Selecting a life jacket for your child

BY THE MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

Since May 2005, Minnesota law has required a life jacket to be worn by children younger than age 10 when aboard watercraft in Minnesota when the craft is under way (not tied up at a dock or permanent mooring).

What is a life jacket and why does my child need to wear one?

A life jacket is a U.S. Coast Guard approved device that helps the wearer float if they enter the water.

A child should wear a life jacket anytime they are near water such as in a boat or float tube as well as on docks and river banks and at the beach when allowed by the life guard.

Contrary to many TV shows and the movies, drowning is usually silent. A victim (of any age) in the process of drowning cannot cry out for help. They just bob up and down in the water, their head tipped back, mouth wide open gasping for air, and they are silent. It takes as little as 30 to 45 seconds for a child non-swimmer and it usually happens when an adult is nearby but doesn’t recognize the telltale signs of a child in distress in the water.

FIND A SAFE FIT FOR YOUR CHILD

How do I make sure I’m using the right life jacket?

If you own a boat or plan on renting a boat or boating with a friend, you need to buy your child their own life jacket. Life jackets come in various types and sizes and there may not be a life jacket of the proper size and type to rent or borrow.

When buying a child’s life jacket, check for:  U.S. Coast Guard approved label.  A snug fi t. Check weight and chest size on the label and try the life jacket on your child right at the store. Pick up your child by the shoulders of the life jacket; and tell them to raise their arms and relax. The child’s chin and ears won’t slip through a properly fi tting jacket. Do not buy a jacket that is too large, hoping the child will grow into it.  Head support for younger children. A well-designed life jacket will support the child’s head when the child is in the water. The head support also serves to roll the child face up.  A strap between the legs for younger children. This helps prevent the jacket from coming off over the child’s head.  Comfort and appearance. This is especially important for teens, who are less likely to wear a life jacket.

Remember: Life jackets only work when they are worn, and they do not take the place of adult supervision.

PROPER USE OF A LIFE JACKET

Here’s some pointers for keeping your child safe:  Every spring, check the life jacket for fi t as well as wear and tear. Throw it away if you fi nd air leakage, mildew, rot or rust. Cut up discarded life jackets so someone else doesn’t try to use them.  If a child panics in the water and thrashes about, they may turn onto his face, even though a life jacket with a collar is designed to keep them on their back with face out of the water. Have your child

REDCROSS.ORG

Life jackets are for everyone when boating, waterskiing or doing other water-based sports.

practice wearing a life jacket in the water — this will help prevent panic and rolling over.  Never cut or alter a life jacket in any way. It will no longer be Coast Guard approved since it may lose its effectiveness.  Wear your own life jacket to set an example for your child, and to enable you to help your child if an emergency occurs.  Never use toys like plastic rings, arm fl oaties or water wings in place of a life jacket.  Don’t try wrapping a life jacket around a car seat for your baby. Much of the time, a car seat expelled from a boat in a crash or capsizing accident will fl ip upside down, holding your baby’s face under water.  Some infants are too small for any life jacket, even though the label may say 0 to 30 pounds. In general, babies younger than 6 months or 16 pounds are too small for a life jacket to be effective due to the extreme size of their head in relationship to their body mass. If your infant is newborn, please consider waiting until the baby is a little older before taking them boating.  Adult life jackets: Make sure they are in good working order and fi t appropriately.

EXEMPTIONS FROM WEARING FOR ADULTS

The following are exemptions to the law:  When in an enclosed cabin or below the top deck on a watercraft.  When on an anchored boat that is a platform for swimming or diving.  When aboard a charter (passenger) craft with a licensed captain.  Interaction with existing federal regulations.

For more information, visit dnr.state.mn.us or the American Red Cross at tinyurl.com/7yskbnuw.

FISHING ISHING for for

RUSTY TREASURE RUSTY TREASURE

STAFF PHOTO BY STEPHEN WIBLEMO

Hutchinson’s Mark Grewe shows off an ax, one of the latest additions to his collection of axes and tools. He pulled it from the Crow River as part of his new hobby, magnet fi shing. But more importantly, he’s helped clean the city’s waterways.

Mark Grewe is keeping busy and cleaning rivers while magnet fishing

BY STEPHEN WIBLEMO

wiblemo@hutchinsonleader.com

When most people head to the river hoping to reel in a big catch, they’re thinking about fish. But not Mark Grewe of Hutchinson.

“My goal was I want to find a gun, an ax and a knife,” he said.

