RES CPR 13 Expand Public Awareness of Local Boating Safety Resources
Expand public awareness of boating safety resources for local waters. This includes but is not limited to: databases providing information on environments, coastal topography, river conditions, and unique marine weather conditions.
Spectrum level: Promoting Community Education
Evidence level: Low
Rationale:
The is great importance in local and indigenous knowledge for improving water safety using boats as it adds a robustness to statistical data. Combining local knowledge and scientific data can improve the operational use and design of local boat-based rescues, improve efficiency of local emergency responders with more thorough and detailed knowledge, and can identify where further resources are needed.
Anticipated Impact:
After implementing this recommendation, you can expect to experience the following outcomes.
- Expanding public awareness of boating safety resources for local waters demonstrates the importance of local and indigenous knowledge for improving water safety using boats.
- Collecting local knowledge leads to an improvement in the operational use and design of boat-based rescue and region-specific boat-based rescue.
- Expanding public awareness of boating safety resources for local waters leads to emergency responders with more thorough and detailed knowledge to improve their efficiency.
- Expanding public awareness of boating safety resources for local waters provides local recreational or commercial boaters with more local knowledge to more safely operate and execute (if necessary) rescues using their boats.
- Expanding public awareness of boating safety resources for local waters leads to increased both scientific and experiential knowledge of local marine environments and local boat operations for all boaters.
- Expanding public awareness of boating safety resources for local waters will identify gaps to fill, problems to solve, funding and resources needed, etc. in local regions.
Evidence:
Across the U.S. there are examples of boat-based rescue manuals, however their content is generic and not context specific to the local aquatic environments and conditions on the water. USCG or other groups like NASBLA have statistical data and reports but are tailored to provide state-by-state statistics on topics like the number of boats per house, whether life vests are used, regulations, type of boating incident, etc. Local data about unique water conditions are not considered, and the literature is limited in reporting region-specific, boat-based rescue data. Additionally, there does not appear to be a national study examining how local water environments and weather impact boaters and their rescue response in a given region.
Evidence Sources:
ANSI/NASBLA 101-2017: Basic Boating Knowledge – Human Propelled https://api.typeform.com/responses/files/d458d925845ba1a0f1d03b860b689415c2268d566b8849b1117e8a93beaa9bd8/ANSINASBLA1012017HumanPropelledANSEffective20170928.pdf
On-Water Recreational Boating Skills Standard – INSTRUCTION https://api.typeform.com/responses/files/d767ff1f38cf7a0424f49eacd256cfc0e1bff39fe6fcc1709227af5e550198d9/OnWaterInstructionABYCANSI.pdf
Crozier, Mitchell and Giles, Audrey R. 2020. Promising Practices for Boating Safety Initiatives that Target Indigenous Peoples in New Zealand, Australia, the United States of America, and Canada. International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education; 12(4), Article 8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25035/ijare.12.04.08 Available at: https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/ijare/vol12/iss4/8
Water Rescue for Americas Firefighters https://api.typeform.com/responses/files/ab0c6ca9cb030d242b1ed3f5857e754d3459ce0d280eb5ca9d84daeda644ed6a/FirefighterSafetyTermPaper807.pdf
USCG Boating Safety Division. 2020. National Recreational Boating Safety Survey Exposure Survey Final Report. https://api.typeform.com/responses/files/ab58714a99cb5d928caa542a3e28ac0f5671d4e45d7f8f600634ac8560b62dfb/2018NRBSSExposureSurveyFinal_Report.pdf
High Risk Populations Addressed:
All populations can benefit from implementation of this recommendation.
Evaluation Metrics:
Indicators of long-term impact:
- Information catalogs or databases that can house local knowledge and experiences about unique water environment and weather conditions are developed regionally (what are specific local marine features and dynamics that would call for a specific sort of boat operation, design, etc.)
