We have to agree with the Michigan Boating Industries Association (MBIA) on this one. We understand the importance of boating safety, but there is a better way to deliver the message. Everything has its dangers.
The MBIA said in a statement that a recent advertising campaign by the U.S. Coast Guard was “misguided and damaging.” The trade group said it intends to contact Congress to “share the boating industry’s outrage” about the ads. “Every year, millions more people participate in boating, yet fatality rates are holding steady across the nation,” said John Ropp, MBIA president in a statement. Ropp said that boating’s safety record is better than snowmobiling and motorcycling in the state of Michigan. “In these uncertain economic times, it is incomprehensible that the USCG is using taxpayer dollars to push a new ad campaign whose only message is that boating is a dangerous activity,” the statement quoted the NMMA as writing to the Coast Guard. The statement did not specify the exact message of the ad campaign, but a banner ad on the Coast Guard’s home page shows a dead foot in a morgue with a toe tag that reads “Don’t let this be you,” and leads to a section on boating safety. “These are taxpayer dollars at work and more care should be taken on how they are spent,” said Ropp. “Not only is this campaign misguided it is also damaging to an important industry and a beloved American pastime.”
Courtesy of www.ibinews.com.
It is a little ironic that the next topic in the newsletter is “EPIRB Helps Rescue Four Boaters Off Georgia Coast” and goes on to tell how the USCG “rescued four boaters 14 miles off the coast of Cumberland Island, GA on Saturday, after a 25-foot sport boat they were aboard capsized” Rather than a toe tag maybe a dunce cap?
Granted the ads are a bit heavy on the fear side. However, how many times have we all seen yahoo’s in their new (to them) boats zipping along with little to no regard of others around them. Everyone knows it doesn’t take a special license to operate a boat, just a check book. Once, we were moored of a small island on the New England coast, a very popular place, when a small boat lost its engine and began to drift towards us. No worries, I grabbed a couple of fenders and lines and got her tied off. When i reached out to grab her, however, the skipper said, “Sorry, just push us off”. Really? Where will they go? Into another boat or worse, onto the rocks 50 yards away? No anchor ready to be deployed, no tools on board to try and fix the motor, don’t know about PFD’s but they were not wearing any when we tied up. There are too many tragedies on the water each year regardless of the ‘numbers’ not going up. So if these ads can get some people to think a little and maybe take some basic courses in boating and safety perhaps the ‘numbers’ will begin to decrease. If these ads don’t apply to you, thank you for taking the time to be safe on the water. As far as taxes go, there are so many less important things our money is being allocated for that safety on our waterways shouldn’t even be discussed.
Jack
I think whatever scare tactic the coast guard can use is justified. Have you ever been out on Biscayne Bay on a weekend? It is downright scary!! There needs to be some sort of licensing protocol for these “credit card captains” . Being a sailor, surrounded by large fast power boats who don’t have a clue what the ‘rules of the road’ are, I have almost been in more fatal accidents than I can count.
There is also cost side to the equation. As Tom Edwards noted above, the Coast Guard performs rescues. An emergency run 14 miles off the coast of Georgia costs increasing scarce tax dollars. Fuel, engine and boat maintenance and personnel costs plus the infrastructure to support the them come from our pockets or borrowed money. I am not suggesting their motivation was driven by operating costs, but a successful boat safely campaign means fewer rescues, less risk to the personnel that perform them, and less operating cost.