The Ontario Provincial Police says life jackets only save lives if you are wearing them.
With summer vacation underway and more people on the water, the OPP says over the past decade, 245 boating and paddling deaths were investigated, with only 24 wearing a life jacket.
Police say with more than 41 per cent of the incidents involving a capsized vessel or the victims falling overboard, a substantial number of those who died and were not wearing a life jacket could have been found afloat and alive if they were wearing it.
So far this year the OPP has investigated eight boating or paddling deaths in Ontario.
Six involved a person not properly wearing a Personal Floatation Device.
