Boat registrations are declining in Texas even though boating accidents and fatalities are climbing, prompting Texas Parks and Wildlife to issue stern warnings about boating safety as the state heads into the busy summer season.

According to Maj. Alfonso Campos, Parks and Wildlife's marine safety chief, 61 people died in boating accidents last year. It was the largest number in 10 years and came at a time when boat registrations had fallen to 591,000, down about 30,000 since 2002.

"These were not the result of collisions," said Campos, who added that 59 of the 61 deaths resulted from single-craft accidents. "(Those accidents) are the result of one of your own actions or omissions."

Probably the greatest omission of all is a failure to wear an approved life jacket or personal flotation device. "The thing is that it's not required," Campos said. "It's not that it's not available. They have to have them on the boat."

But many boaters believe the devices, which have been improved in recent years to make them less binding and restrictive, still are too much trouble to wear at all times. However, there's one aspect of boating accidents that makes them seem less a problem to wear: One-third of all injuries in boating accidents lead to a fatality.

Campos is urging all boaters to take a boating education class and, if there's going to be alcohol on the boat, to designate a driver just as they would in a car. And statistics point to another virtual certainty about boating: If you're wearing a life jacket and you aren't drinking, the odds of your drowning are almost zero. Fatalities still occur, Campos said, but alcohol remains the common thread in most water-related accidents.

"The increase (in fatalities) over the last two years is puzzling," Campos said, "but safety is the responsibility of the captain of the boat. Don't drink, and wear a PFD."

Parks and Wildlife game wardens have embarked on extensive summer water-safety campaigns for about a decade now, Campos said, and will again be focusing on certain high density, highly congested and dangerous lakes this summer. Several of those lakes are in Central Texas.

"Lake Travis and Lake Lewisville (near Dallas) are two that we'll be working," Campos said. Travis has some congestion and a number of navigational hazards that make it dangerous to boaters. "Lake Austin is its own nightmare because it's so narrow."

The department also will be producing a number of public service announcements, Campos said, designed to encourage recreational boaters and swimmers to pay attention to their families and friends on the water and on shore to prevent injuries and drownings.