Rock Fishing Deaths & Regulation

 What is the acceptable number of deaths from rock fishing?
The obvious answer is zero, the practical achievable number is probably above zero.

To look an extreme, we can fine people fishing from the rocks without a life jacket $100,000 dollars & 10 years in jail and there will still be people sneaking out fishing without jackets. Just as selling drugs in some South East Asian countries results in the death penalty and yet they still have drug dealers.

Regulation will not bring a problem to an end, it can only curtail it & I think some people still think with unreasonable expectations that humans won't be humans.

I think the only answer is to do the best we can as a society. No wide spread rules and regulations. Not life jackets on the beach or jettys but identify the worst spots for rock fishing deaths. Then on these places erect warning signs and yes make it a requirement to wear a jacket, fine for defaulters & send the rangers in several times a year & publicise random crack downs.

Will people still die? Quite probably but it'll be ocassional and at that point very much non preventable. At that point it is people determined to flout or willfully ignore the safe approach. If they're lucky they'd get a fine but there will be some who'll keep fishing without a life jacket.

The problem also remains that there are valiant volunteers who come to rescue people or worse still recover bodies. It is still possible for a person to die with a life jacket but it's massively reduced but in that case it makes a recovery quicker and so much safer for the volunteers.

Wearing a life jacket while rock fishing makes sense, but some people are not sensible and others cannot be reasoned with. In remote locations that are unsafe there is only so much society can do and sadly the expectations of some that we can regulate the danger away completely is not possible, it's fanciful. All we can hope is eventually not wearing a jacket is rare & maybe even very rare.

People aren't being cold when they say regulation can only do so much, don't expect it will extinguish a threat. It's illegal to light fires in summer (regulation/law) and we still have bushfires. We can only mitigate the risk as much as possible not eliminate it. We're not at the fully mitigated as much as possible yet.