Police on the water: Water Police Squad’s Sergeant Frank Pisani (centre) with Senior Constable Cait Middleton and Leading Senior Constable Peter Murphy.
The Water Police Squad was out on the water at Lake Nagambie at the weekend for GoFish Nagambie.
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Officers were patrolling both land and water from Friday to Sunday to ensure proper safety guidelines were followed.
“We’re here to mainly ensure people are aware of what their safety equipment should be, and that they’re adhering to it,” Sergeant Frank Pisani of the Water Police Squad said.
Overall, he said officers were happy with people’s behaviour on the water.
“We’ve had really good compliance this weekend,” he said.
As well as checking safety equipment on vessels, Sgt Pisani said officers enforced speed restrictions and conducted alcohol breath tests.
Water safety: Officers were patrolling Nagambie Lake on jet skis and a boat to check vessels were equipped with the correct equipment and operators were being safe.
“Every interaction we have with jet-ski and boat operators, we want to make sure they’re educated on the appropriate safety use of their vessel,” he said.
According to data from Victoria Police, almost 80 per cent of people who drown during a boating accident in Victoria are not wearing a life jacket or are wearing it incorrectly.
A Victoria Police spokesperson said police checked about 100 vessels at Nagambie.
Of those, police fined 21 vessel operators for failing to follow the rules.
Of the 36 alcohol breath tests conducted, just one person returned a positive breath test.
The spokesperson said the 31-year-old Nagambie man was found operating a vessel with a blood-alcohol reading of 0.064 while camping at Major Creek.
He was fined $545 and lost his marine licence for six months, the spokesperson said.
Water police were also deployed to Waranga Basin to monitor vessel safety.
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