KEY POINTS:
Australian fishermen call them "angel rings".
Water safety expert Ken Moran knows why: "When you can out in the surf, the only thing that's going to keep your mouth above the water is flotation."
The rings, known in New Zealand as life buoys, can be thrown to an angler in distress and hauled in with a stout length of rope.
They are being installed at Auckland's West Coast fishing spots where people have been washed off the rocks and drowned.
The first two rings were installed yesterday at the slippery ledge on Muriwai Beach where anglers cast their lines, wiping spray from their faces as waves crash and surge mere centimetres below their boots.
Dr Moran recommended installing the rings as "a second layer of protection" should a floundering angler not be wearing a lifejacket, which is the first layer.
A Muriwai surf life saver and Auckland University lecturer, Dr Moran well knows the attitudes and behaviour of rock anglers from his study of them over a three-year safety project trial for Auckland Regional Council, WaterSafe Auckland and Surf Life Saving Northern region.
The encouraging statistic from the annual surveys was that 22 per cent of the 235 anglers quizzed now wore lifejackets often compared with 4 per cent in 2006.
But figures were disappointing: four people drowned on Auckland's West Coast this year, including those who died last weekend at Bethells Beach; 22 drowned in a decade.
The difficulty of instilling the safety message was reinforced by consistent findings that many of those questioned were strangers to the area and new to the country.
Agencies decided to install the life buoys as a back up to a continuing education programme.
"We don't want fishers to treat these as a substitute for wearing a lifejacket - your best chance of surviving," said ARC parks chairwoman Sandra Coney.
She said the rings cost $50 each, in their brackets $320, and they would be available at regional parks Whatipu, Piha and Muriwai by Christmas.
More rings were to be fitted at Karekare, Bethells Beach and Whites Beach by summer's end.
ARC park ranger Stu Leighton, who oversees the safety campaign, said speakers of Asian and Polynesian languages would be employed through January to March at popular spots to advise anglers on safety.
Surf lifeguards would keep an eye on people fishing and check the rings for vandalism.
A safety brochure in six languages would be handed out at fishing gear shops - with a discount voucher for buying an inflatable lifejacket.
Rock fisher checklist
* Wear lifejacket.
* Check weather, tide and surf.
* Wear suitable clothing, footwear.
* Bring mobile phone.
