Despite a law mandating life jacket wear for kids, Nevada game wardens are reporting a disturbing trend on local waterways.

Many children are not wearing life jackets while boating. The law was changed early this year upping the age requirement by one year, and now all children under the age of 13 years are required to wear life jackets while underway on a boat.

"We only have anecdotal information on this issue right now," said Lieutenant David Pfiffner, the supervising game warden on Lake Mead. "But we issued enough citations over the holiday weekend that we want to again emphasize how important life jackets are, particularly to this vulnerable population."

Over the Memorial Day weekend, traditionally the kickoff to boating season, game wardens issued at least 11 tickets for kids not wearing life jackets, alarming wardens and other boating officers who patrol and enforce state law.

"Kids can drown in a second, so we really want to encourage parents to make sure their children have life jackets and are wearing them," said Pfiffner. People who ride Personal Watercraft (PWCs) and people who are towed behind a boat are also required to wear life jackets, he said.

Besides life jacket wear, game wardens also remind boaters that people born on or after Jan, 1, 1983 must take a boating education course to operate a motorboat of more than 15 horsepower on Lakes Mead and Mohave and on the Colorado River near Laughlin.

The boating education correspondence course can be ordered online at www.ndow.org. Boaters can also choose to take it online at this address as well. There are also several other organizations, such as the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, that offer safe boating courses.