Rangers with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources will have an extra job responsibility on area lakes and state parks this Memorial Day weekend thanks to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Mark McKinnon, Public Affairs Officer for the DNR's Law Enforcement Division, said Memorial Day weekend typically is considered the unofficial start of boating season, so if the weather cooperates, area lakes - such as Lanier and Hartwell - will be crowded. This year, however, rangers will be tasked with keeping boaters and their passengers at a personal distance per orders from the governor's office.
"Basically, we will be looking for boats that are tied together because typically those are going to be people who are not from the same household and therefore, they would be in violation of the social distancing directive," McKinnon said.
He said the goal is not to write tickets or make arrests, however.
"We really just want compliance," McKinnon said. "We've had really good responses from folks across the state as we've asked them to comply with social distancing and they have done it overwhelmingly."
Not only are boats not allowed to congregate in coves and around docks, but crowds on individual vessels will also be limited.
"We also will be looking for boats that have more than 10 people on them. If we see a boat that has a fairly large number of people - maybe it's not 10 - we still may go up and do a safety check on that boat and just make sure that everyone on the boat lives in the same household because the bottom line is, if you don't live in the same household, you're supposed to be six feet from other people," said McKinnon.
The same social distancing rule will apply to parks, according to McKinnon. Rangers will have their eyes on picnic areas and trails, making sure visitors are maintaining a proper social distance.
McKinnon said all traditional law enforcement will be in place, as well; in other words, rangers will be watching for boating safety violations, especially those boaters who are drinking while operating vessels.
"We have a zero-tolerance policy for that," McKinnon said. "If you drink and boat and you're under the influence and we catch you, you will be going to jail for that. We can't afford to leave you on the lake - it's just not safe for yourself or others."
Then, there's the "100-foot Law," which McKinnon said is often violated on Lake Lanier and other larger bodies of water.
"What that law says is that any vessel is prohibited from operating at any speed greater than idle within 100 feet of pretty much anything," McKinnon said. "[That's] within 100 feet of a moored or anchored boat, a boat that's adrift, a dock, a pier, a bridge, people in the water, a shoreline that's at a residence or park or beach or swimming area."
McKinnon said rangers catch a number of people violating the law, particularly those operating personal watercraft.
Two people drowned in separate incidents on Lake Lanier during Memorial Day 2019, and McKinnon said DNR officials don't want that to happen again this year.
