Ask Marshall Bellin what scares him the most on the water and he’ll tell you: A boat speeding by full of people not wearing life jackets.

“You see it all the time, of course,” said Bellin, a certified boating safety instructor with the Pompano Beach Sail and Power Squadron. “Everybody’s having a good time, but they’re not thinking about what

would happen if one of them was thrown from the boat or just fell overboard.”

While Florida law mandates that recreational vessels carry life jackets — otherwise known as personal flotation devices (PFDs) — on board, there’s no requirement that they be worn, except for children under six years old.

Bellin would like to see that change.

“There’s a reason they’re called ‘life jackets,’” he said. “They will, quite simply, save your life.”

Bellin said the Pompano squadron, as well as other squadrons and Coast Guard auxiliaries in the state, are stepping up efforts to encourage full-time PFD wearing in a continuation of the state’s Wear It Florida campaign.

To meet U.S. Coast Guard requirements, a boat must have a U.S. Coast Guard-approved Type I, II, III, or V life jacket for each person aboard. Boats 16 feet and over must have at least one Type IV throwable device as well.

“The whole purpose of our organization is to teach safety on the water, and the usage of life jackets is at the top of that list,” he said. “We stress that the presence of a jacket on the boat is no substitute for wearing one. Florida is the national leader in annual boating fatalities, and the majority of those fatalities are boaters who fall overboard and drown. The interesting thing is that most of them re- portedly could swim.”

It happens in Florida to an average of one person each week, Bellin said.

Paul Sacks, an officer of U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 3-4, said many, if not most, of those deaths could easily have been prevented by wearing a PFD.

“It can be the difference between a fun day on the water and becoming a statistic,” Sacks said. “This is why the Wear It Florida campaign was put together. The campaign’s goal is clear and simple — to increase the number of boaters who consistently wear a life jacket while on the water.”

According to statistics from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the number one cause of boating fatalities for 2012 was falling over- board. In fact, it’s been the leading cause of death on the water since 2003. Of the 1,994 fatalities reported, 1,363 — or 68 percent — were not wearing a life jacket. And that number may be in fact higher, since no information was available on 110 of the fatalities.

Both Miami-Dade and Broward counties made the top 10 list of the most fatal accidents, with Miami-Dade at number two (81 fatalities) and Broward at number six (30 fatalities).

Nationally, the U.S. Coast Guard reported that in 2012, almost 71 percent of all fatal boating accident vic- tims drowned, and of those, almost 85 percent were re- ported as not wearing a life jacket.

So why don’t boaters automatically put on PFDs?

“Probably the biggest excuse we hear is that they’re bulky and uncomfortable,” Sacks said. “In the old days, that was more true, but there are more options now.”

The emergence of inflatable life jackets, which acti- vate either manually or when submerged, has made wear- ing a PFD more comfortable, as they are less bulky and constrictive, Sacks said. An inflatable life jacket has twice the buoyancy of a traditional orange horseshoe life jacket and is less than half the size.

Florida law requires that children under age 6 always wear a child-size PFD on boats less than 26 feet long when underway. “I’m not sure why the 26-foot limit was chosen,” Sacks said. “I think it should be all boats for young children.”

The law also says anybody using a personal water- craft such as a jet ski must wear one at all times.

Mark Ritchie of Dania Beach keeps plenty of PFDs aboard his 30-foot center console, but seldom wears one. “The first thing I do when I bring people on the boat is show them where they are,” Ritchie said. “I keep them easily accessible. But honestly, I don’t like wearing them. It’s often too hot, and half the time, I’m not even wearing a shirt.”

He also said he does wear an inflatable life jacket when he’s alone on the boat, fishing offshore. Bellin said keeping PFDs “accessible” is often not enough. “There are so many scenarios where you just  don't have time to go grab one,” Bellin said. “If you get knocked overboard by a sudden wave, or if there’s a collision, you're just going into the water, maybe even injured or unconscious.

“As comfortable as the inflatable ones are today, there’s really no excuse for not having it on all the time. Honestly, I often forget I'm wearing mine and have gone into a restaurant with it still on.”

Bellin, who bought a 20-foot Mako center console boat when he retired, said he’d been on boats before, but never owned one.

“I decided right away that I should educate my- self,” he said. “So, I signed up for some of the same courses I’m teaching now, eventually getting certified as an instructor. I’ve found that a lot of experienced boaters — the ones who think they know everything they need to know — are the ones most apt to get into bad situations.”

John Reid of Fort Pierce has been around boats all his life, starting with an 8-foot dory when he was 9 years old.

“When we were kids, of course, my dad always made us wear life jackets,” he said. “Back then, they were those big bulky things. And they were uncom- fortable, and we felt like dorks wearing them. When I got to my teens and early 20s, I stopped wearing them, because it just wasn’t ‘cool’.”

But about five years ago, Reid, now 31, started wear- ing an inflatable life jacket after a friend drowned on a fishing trip in the Keys.

“It’s kind of like wearing a seat belt in a car,” he said. “I never used to do that, either. Then, they made us do it or get a ticket. I don’t know if it will ever go that far with life jackets, but I do think it’s a good idea for everybody to wear them, all the time you’re on the boat.”

Sacks agreed that it was unlikely that the state would pass a law requiring boaters to wear them.

“There are too many people opposed to it,” he said. “And really, it’s hard to legislate common sense.”

Bellin said he will continue to preach the PFD gospel to his students anyway.

“As soon as they show up, I introduce myself,” he said. “Then, I lay down the microphone, take off my back- pack and put on my life preserver. And I tell them, ‘Don't leave the dock without it.’”