Officials urge boaters ‘just don’t’ when it comes to icy waters

Maryland – Every second counts during an icy rescue. Last month’s harrowing rescue of six waterfowl hunters involved multiple state agencies primarily led by Maryland Natural Resources Police. Two pilots of the NR Police helicopter that provided illumination during the rescue said icy waters make add more risk factors and delays in operations where precise and efficient coordination can mean the difference between life and death.

Sergeant John Buchanan and Officer Christian Helwig were Natural Resource Police pilots providing the searchlight needed during last month’s rescue. They said that, especially in the winter, the importance of planning for worst case scenarios and triple checking equipment could not be understated.

“If people are are looking to go out in a boat in the winter time, they need to take into consideration all the environmental factors,” Buchanan said. “You got to look at what happens ‘if,’ you know, what’s the ‘what if.'”

Helwig cautioned boaters to go over every single safety item if they were going to be out in inclement weather.

The U.S. Coast Guard was not involved in last month’s rescue but officials still stress the need of understanding the risks. U.S. Coast Guard Senior Chief William Woodruff said having a life jacket on, a radio installed and a back up radio could be the difference between a bad a worse situation. He also also said ice flows in the water can prove dangerously unpredictable.

“Because there’s no way to tell until you’re out there how thick the ice is, how big ice flows are,” Woodruff said. “Assuming just because there’s open water now doesn’t mean it’s going to be like that when there’s ice around.”

He also said that people underestimate how fast hypothermia can set in, taking only a couple minutes if someone goes overboard. He said that below-freezing air and water temperatures like the ones seen on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and in the Chesapeake Bay in recent weeks could be fatal. Even just falling into the water and immediately getting pulled back into the boat could expose someone to life-threatening hypothermia, Woodruff says.

Ice also slows critical response times for first responders. The more time first responders spend on a rescue, the more the higher the chance for difficult and dangerous situations requiring life-saving precision and speed to worsen, he says.

“The response is significantly slower because we can’t just get a boat underway,” Woodruff said. “We could end up putting ourselves in the same situation that the person we’re trying to assist is in.”

Though Woodruff acknowledged  that some rely on going out on waterways for their economic reasons, he said he would expect expert watermen to weigh the risks carefully and make the correct preparations. He recommended making a “float plan,” a plan of where someone is going to go, what they are going to do and to relay that with someone on land.  He recommended sending out a notification to a point of contact every 20 or 30 minutes and staying in contact for the entirety for the boating trip.

“And then obviously with the radios, the Coast Guard is always monitoring channel 16,” Woodruff said. “So, anybody that is out or needs help, that is how that’s the easiest and quickest way to reach the Coast Guard.”

As for recreational boaters, all three officers recommend they simply not go out in icy conditions.

“My biggest thing that I would recommend is that, if there’s ice, just don’t go out in it,” Woodruff said.