Contacts:

Dave White, New York Sea Grant, E: dgw9@cornell.edu, P: 315.312.3042
Kara Lynn Dunn, Publicist, E: karalynn@gisco.net, P: 315-465-7578


This historic 7-foot round boat is the eye-catching New York Sea Grant Clean and Safe Boating educational vessel for 2016. Photo: New York Sea Grant

Oswego, NY, June 1, 2016 - Is it a spaceship? An amusement park ride? No, it is an historic 7-foot round boat and it is the New York Sea Grant Discover Clean and Safe Boating educational vessel for 2016.

“This boat catches everyone’s eye and draws people in to hear the message about wearing a life jacket, being prepared for a sudden emergency on the water, and practicing clean, safe and environmentally-friendly boating on New York waters,” says David G. White, coastal recreation and tourism specialist with New York Sea Grant Extension, Oswego, NY.

Since 2008, the the Discover Clean and Safe Boating campaign has educated over 650,000 boaters. White developed the campaign in partnership with the Boating Industries Association of Upstate New York (BIA) trade group. Each year BIA members provide a different type of vessel for the educational campaign that travels to events and venues statewide to engage public interest in water safety and environmentally-friendly boating practices.

The round boat, a Circraft dating to the early 1970s, was donated for use with the 2016 educational tour by Burke’s Marina, Raquette Lake, NY.

New York Sea Grant offers the following top 10 clean and safe boating tips:

• Wear a properly-sized and approved life jacket.
• Boats more than 16 feet long must have a throw-able flotation device on-board.
• Learn how to be calm and act properly in the event of an emergency on the water by taking Suddenly In Command training offered by the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary.
• Have a proper device to receive weather alerts on-board the boat.
• Make sure boat horn, whistles, distress flag and other means of signaling a water emergency are in working order.
• Check that all vessel lights are working and on-board flashlights have fresh batteries.
• Check expiration dates of on-board fire extinguishers and flares.
• Store flares, distress signals, and navigational charts in dry compartment.
• Use a fuel nozzle bib and bilge sock to keep marine fuel from spilling into the water.
• Practice Clean, Drain, Dry inspection of watercraft, trailers and gear to remove aquatic invasive species and debris each time you enter and leave new water.

More Info: Safe Boating Campaign

Sponsors for the 2016 Discover Clean and Safe Boating campaign include: The Boating Industries Association of Upstate New York; Burke’s Marina, Raquette Lake, NY; Lehr Engines, and BoatersAdvantage.com.

In addition to being named the 2015 New York State Boating Educator of the Year, New York Sea Grant Discover Clean and Safe Boating campaign developer David G. White was recognized as National Association of State Boating Law Administrators Northern States Boating Educator of the Year in 2015.

For more information about the 2016 Discover Clean and Safe Boating Campaign in New York, contact Dave White at New York Sea Grant at SUNY Oswego, 315-312-3042.

New York Sea Grant offers boating safety resource links for selecting the right life jacket, developing a float plan, requesting a courtesy vessel check and more online at www.nyseagrant.org/marina.


More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York, is one of 33 university-based programs under the National Sea Grant College Program (NSGCP) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NSGCP engages this network of the nation’s top universities in conducting scientific research, education, training and extension projects designed to foster science-based decisions about the use and conservation of our aquatic resources. Through its statewide network of integrated services, NYSG has been promoting coastal vitality, environmental sustainability, and citizen awareness about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources since 1971.

New York Sea Grant maintains Great Lakes offices at SUNY Buffalo, the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark and at SUNY Oswego. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University and Stony Brook Manhattan, in the Hudson Valley through Cooperative Extension in Kingston and at Brooklyn College. 

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube links. NYSG also offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/coastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published several times a year.