This Memorial Day Weekend the lakes, streams, and bays of Texas will be enjoyed by anglers and boaters alike.

Last year Texas game wardens spent about 546,000 hours on recreational boating safety work. Use of paddlecraft, (canoes and kayaks), has exploded over the past decade. Many of these users are inexperienced or ignore basic boating and water safety rules.

In 2015 almost half of the 32 boating related fatalities in Texas involved canoes and kayaks. Wearing a PFD, personal flotation device, could have saved some of these people. Texas law does not require anyone except those under 13 and those on personal watercraft to wear a PFD. However, it does require every boat to have at least one PFD for every person on the craft.

Another safety item that doesn’t get a whole lot of ink is the kill switch on motor powered boats. With a kill switch the boat operator has a lanyard attached to usually his belt loop and the other end to the key in the ignition switch for starting or stopping the motor. If the lanyard receives a pull on it, the motor will shut off.

This is a crucial safety feature. If while underway the boat should hit some underwater obstruction, it could cause the boat operator to lose control of the boat, or worse yet, get thrown overboard. Usually if that happens, because of engine torque, the boat will go in circles. There have been too many stories about boat operators being maimed or killed by the spinning prop hitting them as it circles. Be sure to hookup the lanyard to the kill switch.

On this holiday weekend, have fun out on the water, but be safe no matter what kind of boat you are in. One other thing…leave the alcoholic beverages to be consumed on the bank.