Callouts, serious incidents and fatalities fell in winter 2026, two years after Coastguard's worst season on record.
New Coastguard data shows fewer winter callouts and fewer serious incidents in 2026 than in any winter since 2021. Boating fatalities were at a two-year low.
Between June and August 2026, Coastguard volunteers responded to 357 incidents nationwide, the lowest winter total since 2021, when volunteers responded to 413.
Callouts, where someone's life was in danger, fell to 48; the lowest figure in six years of data. And boating-related fatalities dropped to five, down by more than two-thirds from the 16 recorded over the same three months in 2024.
That decline holds up when set against how many people were out on the water. Winter trip reports, logged via the Coastguard App and VHF radio, rose from 22,894 in 2021 to 33,776 in 2026, up 47.5%, as more boaties headed out each winter. Even so, the rate of incidents per 10,000 trips fell from 180 in 2021 to 106 in 2026, a 41% improvement, faster than the drop in raw incident numbers alone.
The 2024 winter is still remembered clearly by Coastguard crews around the country. A run of severe weather contributed to a string of tragedies, including two separate fatal capsizes on the same day in early August that claimed three lives in each incident. It was one of the toughest winters on Coastguard's books.
In the two years since, Coastguard has significantly expanded its safety education and community outreach work. The Southern Bluefin Tuna Safety Series launched in May 2025, with NZ Sports Fishing Council, bringing free pre-season safety seminars to offshore anglers after a run of tragedies during the 2024 tuna season. Coastguard's Bar Awareness Roadshow scaled up to a full nationwide programme through the second half of 2025, delivering 58 seminars across 43 locations, including 14 communities visited for the first time and reaching more than 3,000 people, a 39% increase on the year before. And free Suddenly in Charge workshops kept building, giving the people who are usually along for the ride, often partners and family members, the confidence and skills to take the helm if they ever need to.
“These numbers are genuinely heartening,” says Kylie Higgs, General Manager Response and Operations at Coastguard Tautiaki Moana. “2024 was one of the hardest winters our volunteers have faced, and it's part of why we've put so much into our community outreach programmes these past two years. We hope that will all contribute to the improvement we're seeing, because every winter still catches someone out.”
Coastguard is careful not to put the improvement down to any single programme, or even one encouraging season. Weather and chance shape every winter on the water, and a good year doesn't undo a bad one. But it’s certainly encouraging that the two winters since 2024's toll have also been Coastguard's two biggest years yet for on-the-water education.
Coastguard is reminding all boaties heading out this year to wear a properly fitted lifejacket, carry two forms of waterproof communication, check the weather before heading out, and log a trip report, including a radio call before and after crossing a bar.
