I’ve been invited to speak to you about recreational boaters operating in the marine transportation system, and the role harbor safety committees can play relative to these recreational boaters. Preparing for this was harder than you might think, because the vast majority of recreational boaters don’t even know that there is such a thing as a marine transportation system.
      Most of you are involved one way or another with making a living from maritime transportation. Whether as a ship owner, ship pilot, port owner, port authority, the Coast Guard or others involved in marine transportation.....your perspective on the system comes from a professional or perhaps economic standpoint.
    By comparison, most recreational boaters take to our nation’s waterways simply to play...whether it’s fishing, sailing, skiing, cruising or whatever.....they’re not out there to work but to play. Consequently, they don’t share your vision of waterways as working harbors.
    Bridging that disconnect poses a tremendous challenge for promoting safety and a responsibility for sharing the waterways in a safe manner. It also represents a great opportunity for groups such as harbor safety committees to play a key role in communicating and coordinating on local waterways so we can safely share and minimize the conflicts that can occur with multiple use.
    Recreational boating often has a certain amount of what’s sometimes referred to as the "bubba-factor". The "bubba factor" involves those boaters who don’t know how to operate safety, or boaters who don’t seem to care. For the former, we try to apply education. For the latter, we apply law enforcement. Education and enforcement are the cornerstones of our Association, the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators.
    Collectively, we represent boating safety programs in all 50 states and the territories. For the past 40 years, NASBLA has worked to promote safe boating through the development of numerous model acts, standards, research and forums to coordinate boating safety nationwide. The good news is that the collective interventions of federal, state and local governments together with volunteer organizations and other associations have reduced boating accidents and fatalities.
    Since 1973, the Coast Guard estimates that these programs have saved over 23,000 lives in recreational boating. Fatalities have declined, from an all-time high of 1,754 in 1973 to a near-record low of 734 last year. This is despite a doubling of the number of recreational boats using our nation’s waterways, with more horsepower and greater speed than ever before.
     While this reduction is good news, clearly the job isn’t done and the challenge of managing waterways for commercial and recreational use remains......and this is where harbor safety committees have played, and will continue to play, an important role.
    How big of a problem is this? Unfortunately, the MTS report doesn’t provide any quantitative data on commercial/recreational accidents or incidents. But there is some data in the Coast Guard’s Boating Accident Reporting Database (BARD). A snapshot from 1998 reveals 60 accidents involving 91 commercial vessels and recreational boats. These 60 cases resulted in 11 fatalities and 20 reportable injuries. Perhaps not surprising is the fact that less than 20 percent of the operators had any formal boating education or training. Collisions were the primary form of accident.
     Where did these happen? Pacific = 6; Gulf of Mexico = 7;
Atlantic/ICW = 26; Inland Rivers and Lakes = 20.
    Two of the deadliest accidents in 1998 were on inland rivers, and are illustrative of the problems we face in preventing recreational fatalities. One of these occurred July 16, 1998 on the Illinois River, at 5:15 pm when a 18' open motorboat collided with the lead barge, part of 16 barge tow, being pushed upriver. 2 dead, 2 injured. Cause: alcohol combined with drugs.
    A second occurred January 14, 1998 at 5:55 AM on a freshwater bayou in Louisiana. A commercial fishing vessel collided with a 26 foot closed cabin motorboat. Six persons were killed, one survived. Cause: the commercial vessel was operating at excessive speed, without proper lookout and proper lights.
    Even with these two accidents, which accounted for 8 of the 11 deaths in 1998, recreational/commercial accidents represent less than 2 percent of the total recreational accidents for that year. We have no data on near misses and other incidents, but I know from talking with ship pilots and other commercial vessel owners that these are a source of great concern and we share that concern. The risk of collision or grounding due to multiple use vessel traffic is an ever present concern.
    Reducing that risk involves education, enforcement and cooperation.
    I will take a moment to share the fact that mandatory boater education is on the way. It is no longer a question of if, but when. In 1988, there were no states that required mandatory education or operator licenses. Last year, 27 states had some form of mandatory education and the trend is growing. While many of these only require education for certain ages or kinds of boaters (like personal watercraft), the trend is towards education for all motorboat operators, much like the Canadian Coast Guard’s program that was enacted last year. One of the biggest problems we will face in the U.S. is achieving reciprocity between states that enact different education requirements in the absence of any uniform federal requirements or standards.
    Enforcement by state and local marine units is an important part of maintaining some sense of control, especially in areas with heavy recreational use. It’s imperative to have these units engaged as stakeholders in harbor safety committees. Together with the other stakeholders, they bring a valuable local perspective. Funding for marine patrol is always an issue. Harbor Safety Committees can play a valuable role in lobbying for the funds it takes to ensure adequate on-water patrols and education.
    Perhaps the most important role for Harbor Safety Committees is in promoting communication and cooperation between the various MTS stakeholders. But one of the greatest challenges is in reaching the recreational boater as a "stakeholder" when they don’t view themselves as part of the MTS system. They don’t know what the MTS system is, and most don’t care. They just want to have fun. Here are some things Harbor Safety Committees can do the reach the recreational boater.

          1) For a start, reaching out to yacht clubs and organized boating or            fishing groups. This is often preaching to the choir, but its an important            starting point.

           2) Reaching boaters at access points is another good strategy: targeting            messages through signs at boat ramps or marinas.

           3) Boat shows and sportsman’s shows also work, depending on the            target audience.

          4) Try targeted direct mailings. For example, in Oregon we sent direct            mail flyers to sturgeon fishermen, as a group, often anchor in navigation            channels. Coupled with aggressive enforcement, this approach payed            dividends on the Columbia River.

     Like any good marketing effort, you need to understand your customer and be creative in trying to get the message across to them. These are some ways that Harbor Safety Committees can reach recreational boaters, but I have one other underlying issue that I need to address too.
     I would like to close by sharing my frustration with the MTS system report relative to recreational boating. It clearly identifies the problem and offers some general solutions for recreational boating, but it leaves the problem at the doorstep of state and local governments. The MTS fails to provide what state and local governments really need to promote boating safety, and that is cash. Despite the stated goal of the Department of Transportation that "Safety is Our Top Priority", the MTS report and the recently released DOT budget, don’t deliver.
     The TEA-21 Legislation authorizes $70 million for boating safety from the Wallop-Breaux trust fund, which comes from federal motorboat gas taxes. Unfortunately, the Coast Guard hasn’t asked for any appropriation of these funds for the past several years. The states are fortunate in having a safety net of $59 million that comes through the Department of Interior, but each year we’re losing $12.6 million in boating safety dollars, simply because it isn’t requested. Until this "win-lose" situation is corrected, funding for boating safety will continue to decline as inflation and growing demand rob the program.
    State boating safety programs, along with the efforts of Harbor Safety Committees are really where the differences are being made in boating safety. We desperately need the Coast Guard, and the Department of Transportation, to join with us, step up to the plate, and aggressively seek to provide the authorized funding needed to make improvements to safety for all waterway users, including recreational boaters.