World Drowning Prevention Day 2026: The Lifejacket Only Works If It's Already On

25 July Is World Drowning Prevention Day

The UN General Assembly designated 25 July as World Drowning Prevention Day in 2021, and WHO's 2026 campaign — "Unite to Turn the Tide" — calls on every sector of society, seafaring included, to work toward a single target: cutting global drowning deaths by 35% by 2035. WHO is also releasing a technical package of seven proven prevention measures alongside this year's campaign.

None of the seven measures were written with merchant or fishing crews specifically in mind — but two things sit underneath almost every one of them, and both are entirely within a crew's control: wearing flotation before you're in the water, not after, and knowing exactly what to do in the first sixty seconds after someone goes over the side.

A Lifejacket Only Works If It's Already On

The regulatory framework exists specifically because "I'll put it on if I need it" doesn't hold up in practice. For work carried out overside, in an exposed position, or wherever there's a reasonably foreseeable risk of falling or being washed overboard, an MCA-approved lifejacket or a personal flotation device meeting the relevant ISO 12402 standard is required — not optional, not situational. On fishing vessels specifically, MGN 588 (F) makes wearing a PFD compulsory for exactly this kind of work. SOLAS Chapter III sets the broader carriage requirements for lifejackets fleet-wide.

The gap between a lifejacket being aboard and a lifejacket being worn is where most of the real risk sits. A PFD in a locker does nothing in the four or five seconds between losing balance and hitting the water.

The First Minute After “Man Overboard”

If you're the one who sees it happen, the sequence that matters is short and specific:

1. Shout "Man Overboard" — loud, immediate, and specific, not a general alarm call.
2. Point continuously at the person in the water. On a vessel underway, visual contact is lost within seconds if nobody is dedicated to tracking position — a pointed arm is a live bearing, a glance is not.
3. Throw a lifebuoy or floating marker immediately, ideally one with a self-igniting light and buoyant smoke signal if fitted, to give the person in the water something to reach and to mark the position for the vessel's return.
4. Alert the bridge — by the fastest means available, but after the shout and the throw, not instead of them. The first few seconds belong to keeping eyes on the person and giving them something to hold, not to running.

What happens next — which turn the vessel makes to return, how recovery is actually carried out — is its own, more detailed subject; Crew Connect's Knowledge Checker already covers the Williamson, Anderson, and Scharnow turns and when each applies.

Test Your Knowledge

Think you've got this covered? Put it to the test in Crew Connect's free Knowledge Checker — try a quick safety round and see how you score.

Related Reading

• SEAHAKE — when the recovery equipment itself is what fails
• Lexi Rose — a PFD that was owned, but not worn