No question that life jackets can save lives

Some things you just never forget. Like your child’s first deer, the huge bass that hammered your crankbait from its hiding place in the cattails or the lonely scream of a bull elk in full rut as it floats across a fog-covered meadow. These and other good memories are always welcome, but there are some memories you would rather didn’t come back for a visit.

For me, one such memory is associated with a drowning-in-progress call to which I responded while serving as a game warden on Lake Mead. As the first boat on the scene, my job was to support the National Park Service rangers in their search for the victim. I marked the victim’s last known location in relation to a specific landmark and helped guide the NPS divers by keeping them on course. Unfortunately, when they found the young man it was too late.

When that reality became clear to the victim’s family and friends, the scene turned from one of hope to one of despair. Their cries of anguish filled the air, as they clung to each other in a fruitless attempt to find peace and understanding on Lake Mead’s rocky shoreline.

I can still hear them.

On another occasion, a father jumped in to save his drowning son. Both drowned, and I remember the tears of a wife and mother, along with those of her two surviving children who watched helplessly from the drifting boat as their father and brother lost their lives.

I still see them.

In either of these tragic situations, the victims would have survived if they had been wearing their life jacket. It seems like such a simple step, but it works. I’ve seen those situations, too.

With Memorial Day weekend and the official beginning of the summer boating season right around the corner, perhaps it would be a good idea for us to remember the harsh lessons of the past, especially if they help to remind us of what’s really important and what isn’t. What isn’t important is the macho pride that makes us think wearing a life jacket is some kind of sissy thing or some sort of misguided fashion statement.

That’s why the National Safe Boating Council spends so much time and effort encouraging the nation’s boaters to ”Wear it!” That tag line is, as it has been for years, the focus of the council’s annual safe boating campaign, which begins Saturday with the beginning of National Safe Boating Week.

Why does the Safe Boating Council keep harping on the life jacket message?

That’s simple, because we don’t seem to get it.

In 2008, according to U.S. Coast Guard statistics, 90 percent of drowning victims in recreational boating accidents weren’t wearing a life jacket. And in two-thirds of all boating fatalities, drowning is the reported cause of death.

Any questions?

Say, while you’re sporting that new personal flotation device, why not cast a line for some largemouth bass. Local reader Pat Dailey said he has been catching some nice bass on Lake Mohave by casting plastics and sent me photos to prove his wasn’t just another fish story.

Freelance writer Doug Nielsen is a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. His “In the Outdoors” column, published Thursday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NDOW. Any opinions he states in his column are his own. He can be reached at intheoutdoorslv@gmail.com.