‘Make the right choice’: NSW Maritime hand out 50 fines in weekend blitz on waterways

Authorities are pleading with families to “make the right choice” on the water after 14 people drowned without life jackets. It comes ahead of a warm, sunny school holiday period.

NSW Maritime’s boating safety officers were out on patrol in Botany Bay and Sans Souci on Sunday to ensure boat users have the appropriate safety equipment. Picture: Tom Parrish

Authorities are pleading with families spending sunny autumn days on the water to “make the right choice” by wearing their life jackets, and potentially save their own or their children’s lives in the process.

There have been 16 maritime deaths since July last year and 14 of those people killed on NSW’s waterways were not wearing a lifejacket or were wearing a substandard one, including a 37-year-old man who was being towed on an inflatable sea biscuit along the Murrumbidgee River and a 54-year-old man whose boat capsized in Coffs Harbour.

Despite the life-and-death risk, the message hasn’t gotten through with one in four offences recorded by NSW Maritime over the same period related to the use – or lack thereof – of life jackets.

The issue has prompted a statewide water safety blitz with maritime transport officers spending the first weekend of the school holidays handing out nearly 50 fines and 120 cautions, and targeting “anti-social jetski behaviour, unsafe towing of people behind vessels” and boats making risky coastal sandbar crossings.

NSW Maritime campaign co-ordinator Deon Voyer said his crews made over 1300 “safety interactions” over the weekend, and recorded 88 per cent compliance with lifejacket regulations.

Most oceanfaring Sydneysiders are doing the right thing. Picture: Tom Parrish

In one incident, officers rescued a kayaker who had capsized while wearing a life jacket. The man told the crew and a nearby paddler who assisted he believed he would have drowned without it.

“It goes to show you can be an experienced boater or kayaker, but you can still fall in,” Mr Voyer said.

Life jackets must be maintained, and certified that they meet the rquired “buoyancy standard”. Picture: Tom Parrish

“People think ‘this won’t happen to me’, so they might take their life jacket on board and leave it somewhere, but it can only save you if you’re wearing it.”

Meanwhile at Newcastle Beach multiple agencies including Marine Rescue and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter are scouring the ocean for a missing woman last seen wearing a pink top and black pants, who entered the water in the early hours of Sunday morning and never returned.

Their search was suspended around 3pm on Sunday and will resume today (Monday).

The campaign comes as more Sydneysiders are expected to take to the waterways in the weeks ahead, soaking up the last of the warmer weather during the school holidays, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting a “typical” April – mostly sunny, warm days interspersed with the occasional cool change and scattered showers.

“It can only save you if you’re wearing it.” Picture: Tom Parrish

Senior meteorologist Jordan Notara said rainfall forecast for Tuesday will be “short-lived” and temperatures will be back above 25 degrees by next weekend, but warned of an increasing potential for hazardous 3 to 4 metre surf along the whole NSW coastline.

“What’s occurring to make that potential risk is a low pressure system we’re monitoring that’s developing in the Tasman Sea, and that could bring higher energy waves into the coast around Thursday and the earlier part of the weekend,” he said.

Surf Life Saving NSW CEO Steven Pearce reminded holiday-makers to swim where lifesavers are on duty wherever possible, and wear a life jacket when rock-fishing – a potentially deadly recreation that is the third highest cause of drowning on the NSW coastline.

When swimming at an unpatrolled beach, Mr Pearce said, beachgoers should have a flotation device at the ready to rescue yourself, a family member or anyone else who finds themselves in trouble, and be prepared to call triple-zero if someone’s in danger.

“Every drowning that’s occurred this summer has occurred in an unpatrolled location, which really reinforces that when they’re away, they should look for a patrolled location,” he said.

“If you’re going somewhere you haven’t been before you’re not really conversant with the dangers of that beach; where the rips are.”

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Originally published as ‘Make the right choice’: NSW Maritime hand out 50 fines in weekend blitz on waterways