Death on the water

Telling people to be safe has little effect on boating, say seminar participants

MUSKOKAN - Anyone who thinks a bit more education is the way to make boating safer should take a closer look at Death.
A brand of cigarettes sold in Britain in the early 1990s, Death featured a skull and crossbones logo and marketing slogans like “the Grim Reaper don’t come cheaper,” and “let us be the nail in your coffin.”
That sort of marketing underlines the futility of simply telling people that their unsafe behaviour could harm them, said psychologist Phillip Groff.
“We often do education very badly,” said Groff. “We think if we print up a flyer and put it under someone’s windshield wiper, it’s going to change their behaviour.
“That won’t even change where you go for a haircut.” The vice-president of Parachute, which represents four national safety advocacy groups, Groff was the keynote speaker at the Canadian Safe Boating Council symposium, held in Gravenhurst from Sunday to Tuesday this week.
The symposium is held annually in different parts of the country, and attracts a range of participants, including boating instructors, first responders, marine manufacturers, and regulators.
Participants discussed the array of boating stats and the success of programs focused on wearing a life-jacket, abstaining from alcohol, taking a training course, and so on.
In many ways, boating has become much safer than it used to be — even after a hot and sunny summer there have been 14 boating fatalities in Ontario so far this year and 81 in Canada; at the same time last year there were 22 in Ontario and 98 in Canada, a decline of roughly 20 per cent.
In a typical year, there are 120 boating fatalities in the country, down from an average of 130 a decade or so ago.
There’s also been a decline in minor incidents, said Peter Garapick of the Canadian Coast Guard, or at least a decline in the number of calls for aid. He attributes that to the introduction of the Pleasure Craft Operator Card, or boating licence, which is mandatory for all power boaters.
Garapick acknowledged there have been discussions about whether the card should be more difficult to obtain — one of the areas discussed at the seminar was whether the licence should include an on-water test — but said even the simple process in place now has had an impact. “Something’s changed,” he said. “I think boaters are thinking more about safety, and if they do get into trouble, they know how to deal with it because they’ve had the training.”
If the PCOC has made boating safer, many in the boating community are eyeing the next step in that evolution. Making life-jackets mandatory was one option discussed at length — 80 per cent of boaters who drown each year are not wearing a life-jacket. Many speakers noted that inflatable life-jackets and new styles have largely eliminated the discomfort associated with bulky old jackets.
“Life-jackets or PFDs represent a very small part of the cost of power boating,” said boating instructor Bill Jennings of the Power Boating Academy.
He pointed out that many of the arguments against mandatory life-jackets were also used against seatbelts in cars and helmets for young cyclists, and yet both are now widely accepted. “And we don’t even call them ‘life helmets,’” he said.
While life-jackets need to be carried on board, police officers have to pull over a boat in order to enforce that rule; it’s much quicker and easier, several speakers noted, to see if a passing boater is wearing a flotation device.
Other speakers noted that simply modelling good behaviour can bring about a change. A decade ago, said a member of the Trent-Severn Antique Boat Association, only two members of that group wore life-jackets to club events; now there are about 60 who do.
Raymond Zee has also taken a simple approach to educate his boating community. The president of the Ontario Chinese Anglers Association, Zee is in many ways the face of future boating — within the next 25 years, visible minorities are expected to make up half or more of the population in many Canadian cities, with the vast majority of immigrants coming from Asia.
Originally from Hong Kong, Zee started out renting boats before buying his first boat in the 1990s. He said many of his association’s members come from cultures that love fishing, but have little knowledge of the sport’s regulations or of boating safety.
“I spend a lot of time explaining the regulation that says you’re not allowed to transport live fish,” Zee said, by way of example.
He also has devoted a lot of energy to explaining boating safety to people who view a boat as simply a means to catch fish, and who give little thought to questions of carrying capacity or the need for life-jackets.
But even within his community, he said, the message needs to be tailored. Ten years ago, most ethnic Chinese immigrants were from Singapore, Malaysia or Hong Kong; now, most are from mainland China. “The cultures are completely different,” Zee said.
Ann MacDiarmid has also seen changes in her cultural community. The president of the Little Lake Joe Association and a founder of the Safe Quiet Boating initiative, MacDiarmid said Muskoka has seen a host of changes in recent decades. Boats are bigger, faster and more numerous. Even the navigational hazards have changed: “The lakes are becoming full of huge, inflatable, anchored toys,” she said.
“Some are anchored close to shore, while others seem to be anchored in the middle of nowhere.”
There are also more subtle changes in the Muskoka boating culture, she said, which prompted the Safe Quiet initiative. Through advertising and handouts, as well as through personal discussions, people are being encouraged to share the lakes and treat each other with more respect on the water. “We went on the premise that people could do something,” she said.
Whatever group is being addressed, whatever behaviour is being targeted, Groff said people will only change if they buy into four beliefs: there’s a problem, it’s their problem, there’s a solution, and it’s a solution they can implement.
If boating incidents are viewed as unavoidable — the way an addicted smoker may view the health impacts of their habit — he said, nothing will change. “If something’s unavoidable, there’s nothing you can do about it,” he said. “When something’s unavoidable, denial is always an option.”

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