Up to 1.5 million adults are involved in any one or more of 18 water-based leisure activities, according to a recent Marine Institute survey, and marine leisure accounts for almost 45 per cent of our total domestic tourism revenue.
Such statistics help to contextualise the recommendation made this week by the Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) for legislation on alcohol breath-testing which would set maximum blood alcohol levels for seafarers. The suggestion was made in the board's report on the collision between the yacht, Debonair, and the cargo ship, Bluebird, in Dublin Port in May, 2001. Four crew of the Debonair died in the incident, one man survived, and both the subsequent inquest and the MCIB report refer to alcohol levels on board the pleasure craft.
Just as drink and driving don't mix, so excess alcohol has always been an issue in relation to safe aquatic activities. Two years ago, a Wexford skipper who was found to have steered a drunken course through Cork harbour in December, 2002, was successfully prosecuted by the Port of Cork authorities. The action was taken against him under the 1992 Merchant Shipping Act in the first case of its type, and a statutory instrument extending restrictions on alcohol use to pleasure craft was subsequently passed by former marine minister Dermot Ahern.
However, the MCIB found that legislation to be too vague and has urged that a maximum limit be set on blood alcohol levels for seafarers on duty.
The recommendation seems to make sense but the difficulty relates to implementation. On land, random breath-testing of motorists has not been introduced. On water, the Naval Service's powers are limited in spite of its constant presence offshore, the Garda Water Unit has been starved of resources, and the Irish Coast Guard relies substantially on volunteers who would not necessarily be trained (nor perhaps inclined) to enforce such rules.
Compulsory use of lifejackets or personal flotation devices is now law for children, for fishermen on the decks of fishing vessels, and on certain pleasure craft, but there have been no prosecutions for breaches to date. The lifejacket regulations were introduced as a Government reaction to the Pisces angling boat sinking, in which five people died off the south-east coast in July, 2002.
Given the obvious difficulties involved in enforcing the law at sea, far more may be gained from education in seeking to improve public behaviour and habits. First and foremost, though, hundreds of thousands of people who engage in aquatic pastimes must assume responsibility for their own safety and that of fellow water users. This extends to the sensible use of alcohol.