$80,000 funding for council safe boating programme

Northland Regional Council’s safe boating programme – ‘Nobody's stronger than Tangaroa’ – has received $80,000 from Maritime New Zealand’s (MNZ) annual Community Grant funding.

Maritime NZ provides funding to deliver programmes that aim to reduce fatalities and injuries to people out on the water in recreational craft.

Council Chair Geoff Crawford says the ‘Nobody’s stronger than Tangaroa’ programme is a multi-faceted approach to safe boating in Te Taitokerau that aims to reduce the number of recreational boating fatalities and incidents by enabling the community to assist in being part of the solution.

The funding will allow council, which has been running the programme for several years, to once again hire ambassadors to support the delivery of the programme.

“We will continue to leverage relationships formed by our ambassadors to deliver life jacket hubs as well as a training programme geared towards priority groups who otherwise would be unlikely to seek or have access to such training,” says Chair Crawford.

These priority groups include males over 45 years-old and Māori, who have been identified by MNZ as being overrepresented in recreational boating fatalities nationwide.

The ambassadors will deliver key safety messaging, including the importance of wearing a life jacket, carrying two waterproof forms of communication, checking the weather forecast before heading out, and knowing the rules.

They will also set-up life jacket hubs in remote areas across the region. Since the programme began in 2017, 22 life jacket hubs have been established across schools, marae and clubs, with more than 470 life jackets provided by MNZ and council.

The hubs are run by the communities who lend the life jackets out as they see fit, the rationale being that the recipients know how to maximise the benefits of the scheme, whether that be lending the life jackets out for just a few hours or longer-term.

The funding will also allow for social media and traditional advertising, and the programme will be supported by council’s Maritime Officers and Harbour Wardens who will be conducting on-water patrols throughout the peak summer period (Labour Weekend to Easter) to enforce, educate, and achieve better compliance with safe boating rules and bylaws.