In 2016, the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office at least recovered nine dead bodies from country waterways and spend about 459 hours on 14 rescue calls. This year, the law enforcement agency hopes to lower those statistics.
The Sheriff’s office and the United States Coast Guard Holland Station are pushing this spring educating boaters water safety this summer.
“We’re teaching a new boater that maybe has never been on the Great Lakes before,” said Coast Guard Flotilla Cmdr. Dan Groenendyk. “It’s a different experience, so we’re here to give advice and instruction.”
According to the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, in 2016 at least 46 people drowned in Lake Michigan and this year 15 have drowned so far.
In order to prevent drownings, the Coast Guard is offering free vessel inspections. And the inspections can be done anytime of the year.
Coast Guard will check for adequate life jackets, flares, fire extinguishers, lights and other safety features, during the inspection.
“We’re here to make sure that once they get underway, they’re compliant with the law,” Groenendyk said. “The vast majority of the time, it’s more of an educational event than anything else.”
He estimates that the Holland Coast Guard does about 400 inspections on boats every year.
Typically, the boaters have the right types of mufflers and ventilation on their boats to pass inspection. But the emergency safety equipment is what often is lacking.
During a boar inspection on May 13 at the Holland Department of Natural Resources boat launch, Coast Guard Chief Adam Smart saw a few familiar violations.
“There have been a few folks even today that don’t have flares on board, or the flares are expired,” he said. “It’s one of those pieces of gear that doesn’t stay current and that catches some people off guard.”
Despite the fact that about 90% of the victims were not wearing life jackets, it is a struggle for coastal guard personnel to get people have enough personal flotation devices on board.
“Unfortunately, we still come across people that don’t have enough life jackets on board,” Smart said.
The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office often loans personal flotation devices to boater out on the water. The department’s marine division wrote 47 tickets last year and issued 1,066 warnings.
Sergeant Dean DeVries of the Marine Division said that his team pulled nine bodies out of the water in Ottawa and assisted other agencies on two other rescues.
Most of the boaters do not realize that they need to have a floating device on board if their boat is no longer than 16 feet.
“That’s one of the bigger ones that we see, and maybe not having that Type IV throwable,” Smart said.
All boaters must submit a float plan, including letting people know where a boater plans to be and when they wants to return. The communication will help rescuers to have a place to start looking in case the boater does not return as planned.
“Over my 20-year career, a lot of times in that first phone call they can’t tell me where the person was going or when they’d be back,” Smart said. “You know you’ll be out all night because you don’t know where you’re looking.”
A plan can be as simple as telling a spouse or other relative where a boater wants to go, or it can also be filled through the free Coast Guard app on a phone.
Details including the departure time, return time, a working phone number and a description of the type of vessel should be on the float plan.
Boaters should also check the weather before heading out.
We see it all season long that thunderstorms roll in and people get caught out. It’s always fun to ask them if they looked at the weather before going out on the boat that morning,” Smart said.
Boaters should be aware of their personal belongings, they should keep their phones charged in a plastic bag. This is especially true for kayakers and other paddle-boaters without a marine radio on board.
“If you hit the red button on the app, you can see your coordinates and call 911,” Groenendyk said. “My coordinates can go right to the Coast Guard station and they know right where I’m at. That ability to immediately call the Coast Guard with your location is huge. Everything you need is on that app.”
The Coast Guard is offering free safety classes on June 17 and July 15 at the Kollen Park Fire Department.
The class is about 8 hours and all the participants, who pass a test with at least 75% score will receive their Michigan DNR boating safety certificate. People who are born on or after July 1, 1996, must have a boating safety certificate on board.
“That’s the whole point of what we’re doing out there, making sure people are safe,” Smart said. “This is a proactive approach to it and it’s fantastic.”
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