To date there are no states that require new boat operators to demonstrate their skills – taking the helm, maneuvering in a narrow channel and docking–under the watchful eye of a state examiner, the way automobile drivers must show that they can properly steer, turn and park.
While the number of boating-related fatalities nationwide is down 23 percent from 15 years ago – to 710 in 2006, from 924 in 1991 – the total has been back on the rise during the past two years from a low of 676 in 2004, according to the Coast Guard's latest statistics.
"The current situation is appalling," says Bill Gossard, the NTSB's spokesman for recreational boating safety, referring to the number of boaters who don't have any training and can't follow the rules because they simply don't know them. "We need to make sure that people know what they're doing, whether they're driving a cabin-cruiser or a kayak."
THE CASE FOR LICENSING
Proponents say that licensing programs would help law-enforcement authorities in two ways. First, they would provide visible proof that boaters have completed mandatory boater education courses, which all sides agree are necessary. The second benefit is that procedures to revoke a boater's license could be implemented, giving authorities a way to get abusive boaters off the water.
Gossard said there's no doubt that licensing would make boating safer. "If you have licensing, everybody would have to have some boating education," he said. "And it's easier to enforce safety laws. With autos, if you find a drunk driver, you can get him off the roads. Licensing would enable us to remove boaters who are under the influence as well."
In Alabama, boating accidents fell 12 percent the year after licensing was implemented.
Alabama's experiment with boater licensing has been a success, state law enforcement authorities say. In 1998, after two widely-publicized boating accidents that took the lives of three children, the state began requiring all boaters to obtain licenses before they could operate a power-driven vessel. To qualify, you have to pass a written exam.
The impact was immediate: A year later, the number of boating accidents in Alabama fell by 12 percent. Injuries dropped 4 percent and fatalities plunged by 47 percent. The numbers have been declining with near-regularity ever since.
The licensing requirement covers anyone who operates a power-driven vessel, no matter how small. Today some 600,000 Alabama boaters are licensed.
Capt. Bob Huffaker, chief of operations for the Alabama Marine Police, says the arrangement has given authorities a powerful enforcement tool by enabling authorities to revoke the licenses of abusive boaters.
So far this year, the state has suspended the licenses of 66 boaters, most of them for drunk-boating violations, according to Lieutenant Erica Shipman, who heads the Marine Police Department's licensing division. Refusing to submit to a sobriety test results in an automatic 90-day suspension. There were 28 suspensions from 2005 to 2006.
"The licensing law has done an enormous amount of good here," said Huffaker, who is the state's acting boating laws administrator. "We have a better-informed and better-educated boating public, and the new law has been well-received. It's an accepted fact now that if you're going to boat here, you have to have a license."
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Alabama's law requires boaters to complete an approved boating safety course successfully–either an eight-hour class that the state conducts or similar courses offered by the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary or the U.S. Power Squadrons. The state also offers an online course.
If you can pass the Alabama exam without actually taking the course, you can skip the classroom or online sessions altogether. Holders of U.S. Coast Guard merchant marine licenses can simply submit copies of their Coast Guard certificates to obtain the state endorsement.
To avoid overloading boaters' wallets, Alabama doesn't issue separate boating license cards. Those who qualify have the boating endorsement stamped on their drivers' licenses, which have special letter symbols for autos, motorcycles and marine vessels. Non-drivers are issued a special driver's-license-style card that only shows a "V," for vessel.
There's a $5 application fee, plus a one-time $23 "issuance" fee. Unlike driver's licenses, the certification does not have to be renewed.