That’s because Grewe is magnet fishing, which involves using a powerful magnet tied to rope, dragging it along the riverbed and pulling out whatever sticks. He took up the hobby in spring 2020 when, like many Americans, he was put on furlough from his job due to COVID-19. And after a dozen “fishing” trips, what he’s pulled out has shocked him.

“I’m comparing it to what I see on YouTube, and I am very shocked, because it seems like I am getting almost 100 times what anyone else is pulling out of the water, and it’s clearly not me,” Grewe said. “I’ve done it 12 times. I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m just throwing a magnet in the water. So clearly there is enough out there, which is just shocking and surprising, and really almost hurtful because I’ve always been a nature guy. It’s tough to see that crap happening.”

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Here are the tools Mark Grewe uses for his magnet fi shing trips, a pair of power magnets attached to rope and a grappling hook.

➤ Fishing from 11

Among the items Grewe has caught with his magnet include power tools such as drills, saw blades and nails; razor wire; a microwave; an old ice skate; a shotgun shell reloader; a wheel rim; a beaver trap; an exhaust system; fishing lures and buckets of rebar and scrap metal.

“I’ve never been skunked,” he said. “I always have at least half a bucket full of stuff.”

Grewe became interested in the hobby during winter 2020 when his son, Travis, showed him magnet fishing videos on YouTube. Then in early May, he was put on furlough from his job and looking for a way to fill his days.

“So I started getting the bug and I thought, ‘What the heck, I haven’t got anything else to do with my time.’ My yard is up to date, so I bought my first magnet.”

Grewe started with a 600-pound strength magnet and set out to Hutchinson bridges to see what he could catch. After pulling in a few fishing lures at his first couple stops, he went down behind the former Shopko building and really started reeling in the scrap.

“I’m pretty sure I found a tool box, because I kept dropping it in the same spot with the 600-pound magnet and I was pulling out a hammer, a pliers and things like that, and a bunch of nails,” he said.

Grewe decided he needed to up the ante and purchased a 1,700-pound strength magnet. He also added a grappling hook to his repertoire to help him dislodge larger items that may be stuck beneath silt and debris.

Websites such as bridgehunter.com help Grewe search for fishing locations. He looks for bridges that are in high-traffic areas, as they are more likely to have stuff under them, and bridges that are older, as they are more likely to have older stuff in the water below. In shallow areas, he’ll also walk the river with his magnet dragging behind him.

“If I don’t get anything with the magnet when I’m throwing, I’ll start throwing out the grappling hook and tear up the bottom of the river,” Grewe said. “That removes the silt that’s on top of it, and then I can throw my magnet again and I’ll usually end up getting something. Going after a good rain also helps shake loose silt in the water and helps uncover what is on the riverbed.”

Since his first fishing trip in Hutchinson, Grewe has ventured

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Saw blades, a shotgun shell reloader and bottles containing gun powder aren’t what you’d expect to fi nd in the Crow River, but that’s exactly where Mark Grewe pulled them from with his powerful magnets.

During his dozen fi shing trips in the Crow River, Mark Grewe has pulled up truckloads of scrap metal such as this. Most of it he gives to a local scrapper, and he suggests others do the same before illegally dumping things in the river and polluting the environment.

to other areas and tributaries of the Crow River, and he has plans to continue.

But what does he do with everything he pulls up? While he at first intended to just throw most of it away, he quickly realized he had too much. He also can’t leave it by the bridges where he fishes, as that is considered littering, according to a DNR officer to whom he spoke.

So while he keeps some souvenirs for himself, such as old tools or anything he thinks is cool, much of it he gives to a scrapper he met online who picks it up and hauls it away.

But what about his goal of finding a gun, an ax and a knife? Well, he’s already twothirds of the way there with the ax and knife.

“A gun is a possibility of maybe helping someone out if there’s been a crime,” Grewe said about the reasons for his goal. “An ax because I happen to be an ax collector, and a knife, well, I just kind of like knives.”

Grewe said he plans to continue magnet fishing for the time being, at least until he finds a gun, goes back to work and is too busy, or he picks up another hobby.

“The way I sum up magnet fishing is, I like to be outdoors and like to fish, but I don’t like to eat fish,” he said. “So this way I get to fish, I get to wade in the rivers and be outdoors, it doesn’t cost me a dime other than the gear, and I get to keep whatever I want and there’s no limit to what I keep. It’s basically fishing without any hangups.”