Texas Game Wardens and U.S. Coast Guard personnel are teaming up for the July Fourth weekend for Operation Dry Water, monitoring boaters for violating under-the-influence laws with enhanced enforcement.
Operation Dry Water is a nationally coordinated enforcement campaign focused on deterring boaters from operating watercraft while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
“Operating a boat under the influence of drugs or alcohol is a serious offense which will lead to your arrest and will include jail time, fines, and the loss of your driver’s license,” said Cody Jones, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department assistant commander for marine enforcement.
The focus here in the Rio Grande Valley will be from South Padre Island and Port Isabel north to Arroyo City, said Texas Game Warden Ira Zuniga.
“We’ll be there, and we’ll be partnering up with the Coast Guard guys and departments from the county and the City of Port Isabel,” Zuniga said. “We have good working relationships with Port Isabel and South Padre and the Coast Guard.”
“Definitely, we’re going to be out there doing the fireworks and over the weekend,” he added. “Letting folks know they need a designated driver out on the water.”
In 2020, state game wardens made 193 criminal arrests for boating while intoxicated state-wide.
The effort by the U.S. Coast Guard and game wardens comes after the alarming data of 2020, which saw boating accidents in the state at their highest level in 30 years.
Fatalities on Texas waterways increased 45 percent in 2020 from 2019, while fatal accidents on the water rose by 61 percent. Overall, accidents on the water were up 67 percent, and injuries were up by 64 percent.
This trend is continuing into 2021. Numbers from 2021 show a 40-percent increase in open water-oriented fatalities, including boating and swimming accidents, in the months of January through April.
“I think the fact that we were in lockdown, and everybody went out and bought boats, and we have a lot of folks out there who are novices to boating,” Zuniga said. “We want to remind people that if you were born on or after Sept. 1, 1993, you have to have that boater education class.”
On a regional level, the U.S. Coast Guard District Eight, which covers 26 states including most of the gulf coast, saw 424 recreational boating fatalities in 2020, which is the highest number of deaths on the water in the district in the last five years.
Of those 424 lives lost, about 18 percent of them were alcohol-related, Coast Guard officials say.
“We want you to get out there and have a good time and have fun, but with safety always in mind,” Zuniga said. “We want to let people know that we’re trying to keep folks honest and have them take safety into consideration and get a sober driver, because a drunk on the water is also a drunk on land.”
According to Texas state law, a life jacket must be available for each occupant of a boat or paddle craft. Children under the age of 13 are required to wear one while the boat or paddle craft is under way or drifting.
In 2020, Texas game wardens issued 641 citations for children not wearing a life jacket, up 11 percent from the previous year.
