MONROE COUNTY, Fla. – Statistics show Florida leads the country in boating accidents, and the Florida Keys is one of the most popular places to go out on the water.
Officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will be on the water in full force leading up to the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
FWC gave Local 10 an exclusive ride-along on the water in Islamorada to show the dangers facing boaters.
The first stop: the Islamorada sandbar, where boaters, swimmers, and personal watercraft share a shallow patch of water.
“This will get extremely busy,” said FWC Officer Liam Rodriguez. “We’re looking for those vessels about to take off.”
Rodriguez said boat operators pay attention to their surroundings, but accidents happen when boaters don’t.
“You have your operator that just powers up the boat, starts going forward with many people around him,” he said. “You know that guy’s not paying attention. It’s extremely dangerous.”
There’s no special boating license in Florida, but anyone born after Jan. 1, 1988, must take a boater education course to operate most motorized vessels.
Last year, Florida had 59 total boating fatalities. According to FWC, 83 percent of operators involved in those fatalities had no boater education.
For more information on boater education, click here.