FI Jet Ski Ban Lifted
Volume 49, Issue 6
By April Jimenez

The sound of jet ski engines in the crashing waves off of Fire Island will resume. After a three-year ban, personal watercraft (PWC) will once again be allowed on the waters around Fire Island National Seashore. Although the ban has been lifted, new restrictions will apply.

In 2002, Bluewater Networks, a national environmental organization, filed a claim against the National Park Service (NPS), citing the negative environmental effects caused by PWC use. The legal action resulted in the PWC ban in 21 national parks, including Fire Island.

On July 6, a compromise was made and the jet ski ban was removed, but not without considerable restrictions. New regulations were drafted with public participation, and were evaluated through the environmental assessment process.

All PWC are required to stay at least 1,000 feet offshore on the western end of the island from Robert Moses State Park east to the Sunken Forest and 4,000 feet from the wilderness area to the east. Jet skis are granted access to navigational channels marked by buoys to Fair Harbor, Dunewood, Lonelyville, Atlantique, Cherry Grove, Fire Island Pines, Davis Park and to the communities of Water Island, Kismet, Saltaire, Ocean Beach, Ocean Bay Park, Point O’Woods and Oakleyville at flat wake speed, which is a maximum of six miles per hour.

NPS aims to increase PWC safety and awareness, mandating that all operators earn a safety certificate and must wear a U.S. Coast Guard approved personal floatation device or life jacket.

“It only makes sense [to require an operator’s safety certificate], the last thing we want is someone to be injured,” said Ocean Beach Chief of Police Edward Paradiso.

The general consensus on the island seems to be that the new rules will benefit everyone involved. Fire Island Association president Gerry Stoddard is optimistic.

“For most of Fire Island, if [the regulations] are enforced and tickets are given out, it should work fine,” he said

A copy of a the final rule can be viewed on the Fire Island National Seashore’s Web site at www.nps.gov/fiis/pwc.htm.