Jeremy Lent Photo
Moments after city officials announced they would welcome Jet Skis back to Lighthouse Point Park under increased supervision, a rider blasted through the nearby waters, breaking the rules.
The visitor zoomed by Friday morning, just after city officials left a press conference at the beachside park in the East Shore. Officials gathered there at 11 a.m. to announce increased enforcement, and the end of an emergency ban on personal watercraft.
The ban was imposed nine days ago in response to increasing complaints from swimmers, canoers, kayakers and other park users about dangerous and aggressive maneuvers by watercraft users. (Personal watercraft, such as Jet Skis, are recreational water vehicles that, unlike boats, have no enclosed compartment for the driver.)
City Parks Director Bob Levine (at left in photo above) explained that the “final straw” for imposing the ban came when the city got reports of “close calls” between Jet Skis and people taking kayak and canoe classes.
There were also reports of Jet Skiers riding slalom between the buoys marking the swimming area at Lighthouse Point, as well as snagging the lines of fishermen by coming too close to the piers, said Martin Torresquintero, coordinator of the city’s Outdoor Adventure Program, which offers the kayak and canoe classes at Lighthouse Point.
In response to the complaints, Levine and others at Parks and Recreation contacted officials at the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to get approval for a temporary watercraft ban. The ban had to be temporary since the boat launch was built with funds from the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, which requires federally-funded boat launches to be open to personal watercraft.
“The Fish and Wildlife officials were telling us, ‘You can’t do this for long — you’ve got to come up with a solution’,” said Eleanor Mariani, director of the DEP’s boating division. Mariani (at microphone in photo) also attended the press conference, along with “Floatie” (on Mariani’s right), the DEP’s water safety mascot.
During the nine days of the ban, the city and the DEP made tentative plans to step up enforcement of existing regulations for all watercraft and boat users at Lighthouse Point. Those regulations includes the requirement that all operators carry proof of registration for their water vehicle, along with a certificate showing their completion of a one-time eight-hour water safety course. (Approved courses are run throughout the state by the DEP and private companies.)
The regulations were printed on signs that were posted around the boat launch this week (see photo). Also, the city and DEP installed buoys during the past week to mark the existing “Slow — No Wake” zone that extends 300 feet into the water beyond the boat launch.
On Friday, officers from the U.S. Coast Guard were on hand to check for registration and certificates from all boat and watercraft users at Lighthouse Point. Those officers will be stationed at the park throughout the weekend as a temporary measure, Mariani said.
Enforcement duties will fall mostly to the parks staffers who run the security booth at the park’s entrance. Mariani explained the idea behind the new enforcement procedures.
“We’re hoping that if people take the trouble to register their boats, they’ll also follow the other safety regulations,” she said.
It remains to be seen whether checking for boat registration will prevent the kinds of close scrapes that Torresquintero has seen.
Some of those scrapes may have been fueled partly by alcohol use. In fact, 63 percent of the boating and watercraft fatalities in Connecticut last year involved drunk drivers, according to Mariani.
As Torresquintero spoke at the boat launch after the press conference, a Jet Skier blazed toward the new buoys. The driver came about 75 feet too close to the buoys and sped about six times faster than the zone’s 6 mph speed limit, Torresquintero estimated.
No one was there to hand out a ticket: The new enforcement is focusing on registration, not on-the-water policing. No boats are stationed in the water to chase after Jet Ski scofflaws.
An hour after the Jet Ski flew by, Reynaldo Arroyo was hooking his boat up to a trailer at the boat launch to leave the park. A Massachusetts resident, he comes to New Haven for what he describes as the best fishing around. Arroyo was asked if he was aware of the new enforcement procedures.
He said no, since he hadn’t been asked to show his boating registration or certificate when he entered the park — although he had both with him. He had noticed the new buoys, and when told about their purpose, he said that he planned to respect the “Slow — No Wake” zone.