SOSPENDERS, an inflatable life vest.

As an advocate of always wearing a life vest, I’ve supported Scott Swanby’s mission and carried the message as “official” spokesman for his Sporting Lives Company (now known as SOS, Inc.).

To show my faith in the automatic inflatable unit, we created an in-store video demonstration.  A camera crew waited as a helper used duct tape to secure my ankles and knees and bound my hands behind my back.  Houdini, I’m not.  But to prove a point, I’m willing to take some risk.  Hobbling to the edge of the Triton’s gunnel, I plunged head first over the side and into 10 feet of water.

With the camera rolling, the inflated SOSPENDERS popped my head above the surface in a matter of seconds.  By actual stopwatch, from splashdown to riding on the surface:  2.6 seconds elapsed!

If you were tossed unexpectedly out of a boat and possibly  knocked unconscious - the following comments are important:  If you wear a popular Type III foam vest, make a point to read the manufacturer’s label inside the jacket.  Somewhere in the “small print” the company will state:  “this jacket is not designed to float an unconscious wearer into an upright position.”  In short, if you can’t hold your head above water, you drown.  Simple fact.  However, by wearing the foam-type vest you will make recovery of your body much quicker for searchers.

Scott Swanby, on the other hand, designed his SOSPENDERS inflatable to roll a person into a head-up, upright position.  The 36 pounds of buoyancy – three times the support in the average foam vest PFD – will support you in the water without having to “tread water.” 

As a long-time boating safety advocate, and during the years at the helm of B.A.S.S., as an organization we were instrumental in making changes for the better in boating safety.  B.A.S.S. led the charge to promote boating safety by requiring tournament contestants to wear a Coast Guard-approved life vest and persuaded manufacturers to install safety “kill switches” – a cut-off device to stop the outboard motor if the operator left the console.  B.A.S.S. also worked with bass boat builders to put upright floatation in boats and supported the U. S. Coast Guard to set horsepower rating standards for bass boat hulls.

So why stop short of the goal:  to save more lives on the water?

The right thing for the U. S. Coast Guard to do is to make wearing a life vest (PFD) mandatory in recreational boating situations on boats 22 feet and less.  Under present boat safety rules, children are required to wear life jackets.  Why not every boater?  But the Coast Guard is not going to successfully tackle this political football unless the boating and fishing public demands it.

Here are the facts and figures about PFDs and why you should “Boat Smart From the Start”:

§         815 – The average number of yearly recreational boating fatalities in the U. S.

§         574 – The number of people who drowned in those accidents.

§         509 – The number of people who drowned who were NOT WEARING a life jacket.

These Coast Guard statistics speak for themselves, but the message too often falls on deaf ears of the boating public.  There’s only one sure-fire way, in my opinion, to turn the tide.  That’s to make it mandatory to wear a personal flotation device (life vest) when on the water.