Fishing safety basics — the life jacket, and knowing when to leave

Most people who die fishing in Japan could swim. What happens is that clothes and boots take on water in the first seconds, cold water disrupts breathing, and the vertical face of a breakwater offers nothing to hold. The nearest place you can climb out is usually tens of metres from where you went in. A life jacket is not equipment for people who cannot swim; it is equipment that lets you float, get your breathing back, and wait.

Buy the life jacket first

It can come before the rod and the reel. Three things to check:

• MLIT type approval — the "sakura" mark. Wearing one is required on small craft, and many charter boats will not accept a jacket without it.
• Stated buoyancy (7.5 kg or more for a typical adult). Children need a child-sized jacket matched to their weight; an adult one rides up over the head and does nothing.
• A crotch strap. Essential on children's jackets — without it the jacket slips off in the water.

Inflatable jackets (waist or shoulder type) are easier to move in, but they fail when the gas cylinder is out of date or the cartridge has already absorbed moisture and was never replaced. Inspect them before the season. On rocky shores, on tetrapods, and at night, a foam jacket that simply floats is the better choice.

Footing

Wet concrete, a weed-covered ramp, and the rounded face of a tetrapod are all more slippery than they look. As a rule, do not walk on tetrapods; if you must stand on rock, wear spiked shoes and a helmet. Carry two head torches at night — the moment the only one you have dies, you cannot get back off the rocks.

Decide in advance what sends you home

Judgement made on site bends towards "we came all this way". Set the thresholds before you leave:

• A high-wave or strong-wind advisory is in force, or is forecast.
• Swell is reaching your feet — on rock and tetrapods the big set comes once in ten minutes.
• Wind over 5 m/s, to the point that the rig will not hold.
• Any chance of lightning. A carbon rod is a lightning rod; go back to the car when you first hear thunder.
• Hot, windless summer afternoons. Heatstroke — an unshaded breakwater is one of the worst places for it.

If you see someone go in

Do not jump in after them; a second casualty is the most common way this gets worse. Call 118 (the Japan Coast Guard) first, throw in anything that floats — a cooler box, a bucket, a ring buoy on a line — and keep talking to them so you do not lose sight of where they are. On a breakwater, guide them towards a ladder or a sloping section.