New York Sea Grant launches safety campaign for boaters and beachgoers

Area beachgoers and boaters are being reminded to stay socially distant this summer, thanks to a new social media campaign from the New York Sea Grant.

The #BEachSAFEly campaign is aimed at reminding people headed to the beaches to stay safe and have fun. Sea Grant programs will post a new social media graphic each week with specific safety messages for beachgoers.

Making sure beachgoers have sunscreen and sanitizer as well as making sure masks don’t become marine debris are two key reminders that will play out during the nine-week long campaign.

A related initiative offers saltwater and freshwater for-hire boats a series of decals to encourage compliance with boating-specific COVID-19 safety precautions. The decals will adhere to boat surfaces to note “Mask Required,” “Use Sanitizer,” “Wear It” with a life jacket symbol, and “Keep Personal Belongings Personal.” Others have a blank line to write a name with an erasable marker to designate person-specific areas aboard the vessel for each individual’s fishing pole or diving gear. There is no cost for the decals to qualified for-hire boating businesses.

NYSG is a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York and one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program. Here in New York State, the program has offices at Stony Brook University, Brooklyn College and Cornell Cooperative Extension in New York City and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.