New Zealand Safer Boating Forum - Maritime NZ

About the forum

The Forum began in 2000 to coordinate and implement the recommendations of the Pleasure Boat Safety Advisory Group final report, released in 1999.

Those recommendations provided the framework for an integrated New Zealand Pleasure Boat Safety Strategy. The strategy uses education and targeted legislation to address the key risk factors in recreational boating fatalities.

The Forum targets four key risk factors:

• not wearing lifejackets in small craft (less than 6 metres in length) which are over-represented in fatalities,
• unable to communicate distress after an immersion-type accident
• bad weather and poor sea conditions
• alcohol, which is a significant cause of accidents and fatalities but is under-reported as a causal factor.

Recreational Craft Strategy 2023-2025

The Recreational Craft Strategy aims to enable people on recreational craft to connect to and enjoy the water safely. Designed in partnership with Safer Boating Forum (SBF) members and the SBF Leadership Group, the strategy seeks to increase the ability of the sector, and communities affected by harm, to be part of the solution.

Read about the Forum’s strategic goals for recreational craft safety and how it is working to achieve them.

Grants back boaties’ summer water safety

On 22 December 2025, the Associate Minister of Transport, Hon James Meager, announced $848,000 in Maritime NZ grants to help keep recreational watercraft users safe on the water.

The funding is targeted towards activities that Maritime NZ research has identified as having the highest risks.

Priorities include supporting boaties operating small craft those under 6 metres normally close to the shore or undertaking activities close to shore, such as bar crossings. Close to shore and bar crossings are where most recreational incidents and fatalities occur.

Funding includes:

• $773,000 to providers of community education programmes
• $75,000 for on-water compliance by harbourmasters.

Wearing a lifejacket is the most important thing you can do to keep yourself safe. In case things do go wrong, carry at least two forms of communication that work when wet. If you cannot call, no one knows you need help.

Maritime NZ and Forum members will continue to reinforce these simple steps with everyone involved.

Position statements

The Forum members are:

• Maritime NZ
• ACC
• Aotearoa Water Safety Patrol 
• Auckland Transport 
• Bay of Plenty Regional Council 
• Buller District Council 
• Coastguard New Zealand 
• Canoe Racing NZ 
• Drowning Prevention Auckland 
• Environment Canterbury 
• Environment Southland
• Gisborne City Council
• Greater Wellington Regional Council
• Hawkes Bay Regional Council
• Insurance Council of NZ
• Jet Boating New Zealand
• Kiwi Association of Sea Kayakers 
• Marlborough District Council
• MetService 
• Ministry of Transport
• Nelson City Council
• New Zealand Marine Industry Association 
• New Zealand Police
• New Zealand Search and Rescue Council 
• New Zealand Sport Fishing Council 
• New Zealand Underwater Association
• Northland Regional Council 
• NZSUP Safety
• Otago Regional Council
• Queenstown-Lakes District Council
• Surfing NZ
• Surf Lifesaving New Zealand
• Swimming New Zealand
• Tasman District Council
• Te Hau Kōmaru National Waka Hourua Charitable Trust
• Waikato Regional Council
• Waka Ama New Zealand
• Water Safety New Zealand
• Yachting New Zealand

International alignment

In October 2013, the Forum joined national boating authorities from Australia, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom as a safety partner to the International Lifejacket Wear Principles. Maritime NZ was a founding signatory to the Principles.

The Principles promote personal responsibility by wearing lifejackets in small vessels and making lifejackets a normal part of any media, publicity, or advertising involving small boats. Authorities agreed the Principles in May 2013, following initial development work at the Canadian Safe Boating Council Symposium in 2012.

Signatories to the International Lifejacket Wear Principles agree to:

• recognise the fundamental role that wearing a lifejacket plays in protecting people on the water
• recognise the importance of promoting the use of lifejackets when boating
• ensure that any publication, including brochures, DVD, video, and websites, features all people wearing contemporary lifejackets when they are in an outside area of a small craft that is underway
• recommend to the recreational boating industry that its publications similarly feature all people wearing lifejackets when they are in an outside area of a small craft that is underway
• require on-water education and compliance staff to wear lifejackets whenever they are on the water
• use the term ‘lifejacket’ in public information and education
• encourage boating safety networks to become safety partners by supporting these principles.

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