It’s a case of Sea-Doos and sea don’ts.
The city must protect Brooklyn swimmers from devil-may-care personal watercraft riders, recreationists are demanding. The inconsiderate Jet Skiers buzz dangerously close to back-stroking locals, who say they’re now afraid to go into the water.
“I’m terrified to be honest, I’m terrified just to go swimming,” said Lyn Goldsmith, member of the Coney Island Brighton Beach Open Waters Swimmers organization. “I had one very close call where I almost got hit. I felt the spray when I turned my head to breathe, and when I looked up, I saw the Jet Ski take off.”
Parks Department rules prohibit all personal watercraft in the waters right off Coney Island Beach — from W. 37th Street to Brighton 15th Street — and it’s up to the police department’s Harbor Patrol Unit to enforce those rules and issue the $50 fine, a spokeswoman said.
But littoral law enforcement is lax at best, according to natators who claim they rarely see police off the shore.
“The reality is they should be patrolling it very frequently, and they are not — not enough,” said avid swimmer Mark Heller. “And I think if they were patrolling more frequently that itself would be a good shield — it’s the presence.”
Swimmers who try to warn the scofflaw seamen to back off are met with a salty salute, another bather said.
“I was swimming along with a friend, and a jet ski came right between us — we were very close to the jetty — and she said to him, ‘You’re in way too far,’ and he just gave her the finger and took off,” said Goldsmith.
If police won’t enforce the rules, then the Parks Department should at least drop buoys to let riders know off-limits areas — something it did in years past, according to another seafarer who said the floating markers were enough to keep her at bay.
“I was a prominent Jet Skier, I obeyed the regulations,” said swimmer Lesa Fishman. “There used to be a white buoy floating clearly, and if we dared to go inside, we would get pulled over by the marine police, and we would be fined. I never ever came inside those zones.”
But the Parks Department won’t even go that far, because buoys actually endanger weak swimmers by enticing them to paddle out too far, said a spokeswoman.
“Parks does not install lines or buoys to delineate boundaries for Jet Skis, as they tempt swimmers to swim beyond their limits and end up in distress,” she said.
The Parks Department could not provide any studies citing this trend, and the New York City Harbor Unit did not return a request for comment.
A father and son died in a personal watercraft collision in New Jersey on July 3.
