Maritime NZ has announced recipients of the annual Fuel
Excise Duty (FED) funding for safer boating initiatives to
help reduce fatalities and injuries.

In total, 25
projects and initiatives around the country will share
$863,000 worth of funding.

Too many people die each
year while participating in recreational boating, says
Maritime NZ Director Kirstie Hewlett.

Maritime NZ
research shows that 98 people died in various incidents
between 2015 and 2020.

Ms Hewlett says the fund will
help various national and regional campaigns and initiatives
to turn that number around.

“We want to ensure all
boaties enjoy the water and come home safe,” she
says.

“We want to help boaties know, understand and
follow the rules each and every time they head out on the
water.”

Initiatives which have received funding
include Coastguard’s Old4New lifejacket upgrade programme
and the Bar Safety Video Series, which received $125,000;
Northland Regional Council’s Nobody’s Stronger Than
Tangaroa campaign, which received $70,000; and $60,000 for
Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s Kia Maruatau ki te wai
and Safety is Our Wai scheme.

Many of this year’s
grants focus on communities most in need of support, says Ms
Hewlett.

“The funding is specifically targeted at
on-water compliance activities for people and areas that
don’t currently have it, such as ethnic minority groups,
low socio-economic and hard-to-reach areas,” she
says.

These include Northland, Bay of Plenty and the
West Coast.

Pasifika, Asian and Māori communities are
the targets of a number of programmes.

These include
Coastguard’s Folau Malu campaign, Drowning Prevention
Auckland’s Wai Wise initiative and the NZ Underwater
Association’s Dive Pacific Māori programme.

A key
purpose of the fund is to support campaigns and
collaboration of New Zealand’s Safer Boating Forum, a
group of organisations dedicated to improving safety in the
recreational boating sector.

Forum members include
Coastguard, Jet Boating NZ, NZ Search and Rescue Council,
Surf Lifesaving NZ, and a number of regional
councils.

Ms Hewlett says that collaboration and the
allocation of FED funding is essential to saving
lives.

“More than two million New Zealanders take part
in recreational boating every year and this funding
allocation will hopefully ensure their lives are safer as a
result,” she says.

Note to editors

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