- Local emergency responders incorporate local knowledge to improve their techniques and training for new responders who may not be from their region
- Rescue boats are created with maximum capability for emergency response in a given local region
Indicators of intermediate impact:
- Enhanced knowledge of executing a safe boat-based rescue among local responders
- People are aware of the specific knowledge unique to local water environments
- Specific knowledge unique to local water environments is valued
- Locals are willing to share boating knowledge, experiences, unique local water conditions
- Increased awareness of local knowledge and experiences
Indicators of initial impact:
- Local boaters and boating organizations are consulted for feedback through studies or surveys
- A database containing local knowledge, and scientific data about local water environments is created
Implementation:
Consider the following to ensure successful implementation:
- Reach and engage local boaters, boating companies, and emergency services with boats.
- Performing scientific examination of water environments and garnering support or funding by state authorities.
- Consult local boating associations, coastguard stations, indigenous peoples with intimate local knowledge of water ways and environments.
- Task a single agency (potentially federal) with coordination.
- Ensure adequate workforce is available to conduct the studies that will facilitate database.
Challenges to Implementation:
When implementing this recommendation, you might encounter challenges related to the following factors.
- Interest and political will may be limited.
- Building the database may be a complex and challenging task.
Potential Facilitators:
The following factors might facilitate the implementation of this recommendation.
- People from a local region will likely support this work because it aims to make their local region safer. People from a local region can be assigned as part of the workforce to conduct studies, surveys, and information collection. - State or national personnel can also be assigned as workforce.
- Local boat clubs, local emergency response groups, and boat companies can facilitate the development of resources that house local knowledge (database).
- Collaboration among government, private and industry sectors, such as fire or police departments, with rescue boats, tow-boat companies, beach rescue with boats, and local recreational boaters, will be critical to success of this recommendation.
GAP Recommendation:
There do not appear to be local or national studies (or databases) on local boating experiences and local water environments for boat-based activities (both general boating, and using boats for rescue). Local is understood as region-specific or town-specific, etc. There does not appear to be information about experiences in region-specific boat-based rescue. There does not appear to be a national study of this sort. Both (a) local knowledge by native/local boat operators, and (b) scientific data about local coastal topography and water environments are invaluable resources to understanding how to most effectively execute boat-based response and rescue, and how to safetly operate a boat in the given local region. The USCG collects statistics on casualties and similar aspects, and other national agencies produce nautical charts and flood analyses, etc., but not necessarily the above information with an eye on data that can improve boat operations and rescue activities. Local knowledge is often passed orally or attained via practical on-water experience in the local water environments, but not systematically documented or studied in any way that can be analyzed and shared for future local boaters and rescue boat responders. Therefore, knowledge-sharing and acquisition for both local and national organizations is a benefit of conducting studies and attaining the above information (a & b). RECOMMENDATION: First, identify if there are any such studies or databases of (a) local knowledge by native/local boat operators, and (b) scientific data about local coastal topography and water environments. Based on evidence and research thus far, there does not appear to me. An example question is, are there any existing studies intended to identify boat characteristics best suited to a given local coastal region? Are there research studies or other data on local coastal oceanography, topography, morphology; experience of local boaters operating in the local region; local USCG reports of their experiences operating their boats in the local region; etc.
Second, if there are none, then design and conduct studies on (a) and (b): begin with selected local coastal or inland water regions, and conduct studies or surveys about the local boating experiences by local boaters and boating companies/industry operating in the local waterways, with particular emphasis on local emergency response groups that have rescue boats. Conduct a national (federal) study on how each maritime environment along US coastlines and inland waterways may require unique boat designs. Examine, local coastal topography, water dynamics, boater statistics and experiences, weather, etc. Collect information and data on various qualitative and quantitative metrics. Examples may be: the effectiveness of their particular boats, their limitations, needs, problems they encounter, how their local weather and coastal topography impacts their rescue boat response, their desiderata for improving rescue boat response, etc. A scientific application of the coastal data to the goal of improving boat-based rescues and identifying efficient boat features and rescue boat designs should be worthwhile.