Why is it important to learn how to swim?
Tuesday, 8 September 2020
New Zealand is an island in the pacific ocean that has one of the highest fatal drowning rates in the OECD (dpnz.org,nz). It is important to learn how to swim because if your boat capsizes you can save yourself from drowning and from drifting away from your boat.
In New Zealand, lots of people drown in the ocean each year. In 2020 there has been 209 people drown so far. In 2019, 82 people drowned; In 2018, 68 people drowned; In 2017, 92 people drowned. Watersafety.org.nz explains that 2019 saw a ‘18% increase’ in the number of drowning compared to the previous year.
New zealand has a 15,000 km of coastline and over 700 beaches (wikipedia.org).
There a few popular beaches were people tend to drown more often - the following beaches have had more than 60 deaths at them. Ninety Mile Beach in Northland, Matapouri Bay in Northland, Muriwai Beach, in Auckland, Hot Water Beach in Coromandel Peninsula, Oriental Bay Beach in Wellington, Kaiteriteri Beach in Nelson/Tasman, St Clair Beach in Otago and Caroline Bay in Timaru. (yokohama,swim.safety.com). a