Take The Sea Tow Foundation’s Survey On Flares

The Sea Tow Foundation – a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the education and awareness of safe boating practices – was awarded a grant from the U.S. Coast Guard Office of Boating Safety to conduct a nationwide survey to learn more about the disposal of expired and unwanted marine flares.

A flare is a pyrotechnic type of Visual Distress Signal (VDS), and all boaters are required by the U.S. Coast Guard to carry both day and night VDS any time they are operating on coastal waters, the Great Lakes, or on the waters connecting to these areas.

The goal of the research is to develop a collaborative, nationwide flare disposal program for boaters and also to encourage the use of electronic VDS (e-VDS) which are also known as e-flares. Survey data will be shared at public recreational boating meetings and conferences such as the National Boating Safety Advisory Council, the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators, and International Boating and Water Safety Summit as well as on a website that will be populated with updates as they become available.

The survey asks for contact information only so the Sea Tow Foundation can identify people to contact for any follow-up questions in a particular location. Sea Tow will not sell contact information or include names in any of the data that is published or presented as a result of this survey.

As an added incentive, ACR Electronics has generously donated four PLBs that will be randomly awarded to four people completing the survey, and a $10 coupon code that appears at the end of the survey for all those who completed it. The coupon can be used to shop ACR Electronics product listings.

The survey should only take about ten minutes to complete and it can be forwarded to others.

Click here to take the survey.