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Officers from the state Department of Natural Resources are looking for ways to keep boaters safe while coping with debilitating budget cuts that have reduced waterway patrols by almost 30 percent in the past five years.
One suggestion: Mandatory classes before you can operate a boat.
Given the shenanigans one can see on a sunny summer afternoon and the few restrictions now in place, it might be time. Requiring boating licenses or certifications would take an act of the General Assembly. Lawmakers should consider it in the next legislative session.
DNR officers aren't the only officers who patrol local waters. Beaufort County deputies and Bluffton police officers are out there at times, as well as the Coast Guard. Still, their numbers pale in comparison to the number of boats. South Carolina ranks eighth in the country in the number of registered boats. More than 400,000 are registered in the state, according to DNR. About 10,000 boats are registered in Beaufort County.
Right now, there are no education requirements for anyone operating a boat powered by a motor under 15 horsepower. For boats with 15 horsepower or greater, children under 16 must complete a boater education course or be accompanied by someone 18 or older who is not impaired by drugs or alcohol. (There's a comforting thought: It must be pointed out that supervising adults must be sober.)
Anyone 16 or over can take the helm and go, according to state law, no matter the horsepower.
The solution might be as simple as extending the education requirement to adults operating boats of 15 horsepower or greater.
The cost to get a boating license or certification doesn't have to be prohibitive. It could be borne by those who want to operate the boats. Local power squadrons and the Coast Guard Auxiliary offer boating safety classes.
DNR offers a boater education course online. When you successfully complete it, you can print out a temporary certification card. You also can order a DVD and mail in your test.
How a system like this would work for mandatory licenses would depend on the extent of education required by a change in the law, but if you can get a college degree online, surely state officials can figure out a way to do this.
Enforcement on the water would still be an issue, as it is with all operator requirements, and a license or certification isn't a guarantee for safe operation. But it would be a step in the right direction, and it might give people who have never operated a boat or navigated our tricky tidal waters some pause before striking out, even if they thought they wouldn't be caught. Education is particularly important in Lowcountry waters, with their strong tidal currents, shifting sandbars and channels and potentially dangerous oyster rakes and pluff mud.
Dick Jennings, a skipper with Beaufort Water Search and Rescue, who thinks boating classes should be mandatory, put it this way:
"If you could see the idiots out there running the boat, hitting the sandbar, running up in the marsh, you'd understand why. They don't need a captain's license, but having common sense and knowing what to do is important."
Something needs to change.
