It’s always fun to venture offshore and find good fishing, but it’s also important to make sure you are safe when leaving the dock and are able to return home to your family. The Coast Guard has a list of required items that are to be on every vessel but when venturing offshore you should consider a few more.

1. The first one is already installed on your boat but 99% of people do not use it properly. The safety lanyard is designed be attached to the captain and to cut off the engine if they were to be removed from the helm or worse, knocked overboard. It’s often not used, or ignored because it’s inconvenient. Personal MOB (Man Over Board) devices have grown in popularity and can be used as a supplement by simply just wearing a bluetooth enabled wrist band that will turn off the engine off when the user is more than 40ft from the boat. In other more risky situations more users can be added to the central device to account for the entire crew and transmit MOB signals over AIS with location.

2. AIS (Automatic Identifier System) started as a commercial vessel application but has spread to recreational boaters as well over VHF radio signals. The system makes your vessels name and location available to other vessels marine electronics. The system has multiple functions and uses. Your vessels location is available to AIS receiving vessels that may not have radar but can see your locations. Vessels in the area can identify your location and try and communicate to you over VHF radio. AIS is monitored and recorded in most coastal regions so if you were to go missing your last location could be tracked. AIS equipped VHF radios also have a distress button that can be opperated that will send out your mayday call and location to nearby vessels without having to pick up the radio and talk. This is crucial when the captain is trying to save the vessels but doesn’t have adequate time to operate the radio.

3. EPIRBs (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) and PLB’s (Personal Locator Beacons) have been around for quite sometime. However there have been some changes in both international and and US law that have added significant technologies to them. The first is Return Link Service, it’s a simple return message to the device that gives indication with a led light that the emergency message that was sent out was actually received. This was made possible by the European Union’s Galileo satellite network in 2020. Secondly in 2023 the US FCC authorized that a single PLB can transmit both AIS and 406MHz frequencies. So not only with your signal be reached by satellite, but locally located vessels will receive the AIS distress message with your location as well which may offer a quick rescue.

4. The throwable PFD (personal floatation device) is one of the other most overlooked safety devices that is required by the US Coast Guard. Although you will find it on the vessel, it needs to be readily accessible. After personally joining a MOB distress call and finding the deceased victim the importance of it being readily accessible has never been more important to me. Not only does it serve as a floatation device for the victim but it also can serve as a way to quickly locate the person. The instance I found myself in was a man had fallen off a neighboring sailboat in choppy waters 3 miles from Catalina island. The captain of the boat could not instantly stop the sail boat and the victim was difficult to relocate in the choppy conditions. Without having a personal floatation device of any kind the victim drown. Adding a flashing light or MOB indicator could help find a victim in the dark as well.