Boating Facts

Game Warden does a boating safety check

Boating Facts

  • January 2021 to April 2021 showed a 40% increase in boating fatalities from the same time last year.
  • In 2019, the Coast Guard counted 4,168 accidents that involved 613 deaths, 2,559 injuries and approximately $55 million dollars of damage to property as a result of recreational boating accidents.
  • Operator inattention, improper lookout, operator inexperience, excessive speed, and alcohol use rank as the top five primary contributing factors in accidents
  • Where instruction was known, 70% of deaths occurred on boats where the operator did not receive boating safety instruction.
  • Where boat length was known, eight out of every ten boaters who drowned were using vessels less than 21 feet in length.
  • Where cause of death was known, 79% of fatal boating accident victims drowned. Of those drowning victims with reported life jacket usage, 86% were not wearing a life jacket.

Paddle Sports

  • 22.9 Million Americans Participated in at least one paddle activity (7.6% of the population)
  • Hispanic Participation has increased 3% since 2013 (773,000 New Hispanic Participations)
  • Males make up 53% of Paddlesports Participants and females make up 47%.
    • This gender gap is narrowing by 1% annually
    • Females are now the majority participants in stand up paddleboarding
  • 30% of paddlers indicate that they don’t own a lifejacket
  • 15% of paddlers indicated they didn’t feel a Lifejacket was necessary
    • If you extrapolate that percentage, that’s 3.4 million paddlers taking needless risk