Partnership to provide life jackets to boaters
DOVER (May 23, 2019) – DNREC’s Fish & Wildlife Natural Resources Police, through a partnership with the boating safety nonprofit Sea Tow Foundation, announced today the launch of a Life Jacket Loaner Program for boaters operating in Delaware. To avoid ending a boating voyage on Delaware waterways when boaters are found without legally-required life jackets, officers will have loaner life jackets in sizes Infant to Adult XL onboard their patrol vessels for the public to borrow and return.
Delaware law requires all vessel owners/operators to carry a readily-accessible, properly-sized life jacket for each person onboard, and that all children 12 years old and younger aboard a vessel of any type wear a life jacket while the vessel is underway. All personal watercraft (PWC) operators and passengers, irrespective of age, must wear a life jacket while a PWC is underway.
Since 2008, the Sea Tow Foundation has distributed more than 40,000 life jackets to local businesses and organizations across the country. Boaters may borrow the life jackets and are asked to return them when they are finished so that they are available for others to use.
The following local businesses and organizations have also partnered with DNREC Fish & Wildlife Natural Resources Police to serve as drop off locations to return the life jackets:
For more information on the Life Jacket Loaner Program or boating safety in Delaware, click Delaware Boating Safety or contact Boating Safety & Education Coordinator Sgt. Brooke Mitchell at 302-739-9913 or email brooke.mitchell@delaware.gov.
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Vol. 49, No. 136