A new survey on life jacket use by local boaters is out today, and it shows that while use is up from 2013, it's down from last year when incentives were advertised.
The Personal Floatation Device (PFD) wear rate survey is conducted every year by BAYSAR Air Search and Rescue. This survey has been conducted each summer since 2013 over North Bay area waterways and it is the only ongoing observational PFD wear rate study available across Canada.
This year the campaign was changed and the survey was completed on July 29, without letting the boating public know. This was to answer a question raised in relation to "why" people were wearing their PFD, and provide unbiased results says an OPP news release.
The results from this year's survey seem to show improved PFD wear rates compared to pre campaign levels in 2013, but the wear rates are not quite as high as the years where incentives were included.
For open power boats the calm water wear rate dropped from 20% to 14% (still higher than the 9% baseline in 2013), and the rough water wear rate dropped from 33% to 29% (still higher than the 23% rough water baseline).
The "Let's See You Wear Your PFD" campaign is starting today.
Sometime between now and September 1, BAYSAR and the North Bay OPP Marine Unit will be teaming up to give a boater seen wearing a PFD a ride in the BAYSAR floatplane.
